| Uganda - where security forces may be more deadly than coronavirus Posted: 22 Jul 2020 04:54 PM PDT  No-one has died from Covid-19 in Uganda, but 12 people have allegedly been killed by security officers.
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| EXPLAINER-What are the main areas of tension in the U.S.-China relationship? Posted: 22 Jul 2020 04:10 PM PDT |
| Why Some Travel Bubbles Might Remain Thought Bubbles Posted: 22 Jul 2020 04:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- For people stuck at home tending their stockpiles of face masks and toilet paper, it's hard to think of a simpler pleasure than the prospect of heading on holiday to some sun-kissed beach.Travel bubbles — the limited openings of international borders as coronavirus transmission weakens in some parts of the world — are starting to spring up. The European Union lifted restrictions on movement within its passport-free Schengen Zone last month, causing cross-border flights to quadruple in frequency. Singapore has been allowing some business travel from six Chinese provinces since last month, and is looking to set up a similar arrangement with Malaysia. Now Deutsche Lufthansa AG, United Airlines Holdings Inc., IAG SA and American Airlines Group Inc. are seeking a U.S.-European Union virus-testing program to allow trans-Atlantic trips to resume as well.While an increasing number of tourists may be willing to chance their health for the sake of a long-overdue break, the decision for governments contemplating this is far more complex — even setting aside the most obvious risk that increased border crossings could help the spread of the coronavirus. That's because, in most countries, international tourism is dwarfed by the scale of domestic travel, as my colleague Clara Ferreira Marques has written about Vietnam. It's also because nations run the gamut from those whose residents spend more overseas than foreigners do on inbound trips (such as China, Canada and the U.K.) to those for which tourism is a major net export, such as the U.S., Thailand and Spain.When economies are cratering and unemployment is soaring, that imbalance may become an important factor in deciding what to do.Take New Zealand and Australia, which, before a recent outbreak in Melbourne, appeared to have more or less stamped out Covid-19 and were heading toward opening a bubble. For New Zealand, it's a no-brainer. International tourism is the country's largest export sector and accounts for 8.4% of employment, with Australians making up 40% of visitor arrivals, as James McIntyre of Bloomberg Economics wrote in a recent note.For Australia the calculus is a lot harder. Unlike New Zealand, the country is a net importer of tourism — in other words, Australians spend more money abroad than foreigners spend in Australia. Last year, overseas expenditures exceeded receipts to the tune of about A$19 billion ($14 billion), equivalent to about 1% of gross domestic product. The more that revenue gets trapped at home and spent on domestic hotels, restaurants and visitor attractions, the easier it will be for the economy and job market to recover from a historic slump.Those complicated distributional impacts happen within economies as well as between them. For instance, the airline sector is likely to benefit most from an increase in international travel. These companies have vast outlays on twin-aisle planes and flight crews that will be mostly out of action until long-haul trips resume. But in most countries, airlines — and particularly their international arms — constitute a relatively small slice of tourism employment, and one that's already relatively well-protected in terms of pay and employment rights.In the U.S., the hotels and lodging sector employed about four times as many people as airlines did before coronavirus hit — and the 48% slump in employment as infection spread between March and May represented about 7.5 jobs lost for every one in aviation. Airlines tend to be heavily unionized and often boast government stakes in airports and carriers, making politicians more disposed to pleas for support. Singapore is a net importer of tourism and employs far more people in ground-based services than in aviation, but don't be surprised if the government's control of Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Changi Airport pushes the city-state to open up sooner rather than later.Beyond that, there's even a diplomatic angle. Small island states such as those in the Caribbean and Pacific and Indian Oceans are some of the most tourism-dependent countries on the planet, and risk devastation if border lockdowns continue much longer. Major sources of holidaymakers like the U.S., U.K., China, Japan, Australia and Taiwan could buy immense goodwill by allowing their residents to visit at an early stage. Such small island states account for about a fifth of United Nations member countries. As we've seen in areas from whaling to recognition of Taiwan, cultivating their favor is a popular avenue of geopolitical competition.Those complexities probably explain the relatively slow progress in turning travel bubbles from proposals into reality. Right now, tourist dollars are a precious resource that stricken economies would like to see spent at home. Your dream of a getaway as summer turns to winter may have to wait until the pandemic has passed.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Joe Biden calls Trump the country's 'first' racist president Posted: 22 Jul 2020 03:54 PM PDT  Joe Biden said Wednesday that President Donald Trump was the country's "first" racist president. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's comments came during a virtual town hall organized by the Service Employees International Union. When a questioner complained of racism surrounding the coronavirus outbreak and mentioned the president referring to it as the "China virus," Biden responded by blasting Trump and "his spread of racism."
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| House Democrats vote to repeal Trump's 'Muslim ban' Posted: 22 Jul 2020 03:20 PM PDT  House Democrats voted to repeal Donald Trump's travel ban on some African and Asian countries. Titled the NO Ban Act, the legislation was passed along mostly party lines in a 233-183 vote on Wednesday.The Trump administration introduced its original ban in 2017, barring visitors from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. The measure was dubbed a 'Muslim ban' because it targeted predominantly Muslim majority countries. It has since been expanded to several more countries.
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| Nearly 1 in 4 VA employees report sex harassment, audit says Posted: 22 Jul 2020 03:15 PM PDT  Nearly 1 in 4 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs say they have been subjected to unwanted sexual comments and other harassment — one of the highest levels in federal government — and an audit says the Trump administration has not been doing enough to protect them. At a House hearing Wednesday, lawmakers heard VA express a commitment to "changing the culture" to make the department more welcoming to women, but that long-sought improvements urged by the Government Accountability Office could take until 2024 to fully implement. "The VA is not the same VA as four years ago," insisted acting VA deputy secretary Pam Powers, pointing to increased outreach to women and improved trust ratings in the VA from employees and patients alike according to internal polling.
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| House OKs repeal of Trump travel ban decried as anti-Muslim Posted: 22 Jul 2020 02:43 PM PDT  The House on Wednesday voted to repeal the Trump administration's travel ban and further restrict the president's power to limit entry to the U.S., a symbolic victory for Muslim American and civil rights groups. The bill, which passed the Democrat-controlled House 233-183, had initially been slated for action in March, before the coronavirus forced scheduling changes on Capitol Hill. "This is a historic moment for Muslims," Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, one of the groups working in support of the bill, said ahead of the vote.
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| Sudan’s premier appoints civilians as provincial governors Posted: 22 Jul 2020 02:02 PM PDT |
| AP PHOTOS: Facing federal agents, Portland protests swell Posted: 22 Jul 2020 01:55 PM PDT  Night after night for nearly two months, protesters have taken to the streets of Portland, Oregon, for demonstrations against racial injustice that have devolved into vandalism and clashes with authorities. Long after such unrest subsided in other cities, small groups of protesters in Portland continued to set fires, spray graffiti on public buildings and battle officers. More recently, the Trump administration's decision to call in federal agents to help protect the federal courthouse — the focus of much protest activity — has galvanized many in Portland anew.
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| Utah sees virus surge -- but not in county with mask order Posted: 22 Jul 2020 01:55 PM PDT  Utah is among the many U.S. states battling a surge in coronavirus cases, but officials said Wednesday the Salt Lake City area is bucking the trend after the county issued a mandate a month ago for people to wear masks. There's no statewide mask order in Republican-led Utah, and face coverings remain contentious, as seen at a recent public meeting that was abruptly ended when dozens of people without masks packed the room. After GOP Gov. Gary Herbert allowed Democratic leaders in Salt Lake County to impose their own mask rule, the county's share of cases in the state steadily declined despite its denser population.
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| Who’s ‘Politicizing’ Human Rights? Everyone Posted: 22 Jul 2020 11:23 AM PDT |
| AP-NORC poll: Very few Americans back full school reopening Posted: 22 Jul 2020 11:01 AM PDT  Only about 1 in 10 Americans think daycare centers, preschools or K-12 schools should open this fall without restrictions, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. The findings are a sharp contrast to the picture that President Donald Trump paints as he pressures schools to reopen. Trump said Wednesday that he would be "comfortable" with his son Barron and grandchildren attending school in person this fall.
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| FBI links men's rights lawyer to N.J., California killings Posted: 22 Jul 2020 10:59 AM PDT |
| Trump deploys more federal agents under 'law-and-order' push Posted: 22 Jul 2020 10:29 AM PDT  President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will send federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration's intervention into local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a "law-and-order" mantle. Using the same alarmist language he has employed to describe illegal immigration, Trump painted Democrat-led cities as out of control and lashed out at the "radical left," which he blamed for rising violence in some cities, even though criminal justice experts say it defies easy explanation. "In recent weeks there has been a radical movement to defund, dismantle and dissolve our police department," Trump said at a White House event, blaming the movement for "a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence."
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| Virus slams Bolivia as hospitals say: 'There is no space' Posted: 22 Jul 2020 10:08 AM PDT  Police in Bolivia's major cities have recovered the bodies of hundreds of suspected victims of the coronavirus from homes, vehicles and, in some instances, the streets. Desperation is growing in one of Latin America's poorest countries, which seems overwhelmed by the virus even as it endures political turmoil stemming from a flawed election and the ouster of President Evo Morales last year. With little space available, the mayor's office only allows burials for people from the municipality and charges more than $100 for cremation, a huge sum for most Bolivians.
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| Coronavirus: Madagascar hospitals 'overwhelmed' Posted: 22 Jul 2020 09:02 AM PDT  The president has been promoting a herbal drink to treat the virus despite warnings from the WHO.
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| Female leaders doing 'better job' in virus crisis, says Lagarde Posted: 22 Jul 2020 08:54 AM PDT  Female leaders are doing a better job handling the coronavirus crisis, European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde said Wednesday, praising them for their honest communication and for showing they cared. Lagarde, who is the ECB's first female president, singled out German Chancellor Angela Merkel for praise.
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| Stone tools suggest earlier human presence in North America Posted: 22 Jul 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Stone tools found in a Mexican cave suggest that people were living in North America as early as about 26,500 years ago, much earlier than most scientists accept, a new study says. Presently, the most widely accepted dates for the earliest known North American archaeological sites date to before 15,000 years ago and extend maybe to 17,000 years ago, says anthropology professor Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Ciprian Ardelean of the Autonomous University of Zacatecas and others say they found stone tools and debris from tool-making that they dated back as far as 26,500 years ago.
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| The Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Industry, 2014-2024 - During Q1 2020, Pharmaceutical Companies Witnessed a Boost in Sales as Wholesalers Stockpiled Products due to Supply Chain Concerns Posted: 22 Jul 2020 08:08 AM PDT |
| Heavy rain threatens flood-weary Japan, Korean Peninsula Posted: 22 Jul 2020 08:03 AM PDT  After deadly flooding struck the Korean Peninsula and Japan earlier this month, another dose of heavy rainfall will renew the risk of flooding this week.This rain is expected to come as a one-two-punch during the second half of the week."Two different storms will be moving along a semi-stationary front, known as a mei-yu front, which will send bouts of heavy rain from eastern China to the Korean Peninsula and Japan into the start of the weekend," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Maura Kelly.Rain, which began in eastern China at the start of the week, moved into parts of the Korean Peninsula by midday Wednesday, especially in southern parts of South Korea.By Wednesday evening, downpours washed over portions of western Japan, including northern Kyushu, Shikoku and western parts of Honshu. The second, and more powerful, storm will follow behind this first one rather quickly, bringing another dose of heavy rain to North and South Korea as early as Thursday, with no more of a break than some drizzle or isolated showers in between."There is still uncertainty about the exact track of this second storm. Should the storm track farther south, much of the Korean Peninsula, other than perhaps southern South Korea, may be spared," Kelly added.Regardless of the exact path of this storm, more flooding downpours are expected to target western Japan on Friday and Saturday.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPBetween both storms, the double dose of heavy rain means that rainfall totals are likely to climb to 50-100 mm (2-4 inches) into Saturday. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 200 mm (8 inches) will be possible, especially in the higher elevations."This much rain, especially after an already wet stretch of weather, is falling on very saturated ground," said Kelly.Because of this, less rain will be needed to cause flooding issues, and trees may be more easily toppled or uprooted. Mudslides will be a major concern in the hilly and mountainous terrain.The flood-weary areas threatened by these next rounds of heavy rain have experienced dangerous flooding from the torrential rains earlier this month.On Monday, reports came in of immense rains across parts of North Korea, totaling over 50 mm (2 inches) in many locations. Hamheung had the highest rainfall total with 87 mm (3.43 inches) of rain falling in 24 hours.In mid-July, more than 200 mm (8 inches) of rain fell in parts of southern South Korea, killing several people and causing travel traffic accidents.An astounding 277 mm (10.9 inches) of rain fell in Sancheong of South Gyeongsang Province, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and 210 mm (8.3 inches) of rain in the town of Geoje, just west of Busan.In Japan, the island of Kyushu was badly battered by heavy rains that moved through the area during late June and early July. A total of 71 people have been confirmed dead due to the floodwaters, most coming from the hard-hit prefecture of Kumamoto.According to a report from The Japan Times, about 2,000 people are still living in shelters after heavy rain, flooded rivers and landslides forced residents from their homes earlier in the month.Recovery efforts have been slow in some remote locations as numerous roads and bridges have been washed away. More rain on the way can lead to additional delays and flooding concerns this week.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Kuwait emir, 91, to go to US for medical care after surgery Posted: 22 Jul 2020 07:50 AM PDT  Kuwait's 91-year-old ruling emir will travel to the United States on Thursday morning to seek further medical care after recently undergoing surgery, its state-run news agency reported. Kuwait has yet to elaborate on what required Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah to seek a previously unannounced medical treatment beginning Saturday and a surgery Sunday. The state-run KUNA news agency quoted a statement from the country's royal court saying Sheikh Sabah would leave "based on advice from the medical team treating His Highness to complete his treatment after a successful surgical procedure."
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| US labs buckle amid testing surge; world virus cases top 15M Posted: 22 Jul 2020 07:25 AM PDT  Laboratories across the U.S. are buckling under a surge of coronavirus tests, creating long processing delays that experts say are actually undercutting the pandemic response. With the U.S. tally of infections at 3.9 million Wednesday and new cases surging, the bottlenecks are creating problems for workers kept off the job while awaiting results, nursing homes struggling to keep the virus out and for the labs themselves, dealing with a crushing workload. "There's been this obsession with, 'How many tests are we doing per day?'" said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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| Push to remove Confederate statues stalls in rural America Posted: 22 Jul 2020 07:14 AM PDT  The statue of the anonymous Confederate soldier has stood in front of the white-columned East Feliciana Parish courthouse for more than a century, leaning on his rifle as he looks down on trucks hauling timber and residents visiting the bank across the street. The local doctor who asked the southeast Louisiana parish to move it lost two friends in the controversy, but the statue stayed. In 2018, a Black man who was a defendant in a trial petitioned to have his case moved, saying the statue was a symbol of racism.
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| Global Medical Device Outsourcing Industry Posted: 22 Jul 2020 06:39 AM PDT |
| These Loser Stocks Deserve a Lot More Love Posted: 22 Jul 2020 06:30 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Add the lackluster performance of defense stocks to the long list of puzzling inequities in the pandemic stock market. A custom basket of top U.S. defense contractors within the S&P 500 Index is down about 20% for the year, even as the broader benchmark pushed into the green this week. Even excluding Boeing Co., whose commercial aerospace travails are more of a focus for investors, the group is still down about 16%. That's significantly worse than the performance for S&P 500 railroads, restaurants, foot-wear makers and soft-drink companies, all of which are more immediately exposed to the volatility of economic reopenings and behavioral shifts than makers of missiles, fighter jets and radar systems that rely on government contracts sealed years earlier. Lockheed Martin Corp., which reported second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, displayed the sector's resilience amid the pandemic upheaval. Earnings, sales and cash flow were all higher than the year-earlier period, with cash balances helped in part by accelerated progress payments from the Department of Defense that were then passed on to suppliers. At a time when most companies are hesitant to make any concrete predictions about the immediate future, Lockheed touted a record $150.3 billion backlog and actually raised its guidance on all fronts. And yet even after a respectable 2.6% gain on Tuesday's earnings report, Lockheed still trades at roughly 14 times its estimated earnings in 2021. The valuation discount to the broader S&P 500 is just shy of the widest spread in at least five years.Fellow defense contractors Raytheon Technologies Corp., General Dynamics Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. are scheduled to report results next week, as is Boeing.The reason for the defense sector's underperformance appears multi-fold. For one, defense contractors don't really fit with the technology-focused bent of the recent upswing in stocks and because their business didn't crash and burn as much as many others did, there's less room for that mythical, V-shaped recovery many still hope will occur. Second, as Congress debates injecting at least $1 trillion more in stimulus funds into the pandemic-stricken economy, the deficit is set to explode and the government will likely have to make up some of that spending elsewhere. The worry is that the U.S.'s gargantuan defense budget will be a prime target, particularly if former Vice President Joe Biden succeeds in unseating President Donald Trump in this year's presidential election.Any hit to defense spending isn't likely to be as bad as what's suggested by current valuations, though. While the deficit may put a cap on defense spending growth, the volatile geopolitical situation likely creates a floor. Historically, there's a weak correlation between deficit-related economic variables — whether that's business cycles or changes in tax policy — and defense spending, Melius Research analyst Carter Copeland noted on a call earlier this month. Material shifts in budgets tend to be more a reflection of changes in national-security posture, he said, such as President Barack Obama's withdrawal from Iraq or President Ronald Reagan's more aggressive stance toward Russia during the early part of his administration. And there's not much room for that kind of rethink right now, regardless of who gets elected. Tensions are still running hot with the likes of Iran and North Korea, while Russia and China have taken increasingly aggressive postures. Copeland pointed to a Gallup poll published in March that found half of Americans view the current level of defense spending as "about right," the highest percentage in more than 50 years. Asked on Lockheed's earnings call Tuesday if the defense budget would decline, new CEO Jim Taiclet declined to "speculate on the behavior of people that are going to make independent decisions that we can't predict," but said the company's divisions are planning for a wide range of scenarios to be prepared for any outcome. He made a point of citing a downturn as a potential opportunity for Lockheed to take advantage of depressed asset prices through strategic M&A. At the end of the day, "sentiment is fickle, while fundamentals are facts," Vertical Research Partners analyst Rob Stallard wrote in a report last month. "While we think defense companies can't do much about the slowing Department of Defense budget outlook, they are still growing and have good visibility, good cash flow and good valuations." What more do you want? This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Brooke Sutherland is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Telescope snaps family portrait of 2 planets around baby sun Posted: 22 Jul 2020 06:02 AM PDT  For the first time, a telescope has captured a family portrait of another solar system with not just one, but two planets posing directly for the cameras while orbiting a star like our sun. This baby sun and its two giant gas planets are fairly close by galactic standards at 300 light-years away. The snapshot — released Wednesday — was taken by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile's Atacama Desert.
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| TÜV Rheinland Launches Campaign to Help Companies Resume Operations and Recover from the Pandemic Posted: 22 Jul 2020 06:00 AM PDT |
| Turkey, Russia say they seek lasting cease-fire in Libya Posted: 22 Jul 2020 05:41 AM PDT |
| Global Fuses and Circuit Breakers Industry Posted: 22 Jul 2020 05:39 AM PDT |
| 2 boys saved when caught in falls in French apartment fire Posted: 22 Jul 2020 05:36 AM PDT  Two young brothers were saved from an apartment fire in the southeastern French city of Grenoble when they dropped about 10 meters (33 feet) from a window and were caught by people below. The two, aged 10 and 3, were unharmed by the fall Tuesday but might have suffered from smoke inhalation, French media reported. Athoumani Walid, a 25-year-old student who suffered a broken wrist from helping catch the children, said he heard screams and went out to investigate after seeing the fire from his nearby apartment and rushed to help along with four or five other people.
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| Bodies of young Afghans who died seeking asylum brought home Posted: 22 Jul 2020 05:35 AM PDT  The bodies of five Afghans who died when their boat crowded with migrants capsized in stormy weather in a lake in eastern Turkey last month were returned home to Afghanistan on Wednesday. The five were among 29 Afghans whose bodies have been recovered after their boat sank in Lake Van, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Gran Hewad. The lake, largest in eastern Turkey, lies close to the border with Iran.
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| Europe’s Recovery Plan Is Progress Posted: 22 Jul 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| UN agencies warn of more food shortages in war-torn Yemen Posted: 22 Jul 2020 04:52 AM PDT |
| Telemedicine Market to Reach USD 121.17 Billion By 2027 | CAGR:14.9% | Reports And Data Posted: 22 Jul 2020 04:40 AM PDT  According to a new report by Reports and Data, the global Telemedicine market is forecasted to reach USD 121.17 billion by 2027. Telemedicine is experiencing prospective opportunities in the field as rising adoption of IT in healthcare domain, rising geriatric population, increasing prevalence of target diseases and majorly the advantage of maximum reach in case of different medical crisis such as pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 or untapped target of population (rural areas or bedridden patients). Geriatric population is rapidly rising across the globe, and Europe and North America have the highest share of population with age of over sixty-five years and above. Telemedicine is emerging as crucial part of pandemic hit world, to remotely address many common medical conditions that are reflected among the old population such as Parkinson's, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, arthritis and many more. According to the United Nations, in 2050, geriatric population are expected to account for 35% of the population in Europe, 28% in Northern America, 25% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 24% in Asia, 23% in Oceania and 9% in Africa. Traveling to hospitals for visits and unfamiliar environment of hospitals leads to non-compliance of patients to follow ups. Thus, tele-visits and telemedicine help in such situation to provide services remotely at their familiar environment.
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| Andrew Mlangeni: Last Mandela co-accused dies aged 95 Posted: 22 Jul 2020 04:20 AM PDT  Andrew Mlangeni's death signifies the end of a generational history, South Africa's president says.
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| In a dramatic escalation of tensions, U.S. orders closure of China's Houston consulate Posted: 22 Jul 2020 04:10 AM PDT  State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said the U.S. was acting to "protect American intellectual property and Americans' private information." On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced an indictment charging two Chinese nationals— both in China — with hacking governments, dissidents, human rights activists and private companies, including those engaged in COVID-19 vaccine research. Top Justice Department and FBI officials used some of their strongest language to date in condemning China as a rogue cyber thief, putting China in the same category as Russia, Iran and North Korea, the top U.S. adversaries.
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| Qatar Airways sues, seeks $5B from boycotting countries Posted: 22 Jul 2020 03:52 AM PDT |
| Violence, protests, arrival of agents put Chicago on edge Posted: 22 Jul 2020 03:47 AM PDT |
| Novel Innovations Facilitating Digital Transformation of Agricultural Sector Posted: 22 Jul 2020 03:05 AM PDT |
| Melco joins first group of signatories to the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative to take on problematic plastic pollution Posted: 22 Jul 2020 02:52 AM PDT |
| 'We suffer in silence': coronavirus takes heavy toll on Brazil's army of gravediggers Posted: 22 Jul 2020 02:45 AM PDT  Alcoholism and depression 'part and parcel' for those who bury the bodies of Covid-19 victims – more than 80,000 so farMiguel Braga has done many things in life: sold lollipops, hawked cleaning products, guarded cars. This year, as Covid-19 shook Brazil, he turned his hand to burying bodies."Someone has to do it," said the 30-year-old father-of-two, who earns £200 ($250) a month carving 2-metre x 1-metre resting places into the caramel-coloured soils of Latin America's largest cemetery.Dramatic aerial images of Vila Formosa have travelled the world in recent months – perhaps the most potent symbol of Brazil's deadly failure to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.Less attention has been paid to its silent army of gravediggers, the final combatants in a lost war being fought against an illness that has killed more than 80,000 of Braga's fellow citizens."The gravediggers are the invisible men of the pandemic," said Rafael Vilela, a Brazilian photographer who has been documenting their travails.In São Paulo alone, where Vila Formosa is located, more than 20,000 people are known to have died, meaning that if the state was a country it would rank as one of the world's 10 worst hit, ahead of Iran, Peru and Russia.Even in normal times, life is a battle for the 300 or so gravediggers who work in the state capital's 22 cemeteries. "Alcoholism and depression are part and parcel of our work," admitted Manoel Norberto, one of the directors of their union.But this year has been particularly tough. Official figures – which confirm what gravediggers have been reporting anecdotally for months – show that in the first half of 2020 there was a 40% jump in burials compared with the same period of 2019, with 46,484 compared to 33,246 last year.In May, São Paulo's worst month, 9,796 burials were conducted, up from 5,799 last year – a rise of 69%. In June, 8,925 people were buried, compared with 5,884 last year."My shrink is a pack of cigarettes and a beer after work," said Braga, after another punishing 11-hour shift during which he helped with more than 50 burials."The energy's heavy. My wife says I toss and turn in bed. Sometimes I talk in my sleep," he added. "But I'm a cool guy – for me, it's a job just like any other."Braga was raised in a notoriously rough favela on the east side of São Paulo, the son of a metalworker and a maid. Growing up in the 1990s, when the city was notorious for police violence, he witnessed countless atrocities. "I come from a violent place, I've seen many corpses in the streets. This is something that's part of my reality," he said.Even so, recent months have been painful at Vila Formosa, an 800,000 sq metre burial ground so vast that even some gravediggers have not fully explored it.One Sunday in May, at the peak of São Paulo's crisis, Braga helped bury 80 bodies in one shift, nearly all victims, or suspected victims, of Covid-19. Some weeks, workers have had to open 500 new graves, creating a total of 8,000 new resting places since the epidemic began."We suffer in silence," admitted Luiz Silva, a veteran gravedigger, who said he and his colleagues felt a mix of sadness and angst at their work. "We're afraid because we don't know if we'll be infected too."Paulo Lotufo, a University of São Paulo epidemiologist, hailed gravediggers as the unsung heroes of the pandemic: amateur disease detectives who helped grieving families while simultaneously helping track the virus's progression and impact across Brazil.Lotufo said it had been São Paulo's overburdened gravediggers who first alerted him to the calamity in March, when the official death toll there was only about 20.When the Amazon city of Manaus was plunged into chaos in April, it was again exhausted cemetery workers who raised the alarm, reporting more than a hundred daily burials rather than the usual 30."They're my travelling companions," Lotufo said of Brazil's gravediggers, arguing that their frontline observations were now more crucial than ever as much of the country reopened and politicians massaged Covid-19 statistics to convince citizens the crisis was controlled.Braga's observations suggest the city of São Paulo may be through the worst, with the virus now advancing across its rural interior, as well as Brazil's south and midwest. Some days, only 30 or 40 burials were taking place at Vila Formosa, the gravedigger said.For all the heartbreak and suffering, Braga said watching the ceremonies of different faiths – a snapshot of Brazil's religious diversity – was a moving experience."Followers of [the Afro-Brazilian religion] Candomblé throw popcorn on to the coffins to purify the dead. Umbanda followers seem to incorporate sacred entities. The evangelicals sing, but say it is only the flesh that is departing. And the Catholics chant prayers, which is what gives me goosebumps."Braga is an infrequent churchgoer, despite his wife being an evangelical pastor – but working as a gravedigger he found it impossible not to reflect on the fragility of human existence."I watch all these bodies being buried, with or without Covid, and I realize that we're all just worthless," he said."It doesn't matter if you're stupid or smart, if you've got money or not, if you're handsome or ugly. The earth swallows us all."Additional reporting by Tom PhillipsSome of the names in this report have been changed to protect identities
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| US indicts Chinese hackers for targeting coronavirus vaccine data and defence secrets Posted: 22 Jul 2020 02:30 AM PDT |
| US dollar payment system debate continues, can America cut China off from Swift? Posted: 22 Jul 2020 02:30 AM PDT  Debates continue among Chinese officials and analysts as to whether the United States has the ability and willingness to reduce or even completely cut off China's access to the US dollar system, reflecting a sense of uneasiness in Beijing about the potential ramifications of a financial war with Washington.The general consensus, according to published reports and views, is that Washington will not go to this extreme, as it has with Iran and North Korea, because of the risks that such a drastic move would pose to the US itself and to the global economy.However, for China, the risk remains real that the US could use the US dollar's hegemony to inflict pain on China if relations continue to deteriorate.Washington has already announced that it will penalise individuals involved in undermining Hong Kong's autonomy and punish Chinese financial institutions that continue to do business with them " a relatively targeted approach to financial sanctions. A big question is whether these sanctions could escalate.Wang Yongli, a former vice-president at Bank of China and a former member of the board of Swift " the international financial payments system " wrote in a note over the weekend that it would be "highly complicated and impractical" for the US to exclude all Chinese and Hong Kong financial institutions from the US dollar payments system."The United States has huge economic, trade and financial interests in Hong Kong. Kicking Hong Kong out of Swift would not only harm Chinese financial institutions in the city, but would severely affect all international institutions in Hong Kong, including American institutions," Wang wrote.Swift, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is a network used by banks around the world to send and receive information about financial transactions. It is one of the pieces of infrastructure that underpins the anchor role of the US dollar in international trade and investment.Foreign banks have correspondent relationships with US banks, through which they conduct US dollar transactions. The US government can order US banks to stop processing transactions with certain individuals, institutions and countries, denying them access to the US dollar payments system.Wang added that China must not panic, but must calmly respond to potential US sanctions, because if the US cuts off Hong Kong from the US dollar payment system, it will "shoot itself in the foot" and deeply affect global demand. This, he said, would likely promote the establishment of a new international payment and settlement system to replace the current US dollar-denominated one, and, at the same time, pose a major threat to world peace.A senior official in Beijing who is close to the country's central bank told the South China Morning Post that he thinks it would be impossible for the US to exclude all Chinese institutions in Hong Kong from Swift, because doing so would be a major escalation in the confrontation between the two countries.Ding Shuang, chief China economist at Standard Chartered bank, agreed that the US is unlikely to impose financial sanctions on Hong Kong as a whole but may sanction some individual Chinese banks in the city.Relations between the world's two largest economies have deteriorated sharply over a sea of issues including the trade war, the Covid-19 pandemic, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the new national security law, and arms sales to Taiwan.Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end Hong Kong's special status under US law, as well as the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which provides for mandatory sanctions against individuals and entities seen as contributing to the erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy, and, after a year, penalties for banks that still do business with them.Despite economists repeatedly arguing that the risk of the US cutting off Hong Kong or China from Swift is low, Chinese state media and officials have continued to discuss the potential consequences and what China could do to mitigate the risks."Although the US has a great influence on Swift, the organisation is not ruled by it. Given the scale of China's economy and finance, the probability of being completely cut off from the US dollar payment and settlement system is extremely low," the Securities Times, a newspaper affiliated with People's Daily, the Communist Party's mouthpiece, said on Monday.A commentary in the Global Times, the state-backed nationalistic tabloid, said last month that China "must be cautious of the US's malicious intentions". It also warned that, for the US, cutting off China from Swift would be like "drinking poison to quench its thirst"."Blocking China from Swift would cause big trouble and losses for China, but it would also harm the US. Although the US wouldn't immediately lose its superpower status, US dollar hegemony would be doomed to collapse. After all, China has an economy second only to the United States, with huge dollar reserves and dollar bonds in its hands," the commentary said.Guotai Junan Securities, the Shanghai-based investment bank and securities company, said in a note on Monday that if the US suspends China's access to Swift, the mainland could lose US$300 billion in trade per year. It will also lose more than US$90 billion in foreign direct investment in China and more than US$80 billion in outward foreign direct investment."All Chinese state-owned commercial banks, as well as the stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, have joined Swift. Once they are cut off from the system, meaning the US imposes financial sanctions on all Chinese commercial banks, the source of US dollars for these banks will completely dry up," the report warned.Last month, China modestly increased its holdings of US Treasury securities, the first in three months, in a potential sign that Beijing is not worried about being cut off from the US dollar payment system.China added US$10.9 billion of US Treasury securities in May from a month earlier, after cutting its holdings in each of the previous two months, according to a report released by the US Treasury Department last week.For Hong Kong, the worst consequences would be the city losing its status as an international financial hub, as institutions in the city would be unable to obtain US dollars, risking the collapse of Hong Kong's US dollar peg and a drastic depreciation of the Hong Kong currency in the short term, the report said.This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| Russian Activist Yulia Tsvetkova Fights ‘Gay Propaganda’ Legal Battle, as LGBTQ Persecution Increases Posted: 22 Jul 2020 01:44 AM PDT  The cartoon showed two men with two young children, and a lesbian couple holding a baby, a contented cat at their feet. Between the two family units was a rainbow-colored love heart. A caption in Russian read, "Family is where love is. Support LGBT+ families."The Russian LGBTQ activist and feminist Yulia Tsvetkova drew the cartoon and posted it on social media in January after hearing about a same-sex couple who had to flee Russia with their two adopted children after being targeted by the authorities. After sharing other drawings of happy same-sex families on social media, she was charged with violating the notorious Russian "gay propaganda" law. In November, she had already been charged for "distributing pornography" for a series of pictures of stylized vaginas, fined 50,000 rubles (around $700), and placed under house arrest for nearly four months. She was released in March. (The average monthly salary is 39,085 rubles.)LGBT, Terrified for Their Lives in Russia, and Desperate for AsylumDespite no longer being under house arrest, Tsvetkova remains subject to travel restrictions and still faces a trial and up to six years in prison.Tsvetkova also faces a fresh legal drama after sharing new drawings of same-sex families, which she did after the release of a homophobic political commercial promoting Russia's recent constitutional plebiscite, which crudely targeted gay parents.The authorities formally charged Tsvetkova with violating the "gay propaganda" law again, fining her 75,000 rubles ($1,054). Tsvetkova is planning to appeal the fine. Like the first image, the cartoons simply show images of same-sex couples and their kids. The propaganda law, introduced in 2013, bans anything considered "propaganda of non-traditional relationships."Alexey Kuroptev, a lawyer for the LGBTQ advocacy group Moscow Community Center, told The Daily Beast, "Yulia is facing persecution by the Russian state for openly expressing her views on human sexuality and the role of women that fly in the face with those predominant in the Russian society. We are concerned that bans on distribution of pornography and so-called gay propaganda are ever more often used by the Russian state to silence human rights activists and curtail freedom of expression.""In a way, Yulia Tsvetkova's case is symbolic. It shows how the authorities see LGBT activism. With all the attacks on her, they want to scare and to silence others," Svetlana Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian LGBT Network, told The Daily Beast.Tsvetkova, from the city of Komsomolsk-on Amur, which is around 6,000 kilometers east of Moscow, did not return Daily Beast requests for comment.When asked what could be deduced from the authorities' actions, Kuroptev said, "I guess it means that the government is striving to force LGBTQ people out of the public space."Olga Baranova, project director of the Moscow Community Center, told The Daily Beast, "Of course, this is a difficult test for Yulia, but how the community and people outside the community have supported Yulia gives strength not only to Yulia but to all activists. This shows that people do not agree with the way the government behaves in relation to LGBTQ representatives, to feminism, in relation to any self-expression."Kuroptev said the effect of the "gay propaganda" law on culture generally had been quiet and malign. "On the face of it, recent years saw only few cases of gay propaganda cases that made it to court, but on the other hand the law is widely used as a justification for banning any LGBTQ-related public rallies."Apart from being discriminatory in its nature the law on gay propaganda lacks in precision, which means that people cannot foresee the legal consequences their actions may entail, for it is impossible to say what exactly constitutes 'propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations' and thus falls under the law."Kuroptev added, "That has a general chilling effect on public figures and media outlets that tend to think better of speaking in favor of LGBTQ people. Businesses are reluctant to back up the LGBTQ movement, for if held to account they face huge fines. Gay parents keep low profile for fear that the propaganda law may be used as a legal excuse for stripping them of their paternal rights and taking away their children."In its all-encompassing vagueness, the Russian law echoes the infamous Section 28, introduced by Britain's Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher in 1988, which outlawed the "promotion of homosexuality" by local authorities—and which had a similar silencing effect on what could be discussed in schools and what books could be placed on library shelves. (Section 28 was officially repealed in 2003.)"The statistics show that since the adoption of this law in 2013, it has not been widely used," said Zakharova of the Russian law. "In most cases, it is used against LGBT activists. I believe that the main goal behind this law was to make impossible any public discussion on LGBT issues. However, of course this legislation—together with state-sponsored homophobia—triggers violence against LGBT community."A campaign by international advocacy group All Out urging the Russian authorities to drop charges against Tsvetkova and abolish the "propaganda" law has already gathered 130,000 signatures."We will always support our LGBT+ siblings and their allies in Russia until we finally get rid of those laws," said Yuri Guaiana, senior campaigns director of All Out. "Yulia is fighting very bravely against this injustice, and we want to help her by bringing the support of our international membership. Yulia's story epitomizes both the hardship LGBT+ people face in Russia and their extraordinary resilience."Tsvetkova's case highlights the pervasive prejudice endured by LGBTQ Russians in all areas of their lives, with a proposed new law making things even tougher. On July 14, a draft bill was submitted to the State Duma to amend the Family Code of the Russian Federation "with the aim of strengthening the family institution." There were protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Sunday against the proposed legislation, and more than 30 people were detained. Guaiana called the bill a "serious threat" to LGBTQ Russians.The Russian LGBT Network has three main concerns over the proposed bill, beginning with a new box on birth certificates specifying the person's "sex at birth." It would not be possible to change this information during transition. At the same time, the proposed legislation is requiring that people who have already changed their birth certificate amend it with the "old" information. It would not be possible to register a marriage without a birth certificate. Consequently, the Russian LGBT Network says, a person who has transitioned will not be able to marry. Such a marriage would be considered as "same-sex" based on the information in the birth certificate. "We do not yet know how this will affect transgender people who are already married," the Russian LGBT Network said.The proposed bill "basically outlaws legal gender recognition for trans and intersex people in Russia," said Guaiana.A group of conservative parliamentarians had introduced the new anti-trans bill, said Kuroptev. "It is yet unclear if transgender people would still be able to change their documents in line with their preferred gender if the bill were adopted."The draft bill also lays out additional criteria that make it impossible for a same-sex marriage that has been registered abroad to be recognized in Russia. The Russian LGBT Network has called on people internationally "to spread the news about what is happening and share the information about the proposed legislation and its consequences for LGBT+ families in Russia." The organization is also urging the deputies of the State Duma "to hear the civil society and conduct consultations with organizations working with homosexual, bisexual and transgender people.""Being LGBT+ in Russia isn't easy at all," said Guaiana. "On Pride weekend, a group of brave fellow activists organized separate 'one-person protests' in Moscow and St. Petersburg demanding freedom for Yulia. These kinds of protests are perfectly legal in Russia. However, more than 40 people, most of them women, were arrested. LGBT+ people are not allowed to gather at all, let alone celebrating Pride. Last year, Guaiana said, police attacked a Pride event and arrested at least 12 people—three had to be taken away in an ambulance. This year, All Out created a tool to bring people from around the world together virtually for Pride in St. Petersburg.A recent report by the Russian Coming Out LGBT group documented 1,066 cases of discrimination and violence in 2019 in Saint Petersburg alone, said Guaiana. Last year, news broke of an anti-LGBT+ blacklist that called for activists and supporters to be hunted down."The level of intimidation and hate speech against LGBT+ people in Russia is truly shocking," he said."There are few if any laws that concern LGBTQ people directly in today's Russia," Kuroptev said. "But the real problem lies in the fact that there are no effective legal remedies LGBTQ people could resort to when faced with discrimination or violence motivated by homo/transphobia. The list of protections under Russian anti-discrimination law does not list explicitly sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression, while homo/transphobia does not normally constitute an aggravating circumstance. "Violent crimes against LGBTQ people are neither registered nor treated as hate crimes, which makes the general public ignorant of the problems LGBTQ people face in today's Russia." Baranova added that it was not just members of the the LGBTQ community suffering but "all people who think differently from the way the government is comfortable are being persecuted. Representatives of the LGBTQ community are the most vulnerable group because a very aggressive policy is being pursued regarding this group. "In addition to the homophobic laws that have already been adopted, new bills are constantly appearing that, from different angles, more and more infringe on the rights of the LGBTQ people. The new anti-trans bill also seems to prohibit them from adopting children. In Russia, a law has long existed that prohibits the adoption of children by people who have entered into same-sex marriage in any country."The prospect of President Vladimir Putin being in power until 2036 meant even more bleakness for LGBTQ Russians, activists told The Daily Beast. "We expect no positive changes on the part of the Russian government in the foreseeable future. If anything, further restrictions are likely to be imposed," said Kuroptev."I think that it means a lot for all Russian citizens regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. It means that human rights and freedoms are not going to be seen as important in the country," said Zakharova.However, Russian LGBTQ activism continues. "We are now striving to preserve the community and support initiative groups," Baranova told The Daily Beast. "We try to show people that the LGBTQ community is ordinary people, ordinary families, and showing how the authorities act unfairly. Yulia Tsvetkova is one of the brightest examples. "We do not have many tools that we can use, but for now, fortunately, we have the internet where we can publish information. We see the history of the struggle for LGBTQ rights in other countries. In many countries, this has been a difficult path. Russia is now in a difficult political situation as a whole. I am sure that everything will be fine, the only question is when it will be."Baranova urged supporters outside Russia to share the stories of what is happening to LGBTQ people in Russia. "A very important tool of those that are available to us is publicity," she said. "It is important to talk about how the rights of the LGBTQ community in Russia are violated, it is important to talk about the Yulia case. She may go to jail because of the drawings. "I want to say many thanks to everyone who supports Yulia. It is very important. Regardless of the countries where we live, we are all one big LGBTQ community, and it is very important for us to feel this support from different countries."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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