| U.N. Security Council concerned about COVID-19 in Haiti; once again calls for elections Posted: 19 Jun 2020 05:02 PM PDT  The head of the United Nations office in Haiti took her controversial call for constitutional reform in the country before the international community Friday, telling the U.N. Security Council it is increasingly evident it "is required to break the cycle and create the characteristics for the country to thrive."
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| Egypt calls on UN to intervene after impasse in Nile dam talks Posted: 19 Jun 2020 05:02 PM PDT  Egypt appealed on Friday for the United Nations Security Council to intervene in a deepening dispute with Ethiopia over its gigantic Nile dam that Cairo fears would cut its vital water share. The move comes as tensions run high after multiple rounds of talks over the years between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan failed to produce a deal over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Egypt has called on the UN Security Council "to intervene to emphasize the importance that three countries ... continue negotiations in good faith," the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.
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| Brazil tops 1 million cases as coronavirus spreads inland Posted: 19 Jun 2020 04:40 PM PDT  Brazil's government confirmed on Friday that the country has risen above 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases, second only to the United States. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro still downplays the risks of the virus after nearly 50,000 deaths from COVID-19 in three months, saying the impact of social isolation measures on the economy could be worse than the disease itself. Specialists believe the actual number of cases in Brazil could be up to seven times higher than the official statistic.
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| Thousands of protesters call for resignation of Mali president Posted: 19 Jun 2020 03:07 PM PDT  A coalition of opposition groups has gathered in Bamako, calling for political and economic reform.
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| Fighting reportedly erupts in Yemen's UNESCO heritage site Posted: 19 Jun 2020 02:44 PM PDT |
| Trump embraces immigration court fight as election boost Posted: 19 Jun 2020 02:36 PM PDT  The Supreme Court's rejection of one of Donald Trump's key immigration measures reignites a hot-button issue in a presidential campaign already scorched by pandemic, economic collapse and protests over police brutality and racial injustice. The president is betting that he can energize his most loyal supporters by fighting the Supreme Court, which decided on procedural grounds Thursday that he couldn't end legal protections for young immigrants. Trump, who often attempts to shift the nation's focus to immigration when forced to defend himself on other fronts, said Friday he would renew his legal effort.
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| 'Why not a Black woman?' Consensus grows around Biden's VP Posted: 19 Jun 2020 02:35 PM PDT  Joe Biden is facing growing calls to select a Black woman as his running mate as an acknowledgement of their critical role in the Democratic Party and a response to the nationwide protests against racism and inequality. The shifting dynamics were clear late Thursday when Amy Klobuchar took herself out of contention for the vice presidency. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has already pledged to select a woman as his vice president to energize the party's base with the prospect of making history.
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| Europe toughens stance on Iran, US over Tehran nuclear dispute Posted: 19 Jun 2020 02:09 PM PDT  Europe on Friday toughened its stance on Iran and warned the US against sanctions in the latest bid to stop the unravelling of the international agreement on Tehran's nuclear programme. The decision by Germany, France and Britain to back a UN arms embargo extension on Iran follows growing tensions with Tehran since US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the 2015 nuclear accord and introduced new sanctions. The three European signatories to the Iran nuclear deal said they had reservations about lifting the arms embargo, a blow to Tehran which had been calling for an end to the restrictions.
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| UN experts: Gold from Congo going to armed groups, criminals Posted: 19 Jun 2020 01:10 PM PDT |
| UN Human Rights Council condemns abuse in Nicaragua Posted: 19 Jun 2020 12:41 PM PDT  The United Nations Human Rights Council condemned what it called serious human rights violations in Nicaragua and urged President Daniel Ortega to cease such tactics Friday. The council approved the resolution with a vote of 24 to 4 with 19 abstentions at its seat in Geneva, Switzerland. The resolution said the council "expresses grave concern at the continuing reports of serious human rights violations and abuses since April 2018, and the persisting disproportionate use of force by the police to repress social protests, and acts of violence by armed groups, as well as reports of ongoing unlawful arrests and arbitrary detentions, harassment, and torture and sexual and gender-based violence in detention."
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| Belarus arrests journalists and protesters as president says he has foiled 'foreign plot' Posted: 19 Jun 2020 12:38 PM PDT  Police in Belarus arrested demonstrators and journalists on Friday evening to break up new protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, hours after he blamed foreign plotters for fomenting unrest. For the second evening in a row, protesters had formed a long line through the centre of the capital Minsk in solidarity after the jailing of Viktor Babariko, Mr Lukashenko's main rival in August's presidential election. Protests also broke out in several other towns across the eastern European country. Mr Lukashenko has ruled with an iron fist for 26 years, but faces his biggest challenge in years as frustration over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic has combined with grievances over the economy and human rights. Relations with traditional ally Russia have been strained in recent months as Moscow reduced subsidies that have propped up Mr Lukashenko. But his crackdown on opponents will likely hobble his efforts to mend fences with the West. The European Union called for the release of Mr Babariko, widely seen as the most potent challenger to Mr Lukashenko. As criticism of Mr Babariko's arrest grew, Mr Lukashenko said his government had foiled a plot to foment a revolution akin to the street protests in Ukraine in 2014. He said political forces from "both from the West and from the East" had concentrated their interests in Belarus, and that "certain forces" had intensified their efforts. He did not give details or say which foreign country was involved. "That was the goal. The masks were torn not only from certain puppets we had here, but also from puppeteers who sit outside Belarus," he said. Mr Babariko was head Belgazprombank, of the local unit of Russia's Gazprombank, before running for president. A top security official said Mr Babariko was controlled by Russian "puppeteers" and Mr Lukashenko said the bank's money was being used to finance Mr Babariko's campaign. Mr Babariko's campaign team called the allegations against him "an absurdity". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had no plans to intervene. Separately President Vladimir Putin and Mr Lukashenko spoke by phone but the Kremlin readout did not mention Mr Babariko's arrest. Mr Lukashenko's allegations of a foreign plot came after authorities opened a criminal case against Belgazprombank. On Friday, Mr Lukashenko said the International Monetary Fund was demanding Belarus impose lockdown measures as a condition for loans, but Minsk would not cave in to the demand.
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| U.S. finds alternative partners to WHO, except for polio - U.S. official Posted: 19 Jun 2020 12:34 PM PDT |
| NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week Posted: 19 Jun 2020 12:33 PM PDT  CLAIM: NASCAR, which recently banned the Confederate flag at its events, is now forcing its drivers to engage in Muslim prayer. THE FACTS: NASCAR is not forcing drivers to engage in Muslim prayer. "So NASCAR bans the confederate flag but FORCES all their drivers to do Muslim prayer?" it read.
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| In This Coronavirus Wave, China Tries Something New: Restraint Posted: 19 Jun 2020 12:12 PM PDT  At an apartment complex in southern Beijing that is under lockdown, residents could not leave their homes in a gated cluster of low-rise brick buildings. Uniformed security guards and medical workers in protective gear watched the gate.Around the corner in the Baizhifang neighborhood lay a different world. Shops were open. A supermarket was doing a brisk business. Residents came and went and seemed unfazed by a new coronavirus outbreak."It should not be as serious as last time," said Johnny Zhao, a resident who wore a white face mask as he walked toward the supermarket. "The government is very experienced now."As China tries to stifle the new outbreak in its capital city, it is applying something often alien to the instincts of the country's rulers: restraint.The brunt of the government's measures has been borne by food traders at markets that were sealed off after cases were found, and by the residents of more than four dozen apartment complexes placed under lockdown. But in many other Beijing neighborhoods, the shops, restaurants and even hair salons are still operating. Traffic is a little lighter than usual, but plenty of cars are still on the road. City sidewalks remain busy.Beijing's leaders are trying to stamp out the latest outbreak, now at 183 infections after 25 more were announced Friday morning. But they are not crushing the entire city, and its nascent economic revival, with heavy-handed restrictions.The approach contrasts with China's earlier efforts to contain the virus in the central province of Hubei and its capital city, Wuhan, where the epidemic broke out late last year. For over two months, the city of 11 million was under a tight lockdown that required support from tens of thousands of doctors, party officials and security personnel. The lockdown helped control the outbreak but also stalled the economy.If successful, the new approach being taken in Beijing could be a bellwether for how China may handle future outbreaks, which many experts say are almost certain."You cannot expect people to accept the pain for too long," said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations who has closely followed China's response to the coronavirus pandemic. "Because then you have unemployment problems and even emotional stresses that could all have huge implications for social and political stability."It's a dilemma that Chen Tao, a 34-year-old vegetable farmer in Beijing, knows too well. His business selling produce at the vast Xinfadi wholesale food market in the city's southwest came to an abrupt halt a week ago when the government sealed off the site at the center of the new outbreak.Earlier this week, he loaded chrysanthemum greens onto a motorized cart and parked it across the street from the market, which was sealed off by heavy steel crowd-control barriers at least 7 feet tall. He waited, but with authorities warning the public that the entire area was risky, practically no shoppers showed up."What can be done; what can I do?" he asked. "The vegetables have been growing in the field for a month, and I can't let them rot in the field."China's top leader, Xi Jinping, has not publicly discussed Beijing's outbreak. But he had called repeatedly this spring for a "people's war," or all-out mobilization, to stamp out the coronavirus.There are still traits of that in Beijing's latest effort. School has been canceled across the city, frustrating senior high school students preparing for make-or-break university entrance exams next month. At least half the flights out of the city and essentially all of the buses to other provinces have been canceled. Fewer people are taking city buses and the subway.City officials say their cautious approach is bearing fruit: The number of new cases per day is already dropping. Officials in Beijing appear increasingly confident that they have caught the outbreak before it could spin out of control through untraceable infections.Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday that the city had contained the outbreak. But he said that the government was still actively investigating shuttered meat and seafood markets to trace the path of the virus and urged that officials and the public stay vigilant.Key to the government's containment strategy is aggressive testing and contact tracing. The government set up testing stations at hospitals, park entrances, stadiums and community centers, taking and processing swabs from 1.1 million people in less than a week.Authorities required supermarket workers, restaurant employees and health care workers to be tested, as well as all neighbors of the 183 confirmed cases. Anyone going within blocks of the shuttered Xinfadi market receives an automated cellphone text message urging an immediate test.At Tiantan Stadium in southern Beijing, an orderly stream of people arrived from all directions. They were met by teams of volunteers and health workers. Li Donghai, a 43-year-old home health care worker, said his employer had sent him there to get tested Thursday.Li said as he emerged from the stadium that he had made an appointment on his cellphone but still had to wait half an hour in line when he arrived. Everyone in the line was required to stay 1 meter apart, he said. Workers took a sample from his throat, he said, a procedure that took mere seconds, and he expected to get the results later by phone."I think the outbreak will end quickly because many people like me are getting tested," he said.The government has also dismissed two local officials and the general manager of the Xinfadi market, accusing them of acting too slowly and sloppily against the outbreak. Yet officials are also being told to restart economic activity -- a potentially incompatible goal."That sends a signal to local officials," said Huang, of the Council on Foreign Relations. "Even if you were told to accelerate the reopening, still the top priority is keeping the number at zero, and that can be mission impossible."In fighting epidemics, Chinese people have often accepted the government-imposed controls and monitoring that many in Western countries might resist. Still, the Chinese government, even with its fearsome array of authoritarian powers, may feel pressure to calibrate its response to outbreaks or risk exhausting public cooperation and stifling economic growth."With a war, you can fight it once and people go all out for it. But the second, third and fourth time, it drains people out, and its traction diminishes over time," said Lynette Ong, a political scientist at the University of Toronto who studies China. "That is very much the risk. For subsequent waves, it has to be a more inclusive approach. It has already drained people."Such an approach might explain how residents in the Anhuali neighborhood in northern Beijing, on the other side of the city from the outbreak at the Xinfadi markets, said it was hard to tell that there was a coronavirus outbreak in the city at all."We are not worried, no one in our neighborhood is worried or scared, because it is in Xinfadi," said Mu Xicheng, a retired construction worker. "We all wear masks because the government asks us to wear them -- it's good for us and also good for our country."Bin Wei, a middle-aged computer programmer, said that public reactions had been shaped by previous outbreaks of disease like SARS in 2003, which also hit Beijing hard, and the first wave of the coronavirus in January and February."We have experienced SARS and we also experienced the early outbreak," he said. "This time, it's OK."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| What Supreme Court? Trump's HHS pushes LGBT health rollback Posted: 19 Jun 2020 12:11 PM PDT  The Trump administration Friday moved forward with a rule that rolls back health care protections for transgender people, even as the Supreme Court barred sex discrimination against LGBT individuals on the job. It also signals to religious and social conservatives in President Donald Trump's political base that the administration remains committed to their causes as the president pursues his reelection. The Trump administration rule would overturn Obama-era sex discrimination protections for transgender people in health care.
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| Poland accuses Putin of re-writing history over WWII surrender jibe Posted: 19 Jun 2020 12:09 PM PDT  Poland has accused Vladimir Putin of manipulating history after he wrote an article claiming the pre-war Polish government threw "its own people under Hitler's machine of destruction". The article comes out just a week before Mr Putin is to host the annual Victory Day parade previously cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak, and ahead of a nationwide vote that could allow him to stay in power until 2036. Mr Putin has used the Soviet Union's decisive contribution to defeating Nazi Germany in 1945 as an argument to justify Russia's special place in the world. Dwelling on the events of 1939 Mr Putin writes that Poland only has itself to blame for the Nazi invasion of September. "The blame for the tragedy that Poland then suffered lies entirely with the Polish leadership, which had impeded the formation of a military alliance between Britain, France and the Soviet Union and relied on the help from its Western partners, throwing its own people under the steamroller of Hitler's machine of destruction," he states. Later, he says Red Army units were sent into "the so-called Eastern Borderlines" instead of writing that the Soviet Union invaded Poland under the terms of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Poland reacted furiously. Stanislaw Zaryn, director of the National Security Department of the Polish prime minister's office, said: "It is not the first time the Russian president has manipulated history with the goal to present a false picture of WWII. "Russia's continued 'memory war' aims to whitewash the disgraceful Soviet past, erase from collective memory the fact that during the war Stalin and Hitler colluded with each other, and underpin the myth of the Soviet Union as a sole conqueror of Nazi Germany." While Russian authorities in the 1990s publicly condemned and apologised for multiple crimes committed by the Soviet regime, the Kremlin in recent years has sought to defend its wartime record, arguing among other things that a 1939 non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, carving up Europe into spheres of influence, was a necessary evil.
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| Trump turns virus conversation into 'US vs. THEM' debate Posted: 19 Jun 2020 11:53 AM PDT  President Donald Trump's push to resume big rallies despite concern he's putting the public's health at risk is part of a broader reelection campaign effort to turn the national debate about the coronavirus into a political fight that he frames as "US vs. THEM." Trump went so far as to complain in a Wall Street Journal interview this week that some Americans wore facial coverings not as a preventive measure but as a way to signal disapproval of him. The president appears to be calculating that he can ignite resentment toward "the other" and inspire his base to turn out for him in November, said Christopher Borick, director of the nonpartisan Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.
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| AP Interview: Ethiopia to fill disputed dam, deal or no deal Posted: 19 Jun 2020 11:40 AM PDT  It's a clash over water usage that Egypt calls an existential threat and Ethiopia calls a lifeline for millions out of poverty. Just weeks remain before the filling of Africa's most powerful hydroelectric dam might begin, and tense talks between the countries on its operation have yet to reach a deal. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew on Friday declared that his country will go ahead and start filling the $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam next month, even without an agreement.
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| Navy upholds firing of carrier captain in virus outbreak Posted: 19 Jun 2020 11:24 AM PDT  The two senior commanders on a coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier didn't "do enough, soon enough," to stem the outbreak, the top U.S. Navy officer said Friday, a stunning reversal that upheld the firing of the ship's captain who had pleaded for faster action to protect the crew. Capt. Brett E. Crozier and Rear Adm. Stuart Baker, commander of the carrier strike group, made serious errors in judgment as they tried to work through an outbreak that sidelined the USS Theodore Roosevelt in Guam for 10 weeks, said Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations. The Crozier decision was a surprise since Gilday had recommended that the captain be restored to his command less than two months ago after an initial inquiry.
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| COVID-19 is ravaging America's vulnerable Latino communities Posted: 19 Jun 2020 11:01 AM PDT  A Hispanic immigrant working at a fast-food restaurant in North Carolina is rushed to the hospital after she contracts COVID-19. A sickened Honduran woman in Baltimore with no health insurance or immigration status avoids the doctor for two weeks and finally takes a cab to the hospital and ends up on oxygen. The virus has amplified inequalities many Latinos endure, including jobs that expose them to others, tight living conditions, lack of health insurance, mistrust of the medical system and a greater incidence of preexisting health conditions like diabetes.
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| Poland says Putin falsifies history to weaken Western allies Posted: 19 Jun 2020 10:49 AM PDT  The Polish government says that Russian President Vladimir Putin is manipulating World War II-era history in a way that whitewashes Soviet crimes and accuses him of doing it as part of an "information war" against the West. The statement Friday from the government in Warsaw came a day after Putin in a lengthy article in a U.S. journal insisted on recognizing the Soviet Union as the prime defeater of Nazi Germany and suggested that Poland — a nation that was carved up by the German and Soviet forces and which lost 6 million citizens — bears some blame for the start of World War II.
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| UN: China's latest virus outbreak likely came from Europe Posted: 19 Jun 2020 10:24 AM PDT  The emergencies chief of the World Health Organization confirmed Friday that the U.N. agency received genetic sequences from China involving Beijing's recent coronavirus outbreak and said it appears the virus was exported from Europe. At a press briefing on Friday, Dr. Michael Ryan noted that "strains and viruses have moved around the world" throughout the virus pandemic and said the fact that a virus from Europe sparked China's latest outbreak did not mean the virus originated there.
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| Coronavirus in Tanzania: What do we know? Posted: 19 Jun 2020 10:23 AM PDT  President Magufuli says cases are falling, but the government hasn't released new official figures. What do we know?
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| Amid protests for racial justice, Juneteenth gets new renown Posted: 19 Jun 2020 09:50 AM PDT  Protesters marched over the Brooklyn Bridge, chanted "We want justice now!" near St. Louis' Gateway Arch, prayed in Atlanta and paused for a moment of silence at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, as Americans marked Juneteenth Friday with new urgency amid protests to demand racial justice. The holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, is usually celebrated with parades and festivals but became a day of protest this year in the wake of nationwide demonstrations set off by George Floyd's killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis. In addition to the traditional cookouts and readings of the Emancipation Proclamation — the Civil War-era order that declared all slaves free in Confederate territory — Americans of all backgrounds were marching, holding sit-ins or car caravan protests.
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| Iranian judge facing charges in Germany found dead in Romania Posted: 19 Jun 2020 09:47 AM PDT  An exiled Iranian judge who was facing arrest in Germany over the alleged abuse and torture of journalists was found dead in Romania on Friday after he apparently fell from his hotel room window. The body of Gholamreza Mansouri, 52, was found lying outside the hotel in Bucharest where he was reportedly under police supervision. In addition to facing charges in Germany, the judge was also the subject of an extradition request by Iran which had accused him of taking bribes worth half a million pounds. Mansouri had been living in Romania in mid-June when Reporters Without Borders, the impartial journalism charity, announced they were seeking his prosecution for human rights abuses in Iran. It is unclear if he has ever lived in Germany. The charity said that Mansouri, a regime loyalist who before leaving Iran was a judge at the court which deals with the media, had once jailed 20 journalists in a single day, in 2013. Mansouri left Iran after he was accused of taking the bribes but had reportedly expressed an intention to eventually return to Iran and face the charges. He had been due to appear in court in Romania on July 10, when the decision regarding the Iranian request for extradition was due to be announced. Some exiled Iranian activists and human rights groups had called for Mansouri to stand trial in Romania instead of returning to Iran. At the same, pro-democracy campaigners were eager for the judge to stand trial in Germany over the abuse of journalists. "It was established that the man was a 52-year-old foreign citizen under judicial control for crimes committed in another country," a Romanian police spokesman said. It remains unclear whether the judge had died by suicide or had been pushed from his balcony. The body was discovered by another guest at the hotel, police said. Romanian police also confirmed that they had launched an investigation into Mansouri's death.
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| Untangling the ocean trash glut, one ‘ghost net’ at a time Posted: 19 Jun 2020 09:47 AM PDT  The United Nations has warned that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea. One woman has made it her mission to reverse that trend.
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| Officer involved in Breonna Taylor shooting to be fired Posted: 19 Jun 2020 09:22 AM PDT  Louisville's mayor said Friday that one of three police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor will be fired. Mayor Greg Fischer said interim Louisville police Chief Robert Schroeder has started termination proceedings for Officer Brett Hankison. Two other officers remain on administrative reassignment while the shooting is investigated.
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| Poland's fury over Vladimir Putin's World War II jibe Posted: 19 Jun 2020 09:19 AM PDT  Poland has accused Vladimir Putin of manipulating history after he wrote an article claiming the pre-war Polish government threw "its own people under Hitler's machine of destruction". The article comes out just a week before Mr Putin is to host the annual Victory Day parade previously cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak, and ahead of a nationwide vote that could allow him to stay in power until 2036. Mr Putin has used the Soviet Union's decisive contribution to defeating Nazi Germany in 1945 as an argument to justify Russia's special place in the world. Dwelling on the events of 1939 Mr Putin writes that Poland only has itself to blame for the Nazi invasion of September. "The blame for the tragedy that Poland then suffered lies entirely with the Polish leadership, which had impeded the formation of a military alliance between Britain, France and the Soviet Union and relied on the help from its Western partners, throwing its own people under the steamroller of Hitler's machine of destruction," he states. Later, he says Red Army units were sent into "the so-called Eastern Borderlines" instead of writing that the Soviet Union invaded Poland under the terms of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Poland reacted furiously, Stanislaw Zaryn, director of the National Security Department of the Polish prime minister's office, said "It is not the first time the Russian president has manipulated history with the goal to present a false picture of WWII. Russia's continued 'memory war' aims to whitewash the disgraceful Soviet past, erase from collective memory the fact that during the war Stalin and Hitler colluded with each other, and underpin the myth of the Soviet Union as a sole conqueror of Nazi Germany." While Russian authorities in the 1990s publicly condemned and apologised for multiple crimes committed by the Soviet regime, the Kremlin in recent years sought to defend its wartime record, arguing among other things that a 1939 non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, carving up Europe into spheres of influence was a necessary evil.
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| Europe scrambles to save Iran nuclear deal as Trump insists key part of accord is scrapped Posted: 19 Jun 2020 09:17 AM PDT  Western European diplomats are working on how to save the Iran nuclear accord in a day of important developments on the issue which saw Tehran censured by the UN nuclear watchdog, and the US reiterate its demand that a key part of the deal is scrapped.Foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany - three signatory states to the agreement - met in Berlin to formulate a strategy for the next crucial months with Iran and its nuclear programme under focus.
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| Canada's loss of UN Security Council seat a blow to Trudeau Posted: 19 Jun 2020 09:15 AM PDT  Justin Trudeau arrived on the world stage with rock star popularity in 2015. It was Canada's second consecutive defeat in a bid for a seat and an especially big blow to Trudeau. Trudeau blamed the loss on Canada's late start in campaigning for the seats.
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| Iranian ex-judge dies in Romania, falls from hotel window Posted: 19 Jun 2020 08:49 AM PDT  A former Iranian judge sought by his country to face corruption charges died Friday after a fall in a hotel in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, the head of the Iranian police's international department said. The confirmation of Gholamreza Mansouri's death came from Romanian police, said Iran's Interpol chief Gen. Hadi Shirzad, who was quoted by Iran's semi-official INSA news agency. Shirzad said Romanian authorities told Iran that the 66-year-old Mansouri "had thrown himself out of the window of his hotel in Bucharest."
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| Sophie Wessex Warns U.N. That Coronavirus Has Likely 'Amplified' Cases of Sexual Violence Posted: 19 Jun 2020 08:37 AM PDT  Sophie, Countess of Wessex spoke at a virtual United Nations event commemorating the sixth International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict
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| Exclusive: John Bolton Tells How Iran Hawks Set Up Trump’s Syrian Kurdish Disaster Posted: 19 Jun 2020 08:12 AM PDT  Turkey was a "potential lifeline." The "big picture was stopping Iran."
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| Putin calls disastrous Arctic fuel spill unprecedented for Russia Posted: 19 Jun 2020 08:04 AM PDT  Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has called ongoing efforts to clean up a giant fuel spill in the Arctic unprecedented for Russia, while officials say it will take the local river system a decade to recover. Some 20,000 metric tonnes of diesel fuel spilled into the river system from a tank at a power plant near the city of Norilsk on 29 May in the environmental catastrophe comparable only to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 when 37,000 tonnes of oil leaked off the coast of Alaska. Thawing permafrost beneath the fuel tank is believed to have caused the spill that turned the local river crimson. "Russia has not had experience of cleaning up such large spills into bodies of water before," President Putin said on Friday in a video conference with emergency officials and the owner of the power plant. The power plant's director has been taken into custody and charged with causing environmental damage but questions are being asked about why it took several days before local officials mounted a proper response to react to what has been described as the Arctic's worst environmental disaster. Diesel fuel has contaminated the local river and reached a large lake that serves as the basin for another river flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The Russian leader, who earlier this month called a state of emergency in the area, on Friday praised clean-up workers for containing the spread of the fuel but he conceded that "the consequences for the environment and biodiversity are severe." The head of Russia's state fisheries agency told Mr Putin that it would take at least ten years for the local water system to fully restore its biodiversity. Vladimir Chuprov, a project director at Greenpeace Russia, on Friday estimated the environmental damage to the waters at about 100 billion rubles (£1.1 billion), saying that it could have been much lower if local authorities had responded sooner.
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| Double air miles, a free stay in Sicily and $10 nights on the Las Vegas Strip? Welcome to summer 2020. Posted: 19 Jun 2020 07:56 AM PDT  From free flights to free nights, the tourism industry is pulling out all the stops this summer to get international customers back onto planes and into hotels after the coronavirus pandemic pulverized the travel sector and threatens to push some tourism-centric countries into their deepest-ever recessions. Thanks to worldwide lockdowns, international tourism plunged by 22 percent in the first quarter, and it could decline by up to 80 percent in 2020, according to the U.N. World Tourism Organization. The International Air Transport Association said demand for air travel sank by 95 percent.
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| Will the Brits Ever Trust Boris Johnson Again? Posted: 19 Jun 2020 07:48 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Boris Johnson clearly wants to draw a line under the fiascoes of Britain's handling of the pandemic and return to the "boosterism" for which he is best known. And as is often the case, his instinct is right. Doing so will be crucial to putting the economy firmly on a path to recovery.The U.K. downgraded its coronavirus alert level on Friday, signaling that more lockdown restrictions can be lifted, but Johnson won't be able to turn the page just like that. More than half the British population thinks the government is handling the crisis poorly or fairly poorly, according to a Kantar survey published this week. A string of errors, U-turns, corrections and confusions in the government's virus response have dented the almost unassailable levels of public confidence that followed Johnson's election victory in December. Most people understand that the coronavirus is a once in a century shock that no government was fully prepared for. But rather than learn from how other countries had responded to Covid-19 as it spread from Wuhan in China, Britain turned into an epicenter for the outbreak, becoming the worst-hit country in Europe and one of the worst globally, by defiantly striking a path of its own.The list of missteps is long and sobering, starting with the original embrace of a laissez-faire approach to the virus (called herd immunity). A decision not to widely implement testing meant more than 25,000 hospital patients were discharged to care homes for the elderly, where the virus proved deadly. Shortages of personal protective equipment and outdated guidance on how much should be worn contributed to the deaths of nearly 200 frontline health- and social-care workers. A dismissive view of wearing face masks may have compounded matters, just as other countries were concluding they would help control transmission.These policies ran directly counter to what countries with more successful responses were doing. All were eventually reversed, but not before they contributed to the exorbitant costs of the crisis for the U.K. On Thursday came another U-turn: The government canned its "world-beating" contact-tracing app, and said it is now turning to the one developed by Google and Apple Inc. Only now the app won't be ready before winter and is no longer a priority.This obsession with British exceptionalism, as some have noted, has proved a costly hubris. The U.K. economy shrunk by the most ever in April. Jobless claims surged to almost 3 million during lockdown, and that's despite a government furlough program that's supporting nearly 9 million jobs. Britain's level of public debt has just risen above 100% of gross domestic product for the first time since 1963. Public confidence in the economy hit its lowest level since measurement began in August 2011, the Kantar survey showed.One of the great lessons of the 2008 financial crisis was how deeply and enduringly public trust could be destroyed. By 2012, the OECD reported that only four in 10 people in advanced economies had confidence in their government. That made it hard to win public acceptance of necessary reforms. Trust can be difficult to measure, but it matters a great deal in encouraging consumption and investment.The U.K.'s economy is largely consumption driven, with services accounting for more than 80% of gross domestic product. The question is how much that declining trust will translate into suppressed demand. While Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has won high marks for responding to the economic crisis with the generous furlough scheme and other measures, it's clear government spending cannot remain at this level indefinitely. Britain's high death toll means that there is little public tolerance for a second wave of infections. But nor will a second lockdown be readily accepted, given the collateral damage it has caused from compromised non-Covid medical care to long-term damage to children out of school and a rise in mental health problems. Johnson desperately needs an economic recovery, but first he needs to put in place all the tools necessary to keeping Covid-19 in check.The past three months have shown that the countries that moved early to control the virus, supported incomes and jobs during the lockdown phase and used widespread testing to keep close tabs on transmission, have done better in both public health and economic terms. The U.K. has done only one of those three things well — income support. As both former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Conservative leader and foreign secretary William Hague have argued, wide-scale testing remains the best way forward. Going into the crisis, Johnson was riding high, both within his party and the public. He had won a decisive electoral victory, clinched an exit deal with the European Union and ended Britain's tortured debate over Brexit. He still enjoys a large parliamentary majority, a lead over Labour in the polls and a long stretch before he has to face another election. So there's perhaps time to get things right. But trust is not easy to rebuild, and Britain can't somehow skip the stages of virus control and move straight into a robust economic recovery. A large part of the country effectively shut down well before Johnson finally told people to stay at home on March 23. They will return at scale not when the government says it's safe, but when they believe it to be.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.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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| Trump crowd grows, clashes with protesters ahead of rally Posted: 19 Jun 2020 07:45 AM PDT  A gathering of supporters of President Donald Trump grew larger Friday and occasionally clashed with opponents of the president outside a 19,000-seat arena in the city's downtown where he plans to speak this weekend. Trump's scheduled rally Saturday night in a city with a long history of racial tension will be held just blocks from the site of one of the worst racial massacres in U.S. history and comes as the number of coronavirus cases in the state and the city have spiked in recent days. The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request to require everyone attending Trump's rally to wear a face mask and maintain social distancing inside the arena to guard against the spread of the coronavirus.
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| America's F-22 Raptor Vs. Iran's F-14 Tomcat: Who Comes Out On Top? Posted: 19 Jun 2020 07:45 AM PDT  Of course, that's just in the case that Iran's leaders are foolish enough to take the United States head on.
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| Tribes turn to musicians to raise kids' awareness of COVID Posted: 19 Jun 2020 07:07 AM PDT  To shield their vulnerable elders from the coronavirus pandemic, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are enlisting musicians to tell tribal youth to wash their hands and wear masks. The song by 25-year-old KiidTruth — also known as Artie Mendoza III — garnered more than 1,500 views on YouTube in the four days after it was posted. The music campaign "is an excellent way to reach younger people," said 15-year-old Alishon Kelly, who lives on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana.
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| AP-NORC poll: Many in US say protest impact will be positive Posted: 19 Jun 2020 07:02 AM PDT  Ahead of the Juneteenth holiday weekend's demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality, more than 4 in 10 Americans say they expect recent protests around the country will bring positive change. Despite headline-making standoffs between law enforcement and protesters in cities nationwide, the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds a majority of Americans think law enforcement officers have generally responded to the protests appropriately. The findings follow weeks of peaceful protests and unrest in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died pleading for air on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes. A dramatic change in public opinion on race and policing has followed, with more Americans today than five years ago calling police violence a very serious problem that unequally targets Black Americans.
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| U.N. sets inquiry into racism after George Floyd death Posted: 19 Jun 2020 06:55 AM PDT |
| Favourite to succeed Merkel blames new coronavirus outbreak on migrant workers Posted: 19 Jun 2020 06:53 AM PDT  The favourite to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor has come under fire after he appeared to blame migrant workers from Romania and Bulgaria for a new coronavirus outbreak. There is growing concern in Germany over the outbreak among workers at a pig slaughterhouse, which has fuelled the largest daily increase in new infections the country has experienced in almost a month, with 770 cases recorded on Thursday alone. But Armin Laschet, currently regional prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, dismissed concerns the outbreak had been caused by his decision to lift the lockdown in the state. "It's got nothing to do with it. Romanians and Bulgarians entered the country and the virus has come from there," Mr Laschet told reporters on Thursday. After his remarks were seized on by political rivals, including the foreign minister, Heiko Maas, who called them "extremely dangerous", Mr Laschet hastily backtracked. "It is forbidden to blame people of any origin for the virus. I want to make clear that this goes without saying for me and for the entire state government," Mr Laschet said. The outbreak at the Tönnies slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrück has so far been successfully contained. The German military has been drafted in to set up a testing centre, some 7,000 staff have been place under quarantine and the production has been shut down. Altogether, there have been 730 cases confirmed at the slaughterhouse, and it is believed to account for more than 300 of the 770 new infections recorded on Thursday alone.
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| Angela Merkel warns coronavirus will trigger worst recession since World War Two Posted: 19 Jun 2020 06:45 AM PDT  Angela Merkel warned EU leaders that Europe faced the worst recession since the Second World War during summit talks about the coronavirus crisis on Friday. The German Chancellor said the EU needed to agree a recovery plan to kickstart the economy before the end of the summer at the European Council meeting, which was held online because of the pandemic. The heads of state and government of the 27 EU member states discussed a European Commission proposal for a €750 billion rescue fund and a boosted €1.1 trillion EU budget for the next seven years. Christine Lagarde, the head of the European Central Bank told leaders the EU's economy was in "a dramatic fall" but, beset by divisions, the heads of state and government made no progress in agreeing a massive stimulus plan. "Very, very difficult times" were ahead, Mrs Merkel said before calling for another EU summit where leaders would meet in person as soon as possible. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said the next summit would be held in mid-July. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said a deal had to be struck before the end of July because of the pressure of the Brexit trade negotiations, which will be entering their endgame. The rescue plan is controversial because it involves common borrowing from the market, which is unprecedented on such a huge scale, higher national contributions to the budget and new EU tax-raising powers for the commission. The proposal, which requires unanimous support, is opposed by the "frugal four" of Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. It is backed by France, Germany and "club med" countries such as Italy and Spain, who were worst hit by the pandemic. Mark Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, said, "There are still huge difference of opinion. The atmospherics were great in the meeting but the differences in point of view were very great." He added there was no reason for hurry and that "no big damage" would be caused if the July summit was a failure. Sebastian Kurz, Austria's chancellor, said that the plan should not create a "debt union" before the summit. He and the other frugals want the funds to be paid out as loans which must be repaid rather than grants. Mr Macron said that out of €750 bn , preserving the €500 bn euros in grants was France's top priority. Mr Kurz said that the recovery funds should only be paid out if they bring about reforms. "Do they make us more competitive?," he asked, "Or will it be blown off by being spent on ideas like a universal basic income or travel vouchers?"
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| Trump says he will renew effort to end DACA protections Posted: 19 Jun 2020 06:44 AM PDT  President Donald Trump said Friday he will renew his effort to end legal protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the United States as children. Trump denounced a Supreme Court ruling that the administration improperly ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2017. Splitting with Trump and judicial conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the four liberal justices in the 5-4 vote Thursday.
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| Hungry neighbors cook together as virus roils Latin America Posted: 19 Jun 2020 06:04 AM PDT  An hour later, Arango, 43, is using a shovel to stir 30 gallons of sweet oatmeal in a stainless-steel pot over a fire of wood scraps alongside a cinder-block community center in the hills overlooking Peru's capital. Often operating with help from the Catholic Church and private charities, soup kitchens and community pots have become a symbol of the conundrum facing a region where most of the working population labors outside the formal economy. Economic shutdowns have forced poor Peruvians, Argentines and tens of millions of others to fall back on community-based efforts unseen in large numbers since crises like Peru's 1990s civil war or Argentina's financial crash two decades ago.
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| Queen to honour Ghana's fundraising WW2 veteran Pte Joseph Hammond Posted: 19 Jun 2020 05:45 AM PDT  Private Joseph Hammond, 95, walked two miles a day for a week to raise funds to buy Covid-19 PPE.
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| Britain, EU need Brexit agreement in the autumn - Merkel Posted: 19 Jun 2020 05:30 AM PDT |
| UN rights body to report on racism after Floyd killing Posted: 19 Jun 2020 05:23 AM PDT  The U.N.'s top human rights body agreed unanimously Friday to commission a U.N. report on systemic racism and discrimination against black people while stopping short of ordering a more intensive investigation singling out the United States after the death of George Floyd sparked worldwide demonstrations. The Human Rights Council approved a consensus resolution following days of grappling over language after African nations backed away from their initial push for a commission of inquiry, the council's most intrusive form of scrutiny, focusing more on the U.S. Instead, the resolution calls for a simple and more generic report to be written by the U.N. human rights chief's office and outside experts.
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| Coronavirus Fears in China Find a New Target: Salmon Posted: 19 Jun 2020 05:17 AM PDT  When a new coronavirus outbreak emerged last week in Beijing, residents were jolted by reports that traces of the virus had been found on a cutting board used for imported salmon, and the backlash was swift.Within a few days, salmon was removed from major supermarket shelves in Beijing, reserves of the fish were dumped and bulk orders evaporated. Diners rushed to cancel reservations at Japanese restaurants in the capital, while salmon suppliers around the world scrambled to salvage the tarnished reputation of their prized product in the country. Chinese officials later said that imported salmon was not responsible for spreading the virus, but the damage had already been done."The unluckiest restaurateur of 2020," said Alan Wong, owner of Hatsune, a chain of Japanese restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai. "That's my title.""We were packed on Friday and now dead ever since," he said. "Totally empty."In a country where fears of the virus remain strong and nationalism is on the rise, imported salmon has found itself an easy target.Facing global criticism for its initial mishandling of the virus, Chinese authorities have for months waged a propaganda campaign to highlight their successes in taming the virus and deflect blame for the pandemic to outsiders. They have cast foreigners as public health risks, sowed doubt about the origins of the virus and even pushed an unfounded conspiracy theory that the U.S. military had deliberately brought the virus to China.After the chairman of the wholesale market linked to the latest outbreak told a Beijing News reporter that the virus had been found on a cutting board used for salmon, panic ensued. On Saturday, Zeng Guang, a senior epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted in the Global Times, a party-controlled nationalist newspaper, urging the public to temporarily stay away from raw salmon.For years, China's growing appetite for salmon, like American lobsters, oysters and cherries, had been celebrated as a sign of the country's rising living standards and burgeoning middle class. Now, the luxury good, which is mostly imported from Norway and Chile, is being cast out.On Thursday, Chinese health officials said that the seafood and meat sections of the Beijing wholesale food market linked to the outbreak had been found to be seriously contaminated with the virus, and that low temperatures and high humidity there may have contributed to the spread.For the many salmon suppliers and restaurateurs who were already struggling to claw their way back in the aftermath of the pandemic, the sudden boycott in China has dealt an unexpected blow.Like many other restaurant owners in China, Wong of Hatsune was forced to close several of his 15 restaurants after the epidemic exploded in the country in late January. The remaining restaurants were beginning to return to pre-pandemic levels of business earlier this month. Then reports began circulating last Friday about the contaminated cutting board, and the customers stopped coming.Halfway around the world, the reports also delivered a seismic shock. Regin Jacobsen, chief executive of Bakkafrost, a salmon farming company based in the Faeroe Islands, said that calls from China to cancel orders began coming in over the weekend and soon they "practically went from 100% down to zero."Over the last decade, Jacobsen said, the market for salmon in China had grown with the increase in Japanese restaurants and the expansion of a Chinese middle class interested in reaping salmon's health benefits. Up to 20% of Bakkafrost's fresh salmon exports, he said, went to China every year.After seeing the mounting cancellations, Bakkafrost rushed to respond, putting out a statement emphasizing that there had been no new cases of the coronavirus in the Faeroe Islands since April and that the company's employees had been regularly tested for the coronavirus.Anders Snellingen, manager of global operations for the Norwegian Seafood Council, an industry group, said that Norway's seafood companies had also seen a rapid uptick in cancellations for salmon orders from China over the weekend and that several shipments of salmon had been destroyed or returned. On Thursday, the council said Norway's salmon exports to China had fallen by a third last week."We hope this can be resolved quickly," Snellingen said. "In the very short term we see there might be logistical challenges to getting seafood in via Beijing."It is not the first time that Norwegian salmon has been made collateral damage in China. In 2010, the Nobel committee, which is based in Norway, awarded the Peace Prize to pro-democracy dissident Liu Xiaobo, angering the Chinese authorities. Beijing responded in part by slapping import controls on Norwegian salmon that were so strict that much of the fresh fish reportedly ended up rotting in Chinese warehouses. It took six years for Norway and China to normalize relations, and salmon sales began to recover.Last year, Norwegian salmon accounted for 45% of the market in China, according to the Norwegian Seafood Council. The total value of the country's salmon exports to China last year reached $167 million and was growing, Snellingen said.The new outbreak, which has so far sickened more than 180 people in Beijing and forced the closure of workplaces, restaurants and hotels in high-risk areas of the city, comes at a delicate time for China's leader Xi Jinping. Official data released this week showed that authorities are still struggling to rev up the country's economy. Abroad, the ruling Communist Party faces a growing international backlash for its initial attempts to downplay the epidemic."Given all of the effort they put into protecting Beijing, the fact that they let the virus slip through their formidable capital defenses is a bit of a blow to the Communist Party," said Drew Thompson, director for China in the Pentagon from 2011 to 2018 and now a research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore."Blaming this on foreign forces that got through their screen is a palatable option for them," he added, calling the backlash against salmon a form of "xenopescophobia, the fear of foreign fish."In Beijing, concerns have spread beyond salmon. One vendor at Jingshen market, which processes much of the city's seafood, said in a telephone interview that he had seen sales of all seafood drop by 80% since Friday, though he was optimistic that demand would eventually rebound.In the last few days, state media and health officials have started to walk back their earlier statements about salmon. At a news briefing on Tuesday, Shi Guoqing, an official from the Chinese Center for Disease Control said that there was no evidence to suggest that salmon could host the new coronavirus.Officials, however, have not ruled out the possibility that the seafood products could have been contaminated during the packaging process.Norwegian officials said on Wednesday that together with Chinese authorities, they had concluded that salmon from Norway was not the source of the coronavirus found on cutting boards at the Beijing market."We can clear away uncertainty," Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, Norway's fisheries and seafood minister, said during a video conference.Despite the official reassurances, many Chinese diners were still hesitant. Alyssa Mai, 19, a college student from Guangzhou, said that while she knew the risk of getting the virus from eating salmon was low, she would not have it any time soon. "My relatives would be worried," she said.Some Chinese researchers and state media have zeroed in on a finding that the virus in the latest outbreak most closely resembles what they described as a "European strain." They have cited it as the latest reason to question whether the virus originated from Wuhan. On Monday, the headline of a story in the Global Times read: "Source of Beijing cases renews speculation over COVID-19 origin."Other experts said that the speculation over the virus strain was misleading."It clearly emerged in Wuhan," said Ben Cowling, a professor and head of the division of epidemiology and biostatistics at Hong Kong University's School of Public Health. "In the media in China they are saying it's a European strain but they haven't clarified that it's the virus that came from Wuhan and went to Europe and then came back again."As Beijing reverts to a partial lockdown, many restaurateurs like Li Kuan are finding it harder to be optimistic about the future. Li had been forced to suspend business at his 30-seat, high-end Japanese restaurant during the height of the epidemic but bookings quickly bounced back in May as restrictions were lifted.But since Friday, the intimate, earth-toned restaurant in eastern Beijing has been nearly empty. Li said he was reluctant to close the restaurant because he didn't want to give in to the misinformation. But, he was struggling to stay afloat -- he had already sent half of his staff home and was sitting on a rapidly expiring stock of fresh tuna and salmon flown in from Japan."I've been a chef for so many years, I can't just give up now," Li said. "But right now the problem I'm thinking about is just: When is this going to end?"This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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