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Officials in Afghanistan said Saturday a roadside bomb explosion in the northeastern border province of Badakhshan has killed at least eleven police personnel.
 
The bombing comes as America’s peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, has begun another visit to the region to push political reconciliation between Afghanistan’s warring sides.  
 
A provincial police spokesman told VOA the overnight attack targeted a security convoy that was rushing to Khash district to help other forces battling Taliban insurgents there.  
 
Sanaullah Ruhani said a local police commander was also among the slain personnel. He went on to claim that government forces inflicted heavy casualties on the Taliban during Friday night clashes in Khash, killing a key insurgent commander.
 
The Taliban did not immediately offer any comments on the bombing or clashes in an Afghan province where insurgents are in control of several districts. Badakhshan borders Tajikistan, Pakistan and China.  
 
On Friday, an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan killed at least 15 members of the highway police force.  
 
The Taliban has halted attacks on U.S.-led international forces in the country in line with a landmark agreement it signed with Washington in February. But deadly insurgent raids against Afghan security forces have intensified in recent weeks.
 
The U.S. military this week also conducted airstrikes to disrupt Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces, saying they action was in line with the agreement.  
 FILE – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, and Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, center, meet with U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 20, 2020.Khalilzad Trip
 
The U.S. State Department announced Friday that Khalilzad has departed Washington for travel to Qatar, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he will review the implementation of all commitments in the agreement, specifically reduced violence and prisoner releases.
 
“The primary focus of Ambassador Khalilzad’s trip is to obtain agreement between the Afghan parties on the practical next steps necessary for a smooth start to intra-Afghan negotiations,” it said.  
 
Khalilzad led the U.S. team that negotiated and sealed the February 29 pact with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, which hosts insurgent political office.  
 
The proposed intra-Afghan dialogue stipulated in the agreement, however, is tied to a prisoner swap between the government and the Taliban that would set free 5,000 insurgent inmates and 1,000 Afghan personnel.  
 
So far, the Taliban says it has released close to 460 detainees while the government says it has freed around 2,700 insurgents.  
 
“The road ahead will have challenges and difficulties. But we’re optimistic that finally we are moving forward to the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations,” Khalilzad told reporters in Washington earlier this week.   
 
“And not only we are trying to make sure that the remaining issues dealing with the prisoners release, which is up to 5000 prisoners to be released by the government and all the prisoners must be released before intra-Afghan negotiations can begin.”
 
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has changed its advice on face masks, saying they should be worn where COVID-19 is widespread and physical distancing is difficult.”In light of evolving evidence, WHO advises that governments should encourage the general public to wear masks where there is widespread transmission and physical distancing is difficult,” WHO’s Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday. It’s a shift for the agency, which had previously advised the general public that only people who were ill or caring for someone who was ill needed masks.Many major retailers have made face masks mandatory for shoppers in the United States. Many transit systems around the world are requiring masks for their riders.Speaking to reporters Friday at the White House, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. was “largely through” the pandemic and called again on governors to ease lockdown measures in their states.The COVID-19 pandemic killed more than 900 people in 24 hours in the United States Friday, according to Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU).Data tracking worldwide by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at JHU show that the United States has suffered the largest number of COVID-19 deaths by far, with a total of about 109,000, about a third of them in New York state.According to the center, Britain comes in second with about 40,000 deaths, followed by Brazil with just over 34,000 and Italy with just under 34,000.Dressed as characters from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and wearing face masks against the spread of the novel coronavirus, Venezuelan migrants perform in Bogota, Colombia, on June 5, 2020.The U.S. has also recorded the highest number of COVID-19 infections – nearly 1.9 million.  Brazil comes in second with about 615,000, Russia with nearly 450,000 and Britain with about 285,000.The global number of deaths stands at about 395,000 and total confirmed cases at 6.7 million.The Group of 20 rich and emerging economies pledged billions of dollars to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the group said in a statement Saturday.”The G-20, with invited countries, has coordinated the global efforts to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, G-20 members and invited countries have pledged over $21 billion to support funding in global health,” the statement said, adding that the fund will be directed toward diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, and research and development.Earlier in the week, a report by the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said emergency room visits for non-coronavirus illnesses plummeted in April at the peak of the pandemic. The agency released an analysis Wednesday that the declines were greatest among children 14 and younger, women, and for people living in the Northeast U.S.  The CDC noted a steep drop in the number of people seeking emergency care for chest pain, including heart attack, along with declines in children needing help for conditions like asthma.The Trump administration has selected five companies as the most likely candidates to produce a coronavirus vaccine. The companies have been identified as Massachusetts-based Moderna; AstraZeneca, which is partnering with Oxford University; and the pharmaceutical giants Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Pfizer.Passengers wearing protective face masks travel by boat to Petite-Terre on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte on June 5, 2020.Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert and the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on Tuesday he is “cautiously optimistic” that scientists will come up with an effective vaccine by the start of 2021, saying he hopes to have “hundreds of millions of doses.” But, he added, “there’s never a guarantee.”“It could take months and months and months” before researchers find out if a vaccine works, Fauci said.Fauci also warned that a new vaccine may not provide long-term immunity against COVID-19.A new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota say hydroxychloroquine, the treatment that Trump highly touts as an effective COVID-19 treatment, does not keep healthy people exposed to the virus from getting sick.The report in The New England Journal of Medicine said the drug was no more effective than a placebo in clinical trials.The scientists carried out their tests on 800 people exposed to someone with the coronavirus.Hydroxychloroquine is a malaria drug which Trump called a “game-changer” in the fight against COVID-19. He had said he’s taken the drug himself.But some doctors said the drug could have serious side effects, including heart rhythm problems or even death.The World Health Organization has suspended the use of hydroxychloroquine in tests for a coronavirus treatment. France has outlawed its use altogether.  
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China is advising its citizens not to visit Australia, citing racial discrimination and violence against Asians, in what appears to be Beijing’s latest attempt to punish the country for advocating an investigation into the coronavirus pandemic.A notice issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism late Friday said there has “been an increase in words and deeds of racial discrimination and acts of violence against Chinese and Asians in Australia, due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.”“The ministry advises Chinese tourists to raise their safety awareness and avoid traveling to Australia,” the notice said.As part of its perceived retaliation, China has already effectively ended imports of Australian barley by putting tariffs of more than 80 percent on the crop, accusing Australia of breaching World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing barley production and selling the crop in China at below production costs. That came a week after China banned beef imports from Australia’s four largest abattoirs over labeling issues.Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham on Tuesday said the country did not want a trade war,but said China “has made errors of both fact and law” in applying WTO rules, adding that there was no evidence that Australia was engaged in dumping of products.Australian has been among countries pushing for an international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and responses to it. Beijing has denied its measures against Australian beef and barley were related to those calls.WHO to launch independent probeThe World Health Organization has bowed to calls from most of its member states to launch an independent probe into how it managed the international response to the virus, which was first found in China late last year. The evaluation would stop short of looking into contentious issues such as the origins of the virus.Chinese Ambassador Cheng Jingye’s has told Australian media that the country might face a Chinese boycott of its tourism and exports of wine, beef and other goods if the government pressed for a coronavirus inquiry.China is the No. 1 market for Australian beef, accounting for about 30 percent of exports. It’s also the biggest foreign buyer of Australian barley.Beijing has regularly used access to its huge market to punish governments from Norway to Canada in political disputes. Chinese officials routinely refuse to confirm a trade disruption is related to a political clash but make it clear Beijing wants concessions.    
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Legislators from eight countries and the European Parliament have launched an international platform to counter what they see as the “greatest challenge to the free world” — namely, China’s behavior under the leadership of its Communist Party. “The group exists to allow parliamentarians who represent the people to make clear to their governments that a more robust response is necessary,” Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) spokesperson Sam Armstrong told VOA in a phone interview from London. The group introduced itself to the world on Thursday with a Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks on screen during a press conference by video conferencing at the end of the National People’s Congress in Beijing on May 28, 2020.On the video, members of the group took turns reading aloud from the statement, which calls for a coordinated and coherent response to China’s behavior in the world.“It is a challenge which touches all of us,” said Michael Brand of the German Bundestag. “What we once believed about China’s rise no longer corresponds to reality,” said Shiori Yamao, a legislator from Japan. “We thought China would open up over time. This hasn’t happened,” said Elisabet Lann of Sweden. John McKay, a member of Canada’s parliament, said, “The world wants and needs China, a country of profound tradition, culture, and industry,” but, according to the group’s mission statement, the government in Beijing has instituted more authoritarian rule at home while “repeatedly and explicitly stat[ing] its intention to expand its global influence.”  Armstrong said the idea of establishing a platform spanning party and national lines began about six weeks before Thursday’s declaration and was prompted by Beijing’s response to the FILE PHOTO: Anti-government demonstrators scuffle with riot police during a lunch time protest as a second reading of a controversial national anthem law takes place in Hong Kong, May 29, 2020.Armstrong said legislators from any other democratic country are welcome to join the group as long as their delegation is chaired by a representative from each of the major parties in that country. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., center, confers with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., as Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., far right, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 9, 2018.The co-chairs of the American delegation to the alliance are Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the most senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Rubio, a Republican, issued a statement stressing the importance of what the group is hoping to achieve. “How we respond to the People’s Republic of China and the Communist Party’s attempt to reshape the globe is the defining foreign policy question of our time,” he said. Menendez said he is looking forward to making “concrete progress on critical issues presented by Beijing, grounded on the respect and promotion of universal human rights.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to slash the number of troops it maintains in Germany by more than a quarter in the coming months, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.The newspaper said the Defense Department would cut the number of military personnel by 9,500 from the current 34,500 permanently assigned to Germany postings.The Journal also said a cap of 25,000 would be set on how many U.S. troops could be inside German at any one time, whether in permanent postings or temporary rotations, half of the current allowance.The move would significantly reduce the U.S. commitment to European defense under the NATO umbrella, though it could also affect Pentagon operations related to Africa and the Middle East.White House and Pentagon officials declined to confirm or deny the story, which comes amid tensions between the Trump administration and European allies over longstanding cooperation agreements.Washington in particular does not think Germany spends enough for its own defense.John Ullyot, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement that as commander in chief, Trump is always reassessing the presence of U.S. forces overseas.”The United States remains committed to working with our strong ally Germany to ensure our mutual defense, as well as on many other important issues,” Ullyot said. 
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Washington is bracing for a large protest Saturday, a continuation of days of demonstrations in the city and across the U.S. over the death of an African American man while in police custody.The chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, Peter Newsham, told reporters Thursday that authorities expected thousands of protesters to descend on Washington for what “may be one of the largest that we’ve had in the city.”Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a letter Thursday to U.S. President Donald Trump asking him to “withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from Washington, D.C.”Mayor Muriel Bowser looks out over a Black Lives Matter sign that was painted on a street, during nationwide protests against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Washington, D.C., June 5, 2020, in this handout photo.The Trump administration has deployed federal military personnel and the National Guard to respond to the protests in the city, triggering widespread criticism from city officials and activists that their actions are escalating tensions.Bowser denounced federal law enforcement officials patrolling the streets and taking action without regard to “established chains of command.”The Trump administration was widely criticized after federal authorities fired rubber bullets and tear gas Monday to disperse peaceful protesters outside the White House so that Trump could walk to a nearby church and pose for photographs with a Bible in hand.A sign reading Black Lives Matter is seen on a light pole at 16th Street near of the White House as the protests against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd continues, in Washington, June 5, 2020.Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests demanding justice and systemic reforms.Since the protests began, the security perimeter around the White House has continued to expand. The White House has not commented on the planned protest.On Friday, Bowser formally renamed a street leading to the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza” after authorizing city workers to paint the slogan in large yellow letters on the street.It remains uncertain which groups are planning Saturday’s demonstration. 
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VOA correspondent Ralph Jennings is from the U.S. but not witnessing the anti-COVID measures in his homeland. He’s awkwardly, sheepishly role-playing in Taiwan.
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Ten long weeks after a massive coronavirus outbreak sidelined one of the Navy’s signature warships, the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt has returned to sea and is conducting military operations in the Pacific region.
Lining the flight deck in their dress white uniforms, sailors wearing white face masks stood a virus-safe 10 feet (3 meters) apart in a final, formal thank you as the ship sailed out of port in Guam on Thursday and headed into the Philippine Sea.
“We manned the rail, which we don’t normally do. There was a lot of symbolism in that,” Navy Capt. Carlos Sardiello told The Associated Press in an interview from the ship Thursday. “They’re excited. They’re fired up to be back at sea doing the mission.”
The Roosevelt pulled into Guam on March 27, with a rapidly escalating number of sailors testing positive for the virus. Over time, more than 1,000 were infected with COVID-19, setting off a lengthy and systematic process to move about 4,000 sailors ashore for quarantine and treatment, while about 800 remained aboard to protect and run the high-tech systems, including the nuclear reactors that run the vessel.
Slowly, sailors were methodically brought back on board, while the others who had remained went ashore for their mandated two-week quarantine. And in late March, the ship with only about 3,000 crew aboard went out to sea for roughly two weeks of training, including the recertification of the flight deck and fighter squadron, such as takeoffs and landings on the carrier.
Earlier this week, the Roosevelt wrapped up training and returned to Guam to pick up nearly 1,000 sailors who had been left there to either complete their quarantine or to manage and work with those still on the island. As the ship sailed into the port, it was flying a flag with the words “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” a famous Navy battle cry from the War of 1812.
“Our sailors didn’t give up the ship. They fought and got it back. So I thought it was appropriate,” said Sardiello, who asked one of the other Navy ships to borrow their flag. “The ship was clean and the ship was healthy with no COVID cases. So I said, OK, we’re going to fly that one time on the way into Guam as a symbol to bolster their morale.”
RS1 Katie VanDrimmelen was one of the sailors left ashore during the two-week training. She had tested positive for the virus and was in quarantine for about five weeks. Walking back onto the ship, she said, was like being welcomed home from a deployment.
“It was amazing,” said VanDrimmelen, of Ogden, Utah. “It was very comforting to be back in our normal atmosphere. Everybody was happy.”
Sardiello said that watching the sailors board the ship was a great feeling, But he knows he’s not done yet. There are still about 350 sailors on Guam who are either in isolation or are there as support staff.
“More and more of those sailors are meeting the return-to-work criteria, and we’re flying them on board every single day. So we’re whittling down that number day by day,” said Sardiello. “But I really want those 350 remaining back. And we’re working hard on that.”
He said that any sailors who don’t recover in time will be transported back to the U.S. The ship is expected to continue operations in the Pacific, and then would likely head home to San Diego later this summer.
The Roosevelt has been at the center of a still unresolved controversy that led to the firing of the ship’s previous captain, the resignation of the Navy secretary and an expanded investigation into what triggered the outbreak and how well top naval commanders handled it.
 
Sardiello, had previously captained the Roosevelt but was abruptly sent back to the ship in early April to take command after Capt. Brett Crozier was fired for urging his commanders to take faster action to stem the virus outbreak onboard.  
After a preliminary review last month, Adm. Mike Gilday, the Navy’s top officer, recommended that Crozier be reinstated as ship captain. But the Navy decided to conduct the broader investigation.
That review, which effectively delays a decision on Crozier’s reinstatement, was finished and submitted to Gilday at the end of March and he is still reviewing the extensive report, which includes several hundred pages of interviews, documents and recommendations.
Cmdr. Nate Christensen, spokesman for Gilday, said it will take time for the admiral to finish his review and make any decisions. 
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An Australian court sided with police in ruling Friday that a Black Lives Matter protest planned for Sydney poses too much risk for spreading the coronavirus and cannot be held.
Thousands of people were expected to rally in Australia’s largest city on Saturday afternoon to honor George Floyd and to protest against the deaths of indigenous Australians in custody.
But New South Wales state Supreme Court Justice Des Fagan ruled the rally was not an authorized public assembly. Fagan said he understood the rally was designed to coincide with similar events in other countries.
“I don’t diminish the importance of the issues and no one would deny them in normal circumstances,” he said. “No one denies them that but we’re talking about a situation of a health crisis.”
In Sydney, outdoor gatherings are restricted to 10 people, while up to 50 people can go to funerals, places of worship, restaurants, pubs and cafes.
State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said organizers initially proposed a protest far smaller rally. She said protesters could not guarantee social distancing protocols would be followed.
“All of us have given up so much and worked so hard to make sure we get on top of the virus,” Berejiklian told reporters.
Earlier Friday, demonstrators in the capital reminded the country that racial inequality is not a U.S. issue alone.  
Organizers of the Canberra rally that attracted about 2,000 demonstrators handed out masks and hand sanitizer. Most protesters kept a recommended social distance but drew closer to hear speeches. Public gatherings are limited to 20 in Canberra, but police did not intervene.
School teacher Wendy Brookman, a member of the Butchulla indigenous people, said Australia should not accept that more than 430 indigenous Australians have died in police custody or prison in the past three decades.
“We’re not here to jump on the bandwagon of what’s happened in the United States,” Brookman said. “We’re here to voice what’s happening to our indigenous people.”
One of the protesters’ signs read “I can’t breathe” and drew a parallel between Floyd’s death in the U.S. on May 25 and the Australian indigenous experience. Those words were among the last spoken by Floyd and an indigenous Australian, David Dungay, who died in a prison hospital in 2015 while being restrained by five guards.
In South Korea, dozens gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy to condemn what they described as police brutality toward protesters in the U.S. They called for South Korea’s government to speak against the “racial discrimination and state violence” of its ally and pushed for an anti-discrimination law to improve the lives of migrant workers, undocumented foreigners and other minorities.  
“As the U.S. civil society empowered and stood in solidarity with Korean pro-democracy activists in the past, we will now stand in solidarity with citizens in the United States,” said activist Lee Sang-hyun, referring to South Koreans’ bloody struggles against military dictatorships that ruled the country until the late 1980s.
Holding a banner that read “Justice for Floyd,” most of the protesters wore black and some brought flowers in honor of Floyd, who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his neck with a knee for several minutes while he pleaded for air.
Larger marches are planned in Seoul on Saturday to protest Floyd’s death.
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Despite huge rescue packages for some U.S. airlines, major companies plan to cut jobs as they struggle to cope with the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on the travel industry.  As VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports, American airline companies are likely to emerge much smaller than they were before the pandemic hit.
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Mammoth rescue packages for some airlines are proving to be not enough. Major companies plan to cut jobs as they struggle to cope with a plunge in air travel that will leave the airline industry much smaller than it was before the coronavirus pandemic hit and has dealt a shock to the global economy.American and United Airlines plan to cut 30 percent of their management and support staff. Delta Air Lines said it will extend early retirement and buyout offers in a bid to limit layoffs in the fall.“While we never dreamed just a few months ago that we would be talking about a smaller Delta … this is the reality we’re facing,” CEO Ed Bastian said in a memo to employees.These actions aren’t surprising, said transportation expert Cliff Winston, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution. “Let’s bear in mind that the job of the airlines is to make efficient use of their resources. There’s really no point if they are not flying the routes they once flew, they’ve obviously cut back their coverage. At the same time demand for their services is dramatically down. So they need a lot less labor.”Volodymyr Bilotkach, author of The Economics of Airlines said 30 percent is a big number but said the workforce has grown bigger than the number of travelers in the past five years.A couple decked out in full protection suits against the spread of the new coronavirus take a selfie while waiting for the arrival of their son in one of the firsts international flights from United States, in Quito, Ecuador, June 4, 2020.“Over the last five years, actually, the U.S. airline industry added about 25 percent of their workforce. So from 600,000 in March 2015 to around 750,000 in March 2020.” And at the same time looking at the passenger numbers, “they have increased by a bit more than 15 percent,” he points out.He said he understands that profit margins for airlines are slim and that there are still lots of unknowns but he’s surprised at the layoffs some airlines plan to carry out given the rescue packages they recently got from the government.Under the Payroll Support Program created through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, companies such as American Airlines will receive $5.8 billion in financial assistance, including grants and low-interest loans; United Airlines, approximately $5 billion; Delta Air Lines, $5.4 billion; and Southwest, $3.3 billion. Other airlines are benefiting from the rescue packages as well.In a statement, American Airlines said that while the CARES Act money helped, the company needed to reduce its cost structure given it will be flying some 100 fewer planes in the summer than originally planned. American said this means it will need a leaner management and support staff team.Around the world, airlines have grounded about 15,000 jets – more than half the global fleet – and pressed some planes into cargo duty to bring in revenue.In Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Airlines engineers were recently busy transforming some of their planes.”We have been converting passenger aircrafts to cargo aircrafts. We have converted 20 of them; it depends on the fleet, but it took 36 hours and less,” said Rekik Tsegaye, a cabin maintenance technician at the company.Airport personnel spray disinfectant as they sanitize a plane to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, June 4, 2020.Ethiopian Airlines recorded a loss of $550 million between January and April, but company CEO Tewolde GebreMariam said he’s optimistic.”We see some kind of maybe 50 percent recovery in the summer, because it is a summer peak. And we see that people are sick and tired of the lockdown, as you can see in Europe and America governments are opening, even people are also going out because people were not meant to be locked down.”It might be hard for other African airlines to survive. Some had been piling on debt long before the pandemic, but government bailouts allowed them to limp on for years.EasyJet, the London-based budget airline is also making cuts — up to one-third of its 15,000 employees.CEO Johan Lundgren said the carrier plans to resume limited service on June 15 but estimates that it may take three years to get back to 2019 demand levels.Several major airlines have filed for bankruptcy protection, including South African Airways, Virgin Australia and the two largest carriers in Latin America, Latam and Avianca. This underscores the severity of the financial challenges facing the travel industry as a result of the lockdowns, quarantines and other measures taken by governments. But this may not necessarily be a death sentence, Winston said.“They just want a timeout. They want a chance to reorganize, try to get their finances in order. They’ll have their creditors now wait and not have to get paid … they want to forestall liquidation.”Winston said when transportation is cut, there are reverberating effects, and activities of all sorts, whether they’re job-related, leisure or technology, are affected in subtle ways.He said policymakers need to take the long view and say to themselves “we want to keep the transportation system as a vital service … we obviously want the economy to come back, but we need to think in the long term how to make the industry as efficient as possible and as robust to these kinds of shocks as possible.”As the pandemic lockdown eases, experts say airline recovery will depend on many factors – especially on passenger confidence that they can fly again.   
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The U.S. Park Police have announced that two officers will be placed on administrative leave after video showed them allegedly attacking an Australian press crew.The move came Wednesday, the same day that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said it had filed a class-action lawsuit over treatment of the press in Minneapolis.Journalists have been attacked, detained and harassed while covering the nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.As of Thursday, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker had investigated around 280 incidents, with about 20 of those in Washington, D.C.Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff photojournalist Alyssa Pointer, kneeling, works during a news conference, June 2, 2020, in Atlanta. Pointer was detained by Georgia Department of Natural Resources officers during a protest downtown.’No need’ for handcuffs“In today’s digital age and with more journalists than ever working as remote freelancers, digital credentials are a commonly used and accepted form of identification,” Willis, who was working as a freelancer for The Washington Post, said in a joint statement with the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Georgia. “There was no need for handcuffs or confiscation.”At a Tuesday news conference, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said he had asked the commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources to “look into” the incident involving Pointer, the AP reported. Atlanta police declined to comment to the AP.The SPJ Georgia, the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists and other groups called on news organizations to provide freelancers with proper credentials and protective equipment, such as masks and first-aid kits.“It is vital that members of law enforcement, who have sworn to serve and protect their citizens, do so without endangering journalists’ safety, press freedom and civil rights,” the Monday statement read. “Law enforcement must respect journalists’ role in covering events of civil unrest.”
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They were of all races and faiths, young and old, from nearby neighborhoods and neighboring states. They numbered around 5,000 — clergy, families, individuals, groups of friends. They came on foot, by subway, on bikes, walking their dogs. They all had one goal: change.“The violence has to stop,” said Daniel Spruill, a 23-year-old black man at the memorial held Thursday afternoon for George Floyd in Brooklyn, New York. “The more people they see out here supporting it, the more likely Congress will get something done.”Kallai Brooks, 36, an African American man from Brooklyn, came to the memorial with his wife and two sons, ages 3 and 8. He said violence against men like him is very much in the front of his mind, especially as a father.“I don’t want it to happen me, and I definitely don’t want it to happen to me in front of them,” he said referring to his sons. But he is hopeful the current momentum will bring tangible change.“It’s a different uprising,” Brooks said. “This is everybody being quiet about it, so imagine if they start getting loud.”University student Rosella Frein-Niles, 21, welcomed the diverse turnout.A protester waves an American flag with a message that reads “CAN’T BREATHE” during a memorial for George Floyd at Cadman Plaza Park in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on June 4, 2020.“I think everyone — white people, black people, any people in America — can realize that what’s happening is unjust, and it’s our responsibility to show up and stand together in solidarity and unity,” she said. “That’s the only way we can get things done. The officers got arrested for George Floyd. It shows that activism is what changes things.”Floyd, 46, died in police custody on May 25 in the U.S. city of Minneapolis after an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Three other officers did not stop him. All four have been charged in his death.Floyd’s younger brother Terrence lives in Brooklyn, New York. He, along with his family, have been calling for peace and an end to the looting that several cities, including New York, have experienced during more than a week of demonstrations.“I’m proud of the protests, but I’m not proud of the destruction,” Terrence Floyd twice told the crowd.In brief remarks to enthusiastic applause, Terrence Floyd said all people need power.“Power to the people! Power to the people!” he said. “Not just my people, not just your people, not just the people that think they are important. I’m talking about power of the people — all of us!”Protesters take a knee before continuing their march on the Brooklyn Bridge after attending a memorial service for George Floyd on June 4, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York.“George Floyd represented peace,” the Rev. Kevin McCall told the crowd. “He was a godly man. A gentle giant. We must keep his memory as such.”New York State Attorney General Letitia James told the crowd that change in this country has always come from the young people, not the politicians.“To my young warriors and to the families, march until the stagnant and intractable walls of racism come down!” she urged.Protesters held up signs and repeatedly chanted Floyd’s name, demanding peace and justice. There was music, speeches by politicians — including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was loudly booed — and police, who stayed at a respectful distance on the periphery of the park. At the entrance, they handed out face masks, since New York is only beginning its fragile recovery from a brutal outbreak of COVID-19.The mayor promised the city would do more to end racism.“It will not be about words in this city, it will be about change — change in the NYPD (New York Police Department),” de Blasio said. “It will be about change that you can see and believe, because you will see it with your own eyes.”Following the memorial, hundreds of people peacefully marched across the nearby Brooklyn Bridge to Foley Square in lower Manhattan, the site of daily demonstrations.  
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Programs have been launched in two of the largest U.S. states to provide economic assistance to undocumented immigrants who have been ineligible for benefits under massive federal stimulus packages enacted to combat financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.Immigrant relief funds have been set up in California and Pennsylvania. A similar initiative was launched in Baltimore, Maryland.
 
Immigrant advocates say that at a time when much of the U.S. workforce has been idled to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it is counterproductive to exclude those lacking legal status from assistance that has made it easier for people to stay at home.
 
“Immigrant rights organizations recognized immediately that this was going to exacerbate our public health crisis,” Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizen Coalition executive director Sundrop Carter told VOA.
 
Enacted in March, the CARES Act provided stimulus checks of up to $1,200 to low and middle-income individuals. Families were also eligible for $500 per child under the age of 17.
 
Passed by a Democratic-led House and a Republican-led Senate, the bill provided benefits to U.S. citizens and permanent residents but excluded undocumented immigrants and individuals in mixed-status families.
 
Some Democratic lawmakers criticized the exclusions as unjust, noting that many workers lacking legal status pay federal taxes.  
 
“COVID-19 does not care about your immigration status, so neither should our response,” Arizona Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva said in an April statement.
 
President Donald Trump’s Republican allies on Capitol Hill were unmoved.Earlier this month, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas introduced the “No Bailouts for Illegal Aliens Act.” Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado introduced a companion legislation in the House. Their goal is to block funds being sent to U.S. states giving coronavirus-related stimulus checks or other cash payments to unauthorized workers.“The federal government shouldn’t be subsidizing states’ efforts to send cash to illegal aliens,” Cotton said in a statement last month.
 
With federal aid restricted, California stepped in with its own initiative. America’s most populous state set up a $125 million fund that is providing a maximum of $1,000 per undocumented household.In Pennsylvania, more than 40 nonprofit groups have joined with a charitable foundation to launch the PA Immigrant Relief Fund. The program, which several cities are promoting but receives no state money, has provided financial aid to hundreds of families in its first days of operation, and organizers hope to help thousands more in the weeks and months to come.
 
“So many organizations really wanted to match the federal stimulus of $1,200 dollars, but we ended up on $800 (per undocumented household in Pennsylvania),” Carter said, adding that the initiative aims “to reach as many people as possible” with funds she describes as “a drop in the bucket.”
 
Some local governments are stepping in, as well. In Baltimore, Maryland, a mayoral office for immigrant affairs established an emergency fund to “help families achieve economic stability by using funds towards rent, utilities and/or other basic needs.”
 
The key requirement for federal stimulus money is a social security number given to U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents. The stipulation has served to deny benefits to mixed status families in which a citizen or resident is married to an undocumented immigrant who files taxes using an alternative to the social security number.
 
Multiple lawsuits are underway challenging the withholding of stimulus money to mixed-status families, as well as undocumented immigrants with children who are U.S. citizens.
 
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Officials in Norway say eight structures were swept into the sea by a landslide near the Norwegian Arctic town of Alta.A local resident, Jan Egil Bakkedal, captured the event on video Wednesday in the village of Kraakneset. He told the Associated Press he ran for his life when he realized what was happening. Among houses that were lost was his own.Police estimate the landslide was between 650 meters and 800 meters wide and up to 40 meters high. Officials did not know what caused the slide.Several minor landslides followed, and nearby houses were temporarily evacuated as a precaution.No injuries were reported. A dog that was washed into the sea was able to swim back to land. 
 
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The temporary expansion of telehealth during the coronavirus pandemic would become permanent under a bill considered Thursday by a Senate committee.
As passed by the House in March, the bill would allow reimbursement for medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders conducted via telehealth. But an amendment before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee would also make permanent the provisions of Gov.
Chris Sununu’s emergency order on telehealth, which allowed all health care providers to offer services via phone, video and other remote systems and required insurers to cover them.
Officials representing hospitals, community health centers, dentists and mental health providers all told the committee that telehealth has been a valuable tool during the pandemic and should continue.
Christine Stoddard of the Bistate Primary Care Association said community health centers “were able to turn on a dime” and transition to telehealth. And though in-person visits have resumed, centers still don’t have enough protective gear for staff, making telehealth options essential.
Because of the pandemic, telehealth services have become an important part of the health care system, said Paula Minnehan of the New Hampshire Hospital Association.
“As many experts have predicted, telehealth is here to stay, which is why this legislation is so important to ensure patients are able to get the right care at the right time in the right setting, which ultimately may be in the safety of their own homes,” she said.  
Ken Norton, director of the New Hampshire chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said telehealth has greatly expanded access to mental health treatment.
“We can’t go back,” he said.
Other coronavirus developments in New Hampshire:The Numbers
As of Wednesday, 4,795 people had tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire, an increase of 47 from the previous day. Nine deaths were announced, for a total of 265.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.
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Kenya’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority (or IPOA) on Thursday announced a police officer was being charged with murder in the shooting death of Yassin Hussein Moyo.The thirteen-year-old boy was standing on the balcony of his parent’s home in Nairobi on March 30 when he was hit by a bullet as police enforced a nighttime coronavirus curfew.Jonathan Lodompui, vice chairman of the policing oversight authority, a civilian group established to investigate and audit police misconduct, says more officers have been disciplined, but he would not disclose how many.  “They have really been disciplined.  Some of them have been recalled, some of them have been interdicted, and some certain disciplinary action or role models have been preferred against them,” he said.The IPOA said Thursday that five other police officers were facing charges over other deaths, shootings, and assaults that pre-dated Kenya’s curfew.  In a statement earlier this week, the oversight body said 15 deaths linked to police during the curfew are under investigation.   But rights groups say since Kenya’s curfew began March 27 police are responsible for at least 26 deaths, the vast majority in poor neighborhoods.   Juliet Wanjira is secretariat of the Mathare Social Justice Centre, an organization that documents extrajudicial police killings.  She says charges brought against officers has not led to fewer civilians being killed.  “Arresting the killer of Yassin Moyo is not going to bring Yassin Moyo back. It’s not going to. What is justice really? Justice is preventing Yassin Moyos from being killed, and that is what we need IPOA and this government to do.”Public anger is beginning to boil over.  Video on social media showed protesters defying the curfew Monday night in Nairobi‘s Mathare slum and setting tires on fire in outrage over the shooting death of an elderly homeless man.  The protesters accuse Kenyan police of killing the man, whom locals called Vaite, while enforcing the curfew.  Speaking to Kenya’s NTV news Tuesday, Kenya Police Spokesman Charles Owino claimed that Vaite was shot not by police but by men on motorcycles. “If any police officer, including myself, if I take the law into my own hands and kill someone, you will not need to expose it. I’ll be taken to court,” Owino said.The police oversight authority says Vaite’s death is one of those being investigated.The IPOA says 87 complaints of police violence have been lodged since the curfew, including shootings, robbery, and sexual assault. The executive director of Amnesty International Kenya, Irungu Houghton, says the spike in cases shows that not enough disciplinary actions are being taken.“If you continue to retain a veil of secrecy around both the disciplinary actions that you’re taking and the officers that are being disciplined, then essentially what you are sending is a signal to the other officers is that they can continue doing what they’re doing and that there will be no consequences.” Kenya’s prosecution of police officers is exceedingly rare.  Since its establishment in 2012, the IPOA has convicted only seven police.  
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