| Sudan warns window closing in Nile dam dispute, asks UN help Posted: 25 Jun 2020 04:51 PM PDT  Sudan has joined Egypt in asking the U.N. Security Council to intervene in a dispute over Ethiopia's newly built hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile, warning that the window for the three countries to reach an agreement "is closing by the hour." Sudanese Foreign Minister Asmaa Mohammed Abdalla asked the council in a letter obtained Thursday by The Associated Press to call on leaders of the three countries "to demonstrate their political will and commitment by resolving the few remaining issues and conclude an agreement" on the basis of the draft Sudan submitted June 14. Ethiopia announced last Friday that it would begin filling the huge dam's reservoir in July after last week's talks with Egypt and Sudan failed to reach an accord governing how the dam will be filled and operated.
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| Clashes between Yemen's gov't, separatists mar ceasefire Posted: 25 Jun 2020 04:26 PM PDT |
| Race relations in Wisconsin capital are a tale of 2 cities Posted: 25 Jun 2020 02:50 PM PDT  In this college town that considers itself a bastion of progressive politics and inclusion, race relations are really a tale of two cities. Demonstrators who toppled statues of figures with no racist history this week say they went after the sculptures because they wanted to shatter a false narrative that the state and the city support Black people and racial equity. "The crowd at large was absolutely conscious of the political motivations," protester Micah Le told The Associated Press in a text, referring to the statue of the Civil War abolitionist Hans Christian Heg and another sculpture of a woman with her arm outstretched that honors the state's "Forward" motto.
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| UN Security Council to meet Monday on Ethiopia dam Posted: 25 Jun 2020 02:29 PM PDT  The United Nations Security Council plans to meet Monday to discuss Egypt and Sudan's objections to Ethiopia's construction of a mega-dam on the Nile River, diplomatic sources said Thursday. The public video conference was called by the United States on behalf of Egypt, according to the sources. Ethiopia wants to start filling the reservoir for the 475-foot (145-meter) Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in July, with or without approval from the two other countries.
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| Boris Johnson faces Tory rebellion over rights of child migrants to come to the UK Posted: 25 Jun 2020 02:16 PM PDT  Boris Johnson is facing a growing rebellion from Tory MPs who want to guarantee the right of lone migrant children to seek refuge in the UK. Six Conservative MPs including former ministers Tim Loughton and Andrew Mitchell have joined with Labour to back an amendment to the immigration bill to guarantee the rights of lone migrant children to be reunited with any family legally in the UK. Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Committee, who tabled the amendment said: "Without urgent action, next year vulnerable lone child and teenage refugees will lose important rights to rejoin family in the UK who can care for them." A Brexit negotiating paper released last month revealed that the UK is seeking to ditch its mandatory obligation under the so-called Dublin agreement to take in the asylum-seeking children, replacing it with a right for EU nations to "request" their transfer to join relatives in Britain. It coincided with the closure of the so-called Dubs Scheme, under which 478 unaccompanied child refugees were resettled in the UK over the course of four years. The amendment to the Immigration (EU Withdrawal) Bill would transfer the EU rule into UK law when the Brexit transition period ends. Ms Cooper said: "By January, both the Dublin and Dubs routes for child refugees to get sanctuary here will end. "The Government has said it wants family reunion for child refugees to continue but has not set up a legal framework to do it and we are running out of time. That's why we tabled the amendment." Mr Loughton, who also sits on the Home Affairs Committee, said: "It's the right thing to do. We are often dealing with kids who have parents killed in wars and they need any relative they can to establish a link with the UK. You may find children who currently qualify no longer do after this year." A Government spokesman said protecting vulnerable children was a key priority and more than 7,300 children had been safeguarded in the year up to March 2020 and more than 44,900 children since 2010. He said: 'In fact, last year we received the highest number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children since 2008 and more than any EU country last year. 'Protecting vulnerable children is a key priority for this government and the progress we have made – with generous support from local au
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| Colorado reexamines Elijah McClain's death in police custody Posted: 25 Jun 2020 02:13 PM PDT  The Colorado governor on Thursday ordered prosecutors to reopen the investigation into the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold by police who stopped him on the street in suburban Denver last year because he was "being suspicious." Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order directing state Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate and possibly prosecute the three white officers previously cleared in McClain's death. McClain's name has become a rallying cry during the national reckoning over racism and police brutality following the deaths of George Floyd and others.
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| U.S. officials change virus risk groups, add pregnant women Posted: 25 Jun 2020 01:50 PM PDT  The nation's top public health agency on Thursday revamped its list of which Americans are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness, adding pregnant women and removing age alone as a factor. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also changed the list of underlying conditions that make someone more susceptible to suffering and death. Sickle cell disease joined the list, for example.
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| UN chief: COVID-19 signals need for global approach to problems Posted: 25 Jun 2020 01:40 PM PDT  United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called on the world to strengthen multilateral cooperation, saying a global approach has been the key to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| Virus whistleblower alleges retribution has only intensified Posted: 25 Jun 2020 12:48 PM PDT  A government whistleblower ousted from a leading role in battling COVID-19 alleged Thursday that the Trump administration has intensified its campaign to punish him for revealing shortcomings in the U.S. response. Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, said in an amended complaint filed with a federal watchdog agency that he has been relegated to a lesser role in his new assignment at the National Institutes of Health, unable to lend his full expertise to the battle against COVID-19. The complaint also said that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is leading a "coordinated effort" to undermine Bright in his new duties, and that has led to former colleagues shunning the sidelined scientist.
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| World pledges $1.8 billion for crisis-stricken Sudan Posted: 25 Jun 2020 12:08 PM PDT  The international community pledged $1.8 billion at a conference to drum up support for Sudan on Thursday, in an effort to help the northeast African country battle economic woes after the ousting of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir. "This conference opened a new chapter in the cooperation between Sudan and the international community to rebuild the country," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at the video conference co-organised by Germany with Sudan, the European Union and the United Nations.
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| AP-NORC poll: Support for restrictions, virus worries wane Posted: 25 Jun 2020 12:00 PM PDT  After months of steady progress, new confirmed cases of COVID-19 climbed to near record levels in the U.S. this week. A majority of Americans still have concerns about contracting COVID-19, and significant shares still support the kinds of public health restrictions that states have rolled back.
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| Meet the South Korean Marines Who Could Be Used One Day to Destroy North Korea Posted: 25 Jun 2020 12:00 PM PDT  Wherever in North Korea they land, the ROK Marines are in for a very tough fight.
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| Israel says it reached deal with UAE to jointly fight virus Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:54 AM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that his government and the United Arab Emirates will soon announce a partnership in the fight against the coronavirus. The deal, if confirmed, would come despite recent warnings from UAE officials that Israel's planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank would harm its efforts to improve relations with Arab states. There was no immediate comment from the UAE.
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| Malawi presidential election: State broadcaster says opposition leading Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:31 AM PDT  Official results are yet to be declared but state media says Lazarus Chakwera is heading for victory.
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| Russians cast early votes in ballot to extend Putin's rule Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:27 AM PDT  Russians began casting early ballots Thursday in a nationwide vote on controversial constitutional reforms that could keep President Vladimir Putin remain in power until 2036. Election officials opened polling stations in the lead-up to the official voting day on July 1 to reduce the risk of overcrowding that could spread the coronavirus infection. Masks and disinfectant gels are being made available to 110 million eligible voters across 10 time zones.
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| White House punts on Israel annexation; more talks planned Posted: 25 Jun 2020 11:24 AM PDT  President Donald Trump's top national security aides have been unable to reach a decision on whether to support an Israeli plan to annex significant parts of land the Palestinians claim for a future state, an impasse that could affect the timing of any action by Prime Minister Benjaimin Netanyahu. The White House said Thursday that consultations with Israeli officials will continue as they try to formulate a proposal that would support Trump's plan for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. The Trump administration's decision on annexation could alter America's position in the Middle East and affect Trump's election-year support with evangelical Christians, an important part of his political base.
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| UN food agency calls for aid to prevent another Syria exodus Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:56 AM PDT  Growing desperation in Syria could trigger another mass exodus unless donor countries send more funds to alleviate hunger and the international community ensures aid shipments can reach the war-ravaged country, the head of the U.N. food agency said Thursday. World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley said it's critical to keep aid flowing through border crossings, at a time when growing numbers of people are "literally on the brink of starvation." The conference attempts to raise several billion dollars each year to alleviate the fallout from Syria's nine-year-old war, which has displaced millions of people.
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| Dueling Trump-Biden events offer contrasting virus responses Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:49 AM PDT  A presidential campaign that has largely been frozen for several months because of the coronavirus took on a degree of normalcy on Thursday when President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden swung through critical battleground states presenting starkly different visions for a post-pandemic America. Touring a shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin, Trump insisted the economy is "coming back at a level nobody ever imagined possible." "Amazingly, he hasn't grasped the most basic fact of this crisis: To fix the economy we have to get control over the virus," Biden said.
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| DeVos issues rule steering more virus aid to private schools Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:46 AM PDT  The Trump administration on Thursday moved forward with a policy ordering public schools across the U.S. to share coronavirus relief funding with private schools at a higher rate than federal law typically requires. Under a new rule issued by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, school districts are ordered to set aside a portion of their aid for private schools using a formula based on the total number of private school students in the district. The policy has been contested by public school officials who say the funding should be shared based on the number of low-income students at local private schools rather than their total enrollments.
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| Law enforcement struggles with policing in reckoning moment Posted: 25 Jun 2020 10:21 AM PDT  As calls for police reform swell across America, officers say they feel caught in the middle: vilified by the left as violent racists, fatally ambushed by extremists on the right seeking to sow discord and scapegoated by lawmakers who share responsibility for the state of the criminal justice system. The Associated Press spoke with more than two dozen officers around the country, Black, white, Hispanic and Asian, who are frustrated by the pressure they say is on them to solve the much larger problem of racism and bias in the United States. "You know, being a Black man, being a police officer and which I'm proud of being, both very proud — I understand what the community's coming from," said Jeff Maddrey, an NYPD chief in Brooklyn and one of many officers who took a knee as a show of respect for protesters.
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| Virus testing, tracking still plagued by reporting delays Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:58 AM PDT  Test results will be expected back the next morning, before the day's practices and games begin. Having access to quick test results will play an important role in resuming sporting events, keeping businesses and factories open, and returning to school in the fall. The situation is even worse in many hot spots around the world, including South Africa, where results have sometimes taken up to 12 days.
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| US health officials estimate 20M Americans have had virus Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:57 AM PDT  U.S. officials estimate that 20 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since it first arrived in the United States, meaning that the vast majority of the population remains susceptible. Thursday's estimate is roughly 10 times as many infections as the 2.3 million cases that have been confirmed. Officials have long known that millions of people were infected without knowing it and that many cases are being missed because of gaps in testing.
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| Japan scraps £3.4bn US missile defence system after residents at site complain Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:46 AM PDT  Japan on Thursday scrapped plans to build a £3.4 billion US missile-defence system, ending a saga of poor planning and opposition from locals at the proposed site. Taro Kano, the Defence Minister, announced the decision to cancel the construction of two Aegis Ashore missile interceptor bases after a meeting of the National Security Council on Wednesday. Two years ago the Japanese government said it would purchase the system, which can intercept ballistic missiles at a range of up to 1,500 miles, in order to counter the rising threat from North Korea. The potential sites for the bases were identified as Akita Prefecture, facing the Korean Peninsula in the far north of Japan, and Yamaguchi Prefecture, on the far southern tip of the main island of Honshu and providing an arc of defence over islands that are claimed by China as its sovereign territory. Under the initial plan, the bases were due to be operational as early as 2025. There was immediate resistance from local residents, many of whom feared that the missile sites would make their communities targets in the event of hostilities with neighbouring nations.
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| Belarus president accuses Russia, Poland of election interference Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:43 AM PDT  Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday accused Russia and Poland of interfering in an upcoming presidential election, claims that were quickly denied by the Kremlin. The interference is coming from "those who live in Poland and those who incite from Russia," Lukashenko said at a meeting with newly appointed government officials. Lukashenko said he would discuss the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting in the near future but cautioned that the situation remained "extremely difficult".
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| Countries agree regulations for automated driving Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:36 AM PDT  More than 50 countries, including Japan, South Korea and the EU member states, have agreed common regulations for vehicles that can take over some driving functions, including having a mandatory black box, the UN announced Thursday. The measures were adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, which brings together 53 countries, not just in Europe but also in Africa and Asia. "This is the first binding international regulation on so-called 'Level 3' vehicle automation," UNECE said in a statement.
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| Ex-UN human rights chief calls for Hong Kong special envoy Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:19 AM PDT  The United Nations' former human rights chief and eight former U.N. special envoys urged the body's secretary-general Thursday to appoint a special envoy on Hong Kong, saying they are deeply concerned about a potential "humanitarian tragedy" as Beijing prepares to impose draconian national security laws on the city. Zeid Raad Al-Hussein, who was the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights during 2014-2018, and the eight former special rapporteurs called for the unusual procedure because of the "severity of the deterioration, the impending grave threats under the new security law, (and) the symbolism that a human rights crisis in what had been one of Asia's freest cities entails."
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| Ending the Korean War Won't Stop North Korea From Causing Chaos Posted: 25 Jun 2020 09:02 AM PDT  While the armistice has provided the framework for peace, what has guaranteed that peace is the presence of strong South Korean and U.S. military forces. Even so, Pyongyang frequently violates the armistice and claims the agreement is null and void. How committed to a peace treaty could you rationally expect North Korea to be, given its behavior regarding the armistice
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| Donors pledge $1.8 billion for Sudan's democratic transition Posted: 25 Jun 2020 08:44 AM PDT  Western and Arab countries pledged a total $1.8 billion in aid to Sudan on Thursday to help the struggling African nation a year after pro-democracy protesters forced the removal of the country's longtime autocratic ruler, Omar al-Bashir. The pledges from 40 countries, including an additional $400 million in grants from the World Bank, came during a video conference co-hosted by Germany, marking the formal launch of the international community's financial support for Sudan's democratic transition after three decades of punitive sanctions and isolation under al-Bashir. Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said that the conference was just the start of helping Sudan and that donors would reconvene early next year.
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| Voting starts on referendum to let Putin remain in power until 2036 Posted: 25 Jun 2020 08:43 AM PDT  Russians have begun voting in a seven day-long referendum on changes to Russia's constitution that will allow President Vladimir Putin to remain in power until 2036. In January, Putin proposed a series of sweeping changes to the constitution that would create a path for him to staying in office well beyond his current term limits. The key amendment "resets" the count on Putin's presidential terms to zero, meaning he would be able to run again for president in 2024, even though the constitution still imposes a limit of two terms.
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| Iraq hit with record-high COVID-19 deaths Posted: 25 Jun 2020 08:30 AM PDT  Iraq registered nearly 2,500 new coronavirus cases and over 100 deaths on Thursday, setting new records in a country whose health sector had been bracing itself for such a spike. On Thursday, the health ministry said it had confirmed 2,437 new cases over the last day, bringing the total in the country to over 39,000 -- of whom about half have recovered. Iraq had so far considered itself spared as the virus spread in other regional countries, including in neighbouring Iran where more than 10,000 have died.
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| The United Nations Has a Lebanon Problem Posted: 25 Jun 2020 08:05 AM PDT  This is an opportunity for both the United Nations to demonstrate its commitment to going further than maintaining the status quo in Lebanon and for the Trump administration to show that it is willing and able to flex its muscle in the international body to usher in positive change to an institution long accused of inaction and complacency.
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| NYPD officer charged in swift test of state’s chokehold ban Posted: 25 Jun 2020 07:41 AM PDT  Moving swiftly amid a global furor over police misconduct, New York City prosecutors on Thursday filed criminal charges against a police officer caught on video putting a Black man in what they said was a banned chokehold, causing him to appear to lose consciousness. Officer David Afanador pleaded not guilty Thursday to strangulation and attempted aggravated strangulation charges stemming from the confrontation Sunday on a Queens beach boardwalk. Afanador was charged under a recent change in state law barring police officers from using chokeholds, District Attorney Melinda Katz said, adding that her office has "zero tolerance for police misconduct."
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| What is Kim Jong-un Planning? Posted: 25 Jun 2020 07:27 AM PDT  Just when you think an off-ramp between the two Koreas is increasingly difficult to spot, North Korea's Central Military Commission unexpectedly provides one.
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| 'It's gone': What the loss of summer camp means for kids Posted: 25 Jun 2020 07:25 AM PDT  It wasn't just the leadership opportunities or seeing his best friends or even escaping months stuck at home because of the coronavirus pandemic that had Rory Sederoff thinking 2020 would be one of his best summers ever. This would have been the Toronto teenager's 15th year at Camp Walden, a sleepaway camp in upstate New York where he has spent every summer since he was 3 months old.
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| Brussels plan to tie UK to EU car parts market in Brexit trade talks Posted: 25 Jun 2020 07:24 AM PDT  Brussels wants to tie UK car manufacturers into sourcing parts from the EU rather than cheaper imports from elsewhere in the world in trade negotiations with Britain next week. Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, warned that Brussels would never sign away thousands of European jobs just for the UK's benefit, speaking ahead of month-long intensified talks that start on Monday. British negotiators are seeking to use most of the leverage they have over the EU fishing industry's dependence on UK waters to secure major concessions on "rules of origin" trade rules. The British proposals for the tariff-free Brexit trade deal would mean UK car manufacturers could assemble vehicles with parts from around the world before exporting them to the EU tariff free, Mr Barnier said. "The UK tells us this is in both our interests," he said at the European Policy Centre think tank in Brussels. "But frankly speaking, why make it easy for UK manufacturers to source nearly all their parts from elsewhere?" Mr Barnier said: "We produce those very same parts here in the EU," adding that 80 percent of parts imported by UK car manufacturers come from the block. "Nothing would justify us encouraging UK manufacturers to start sourcing their parts outside of the EU, nothing would justify us signing away tens of thousands of European jobs for the UK's benefit," he said. About 55 per cent of the UK's 1.06 million car exports went to the EU last year. On Tuesday, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders warned that Brexit negotiations must deliver a "comprehensive zero-tariff free trade agreement" or the UK automotive sector risks £40 billion production losses by 2025. Failure to strike a deal before the end of the year will mean the UK and EU trading on less lucrative WTO terms, which will mean tariffs as well as customs checks slowing imports and exports of cars and car parts. "I believe, once again that the deal is still possible," Mr Barnier said. He added that the EU was ready to compromise to break the deadlock over fishing and the "level playing field" guarantees. "We will be constructive, as we have always been and respectful and we are ready to be creative to find common ground. But we will never, never sacrifice your long term economic and political interests for the sole benefits of the UK. "We will not put into question the integrity of our union, our single market, our sovereign capacity to set our own rules. Our duty is and will always remain, until the end, to protect the interests of European citizens and European businesses." The EU would never abandon its demand for "level playing field" guarantees which would protect European businesses from unfair British competition, he said. "Even if you were to maintain tariffs on some goods [...]the EU will still demand strong 'level playing field' guarantees," he said. "It is a core part of our modern trade policy and we refuse to compromise our values to benefit the British economy." David Frost, the UK's chief negotiator, said, "This needs to be a real negotiation, and some of the EU's unrealistic positions will have to change if we are to move forward. "We have noted carefully what the EU has said in recent days on this subject, and look forward to discussing it. "UK sovereignty, over our laws, our courts, or our fishing waters, is of course not up for discussion. Equally we do not seek anything which would undermine the integrity of the EU's single market." Mr Barnier accused the British Government of backtracking on commitments in the non-binding joint Political Declaration, which sets out the aspirations for the trade agreement and demanded a "clear signal" that Britain was willing to abide by the "spirit and the letter" of the declaration. After Boris Johnson met the three EU presidents on June 15, the Prime Minister said he saw no reason why a trade agreement could not be finalised in July rather than October, which is the EU's target date. Mr Barnier said such an outcome would need progress on all topics, including the deadlocked issues of fishing and the "level playing field" guarantees. He blamed Brexiteers in the Tory party for the lack of progress and accused them of making it impossible for the Government to compromise, saying: "We have the Brexiteers and a good part of the Tory party keeping a very hard line on full sovereignty for the UK [...] and no concessions even if it means no deal."
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| Justices boost Trump administration's power in asylum cases Posted: 25 Jun 2020 07:12 AM PDT  The Supreme Court on Thursday strengthened the Trump administration's ability to deport people seeking asylum without allowing them to make their case to a federal judge. The high court's 7-2 ruling applies to people who are picked up at or near the border and who fail their initial asylum screenings, making them eligible for quick deportation, or expedited removal. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the high-court opinion that reversed a lower-court ruling that said asylum-seekers must have access to the federal courts.
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| DR Congo's deadliest Ebola outbreak declared over Posted: 25 Jun 2020 07:07 AM PDT  More than 2,000 people died in an area where decades of conflict have led to widespread mistrust.
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| Would cutting VAT help the economy? Posted: 25 Jun 2020 06:17 AM PDT  This was first published in The Telegraph's Refresher newsletter. For more facts and explanation behind the week's biggest political stories, sign up to the Refresher here – straight to your inbox every Wednesday afternoon for free. What's the story? Dropping VAT would "give consumers more bang for their buck", former chancellor Sajid Javid urged, as he told his successor it was time for a "strong and respected" Treasury. While conceding it could be a "blunt" device, he argued that there are not "many better things out there in terms of an immediate stimulus" to the economy. Mr Javid estimated that reducing VAT from 20 per cent to 17 per cent for one year would cost the Treasury £21 billion but return close to £60 billion. It seems that Rishi Sunak is already well aware of the boost of such a cut. According to reports, the Chancellor is considering slashing VAT temporarily to help kickstart the economy and has instructed Treasury officials to explore such a course of action. A lower VAT rate for the particularly blighted tourism sector – including pubs, restaurants and hotels – is one option being discussed. It's not hard to see why the Government would consider such a stimulus. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development found that Britain's economy is likely to suffer the worst damage from the Covid-19 crisis of any country in the developed world. A slump in the UK's national income of 11.5 per cent during 2020 will outstrip the falls in France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the US, the European think tank said. Even that bleak forecast is an improvement on the Bank of England's dire warnings from last month. It predicted that the British economy could shrink by 14 per cent this year and see unemployment more than double by spring. That would see the UK being plunged into the deepest recession for more than three centuries. So why would cutting VAT help? While businesses are responsible for paying VAT to the Government, ultimately it is the consumer who bears the burden of the cost. Lowering VAT can have a myriad of different economic consequences, but the Government will be banking on the hope that lower prices will tempt consumers to spend. Looking back Britain adopted the concept of VAT from our friends across the Channel, with French tax authority Maurice Lauré developing 'taxe sur la valeur ajoutée' in 1954. It was introduced on our shores as part of the condition of joining the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973. Lord Barber, the chancellor under Sir Edward Heath, brought in a 10 per cent tax on nearly all goods bought from a business. In the early days it stuck at around that rate with the exception of petrol and – briefly – electrical appliances, which were deemed to be luxuries in the days before Britain struck North Sea oil. They were charged a higher rate of 12.5% under the Tories, doubling under the next Labour Government. While in opposition, Edward Heath had also promised that key essentials would not be subject to VAT, such as books. The EEC was not overly impressed with the move initially but allowed some goods, including books, nearly all food, and utility bills to be "zero rated". In Margaret Thatcher's first term in office the luxury rate was scrapped and merged into a higher standard rate of 15 per cent, raised to 17.5 per cent in 1991. 'Zero rated' goods and services have caused much confusion over the years. Current goods and services that do not need to pay VAT include those in sporting activities, education and training, financial services and insurance. Food and drink is usually omitted but some items are always standard rated. Watch out for snacks – they're not zero rated. The concept is also controversial. Many believe VAT's flat-rate simplicity makes it regressive, hitting all consumers, young and old, poor and rich. Its supporters, however, argue that the richer you are, the more you spend. Therefore, some argue it puts the biggest burden on those most able to pay. However, studies have regularly shown that it is the poorest that are hardest hit by any rises. Anything else I need to know? The Prime Minister has insisted that the UK will not be hit with a return to austerity as it recovers from the impact of coronavirus. Gerard Lyons, senior fellow at the think tank Policy Exchange and economic adviser to Mr Johnson when he was Mayor of London, says it would be a mistake to follow in the footsteps of George Osborne. "The idea should be to reduce the deficit over time through a pro-growth strategy," Lyons says. "A rising budget deficit acts as a shock absorber during this crisis and we should be grateful for it." While David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, agrees that there is no appetite in the Conservative party for a repeat of Mr Osborne's austerity regime. "Austerity would launch the economy into so many brick walls it would be hard to list them all. It's a bonkers idea," he said. The coalition Government introduced an age of austerity in 2010 in the aftermath of the global financial panic of 2008. The National Health Service and education were largely protected, but Government spending was trimmed in other key areas such as the police, road maintenance, housing and welfare. There is little appetite to do so again when many believe there is so little fat left to be trimmed. Instead, the economic consensus seems to be around borrowing, spending and considering progressive tax rises. The Refresher take The beauty of VAT is its simplicity. By cutting it, the Chancellor is guaranteed to boost spending and help beleaguered businesses. But any move to lower VAT, at considerable cost to the exchequer, will eventually need to be repaid. Indeed, Mr Sunak is said to be working up proposals for deferred tax rises and lower public spending as part of the autumn Budget. While most Tory MPs expect a summer of stimulus, some believe it is wise to consider stabilising public debt. Neil O'Brien, MP for Harborough and a former Treasury adviser, said: "We simultaneously need a stimulus now to fight recession, but also need to roll the pitch so that we can deal with very high levels of debt." Last week it was revealed that the UK's debt is now worth more than its economy after the Government borrowed a record amount in May. A VAT cut looks likely, but there may well be a sting in the tail.
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| Watchdog condemns arrest of Egyptian editor, later released Posted: 25 Jun 2020 06:05 AM PDT |
| UN envoy: Israeli annexation could unleash Mideast violence Posted: 25 Jun 2020 05:30 AM PDT  The U.N. envoy for the Middle East warned Israel on Thursday that carrying out its plans to annex parts of the West Bank could set of a spasm of violence that would upend Israeli-Palestinian relations and reverberate across the region. Speaking to a group of foreign correspondents in Jerusalem, Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the region, said any Israeli unilateral action will "will have economic and security repercussions on the ground that will affect the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians." "Surely any such moves will be met by counter moves by the Palestinian Authority and they have already started," he told members of the Foreign Press Association, noting how the Palestinians have absolved themselves from abiding by past agreements with Israel.
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| Albania arrests man over social media calls to kill Israelis Posted: 25 Jun 2020 05:29 AM PDT |
| Dystopia or utopia? The future of cities could go either way Posted: 25 Jun 2020 05:27 AM PDT  Cities are always changing, but rarely as fast as this huge experiment changing how we all live, for better or worseA friend of mine who is a doctor in Ontario, one of the Canadian provinces most affected by coronavirus, told me a fascinating story about what Covid-19 has meant for his work.He had long been an advocate for treating patients remotely, arguing that a single group video session on, say, diabetes, could replace dozens of one-on-one consultations; and nurse practitioners could be empowered to handle routine medical interventions.Paradoxically, he said, this would actually mean more personal attention for patients, as doctors would be freed for the most urgent cases.His colleagues figured he was a dangerous maverick.Then coronavirus struck, the entire medical profession adopted his ideas en masse, and my friend's clinic is now considered cutting-edge. "The virus forced a real-life experiment that achieved in a month what I'd struggled to argue for 10 years," he said.If, as appears likely, we don't get a vaccine that fixes Covid-19 at a stroke, we'll likely be living with this virus in some time, as we do with influenza.So what does that mean for city life, so truncated these past few months? Is the Covid-19 pandemic a death blow to our cities, a stake driven through the heart of our ideal of dense, communal urban living?Or, like my friend's experience suggests, is the pandemic an opening, an invitation to do things differently, in all facets of urban life? Dystopia: hold on to your hatThe dystopian theory, as usual, is the grim one, where many people simply flee. Those who can will either work remotely from a second home, or sell up and move to the suburbs or beyond. Those who cannot – people barely making ends meet on state benefits, or working service jobs that require them to be in place – will be forced to stay.Many will be people of colour, whose vulnerability to the virus is already reflected in data showing that black people are dying at roughly twice the rate of white people. As with the post-war "white flight" to the suburbs, the city centres will be abandoned by those with money, leaving them to crumble and reversing several decades of urban renewal. The old Victorian prejudice that urban density is a hive of disease and immorality will reign once again.Certainly, the fear of pestilence is already causing us to shun subways, thereby hurting a crucial mechanism that allows cities to thrive. Transit ridership, already on the slow decline in the US, will plummet – not just out of fear, but because social distancing requirements mean metros can only handle about 15% of their previous riderships. Thinkers such as Joel Kotkin have argued that car-oriented sprawl is not just a natural outcome of the pandemic, but an ideal model of safe and independent living. We'll all drive everywhere, terrified, alone, worsening congestion and poisoning the air as we go. Air pollution is already nearly back to pre-Covid levels, and this is while most major cities remain in some form of lockdown. When it lifted in Wuhan, private car use nearly doubled.With commuting even more miserable than before, more companies will follow Twitter in allowing their employees to work from home for ever. We'll all get lonelier and more depressed as a result, with lower productivity and fewer of the "weak ties" that social scientists say make cities productive. Home workers will shoulder the costs of home offices.Soon enough, commercial real estate will tank. New York has 550m sq metres of office space; even a 10% drop would set off a shockwave. House prices could crash, too: they're already down in May in the UK by 0.2%, and we're just getting started. Who knows what could set off a full-blown panic that pops the urban real estate bubble, and plunges us straight into the Great Corona Depression?In any event, many urban industries will never recover. It's a given that restaurants, which already have notoriously thin profit margins, will outright collapse in record numbers. (My father, who runs a restaurant in Toronto, has already decided he's not even going to bother to try reopening, and is selling the building.) J Crew, Nieman Marcus, JC Penney and Hertz are just the start, the American businesses that went bankrupt even while the US government was still drenching them with the money hose. When the faucet squeaks off, our streets will become dried out husks of boarded-up storefronts. City governments, without the property tax base, will go bankrupt. Already, according to a National League of Cities analysis in May, the overall budget shortfall for US cities, towns and villages is expected to top $360bn by 2022. If this destitution leads to less funding for social services and therefore a rise in crime, we might see more aggressive policing in black and brown communities, of the kind that has led to the recent protests. Utopia: maybe it won't be so badThe utopians, however, look at the same apocalypse and see a lot fewer zombies. Cities, they say, badly needed a change of course. Now that we've discovered with our own lungs the benefits of less air pollution – Los Angeles has enjoyed its longest streak of "good" air quality days since 1995 – we'll demand better emissions standards, congestion pricing and more car-free streets. Everyone who can will buy a bike – in fact they already are – as cities from Paris to Bogotá free up car lanes for cycleways. Health, both physical and mental, will improve. Overburdened transit systems will, blissfully, be less like sardine cans. The inevitable decline in transit fares will force governments to properly fund mass transit as a public service, which they should have done from the beginning; the cities that don't do so will immediately lose ground to those that do. Ultra-low emission zones like London's will grow stronger until the only cars that remain are electric; we'll all be able to join Copenhagen's pledge to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2025, thereby at least partly mitigating the true danger from which Covid-19 has distracted us: the climate emergency.Remote working will be with us for good, yes, but in the early-internet ideal of the glorious erasure of distance. For staff, it will mean eased childcare concerns and a higher quality of life. Many companies, for their part, will save cash on office space, freeing up money to invest in productivity. Any subsequent downtick in commercial real estate values will be offset because those firms that do still need some office space will likely need more of it: social distancing (at the Guardian's office in London it's 2 metres between workstations) requires more floorspace, not less. Co-working spaces for remote workers who lack home offices will proliferate, too. (I'm not sure the return of WeWork qualifies as utopian, but on we go.)Density, far from being the bugbear of cities, will remain their great appeal. As soon as we've grown accustomed to wearing masks, as the Japanese do (and maybe even started bowing instead of shaking hands), we'll find that cities remain the safest places to live: better access to hospitals and community services mean if you do contract Covid-19 you're in the best hands. The world's densest cities – Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore – have handled the virus spectacularly well. Even the fear of transit may abate, as we learn from the cases of Japan or France where it hasn't generally spread the virus at all.Restaurants will suffer, yes, but faced with the prospect of having no tenants at all, landlords will negotiate on lower rents – further loosening the vice grip of rentier capitalism that Thomas Piketty argues has led to vast inequality. More independent businesses may be able to afford storefront space. Cities like New York (which, if it weren't for Central Park, would have one of the worst green-space ratios of any metropolis on Earth) will at last invest in parks, pedestrians and public spaces.Indeed, westerners will be forced to embrace the streets again in a way we haven't for a generation: hanging out in front yards and parks, on stoops and street corners.And if some people, mostly older because of their higher vulnerability to Covid-19, move to the countryside – well what of it? A modest correction to the housing market, which unfairly enriched the boomer generation at the expense of millennials, will finally defang the great cobra of the urban 21st century: gentrification, at last, will have met its match. Will anyone bemoan less social cleansing, or cry for the overseas investors no longer parking their money in wildly overpriced Thameside or Hudson River developments that have helped make homes unaffordable for actual Londoners and New Yorkers? Who's right?We don't know. Some data suggest cities are still attractive, such as a study by City Observatory researcher Joe Cortright that property searches for cities went up in April year on year; others show increases in searches for smaller towns and country properties. Air pollution has returned; but the new cycle lanes remain. The truth is that with governments still terrified to stop spending money, we're still in phase one.What does seem likely is that the pandemic will prove to be a much-needed corrective to cities that, though thriving in one sense, were becoming almost unlivable for anyone who didn't earn in the top 10% income bracket. It might help redress the political grievances that have, broadly speaking, pitted liberal urban centres against conservative rural areas in the kind of brutal culture-war cagematches that have given rise to Brexit and Trump. Slightly less gentrification and slightly cleaner air might be worth a bit of economic harm, though as ever, the challenge will be ensuring the poor don't take the hit.All we know for certain is that cities have been thrown into an experiment we would never otherwise have tried. Given the way things were going, that can't be entirely a bad thing. Whether you see the results as dystopian or utopian will probably depend a lot on you.
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| Decades-Old Soviet Studies Hint at Coronavirus Strategy Posted: 25 Jun 2020 05:12 AM PDT  MOSCOW -- To the boys, it was just a sugary treat. To their parents, prominent medical researchers, what happened in their Moscow apartment that day in 1959 was a vital experiment with countless lives at stake -- and their own children as guinea pigs."We formed a kind of line," Dr. Peter Chumakov, who was 7 at the time, recalled in an interview. Into each waiting mouth, a parent popped a sugar cube laced with weakened poliovirus -- an early vaccine against a dreaded disease. "I was eating it from the hands of my mother."Today, that same vaccine is gaining renewed attention from researchers -- including those brothers, who all grew up to be virologists -- as a possible weapon against the new coronavirus, based in part on research done by their mother, Dr. Marina Voroshilova.Voroshilova established that the live polio vaccine had an unexpected benefit that, it turns out, could be relevant to the current pandemic: People who got the vaccine did not become sick with other viral illnesses for a month or so afterward. She took to giving the boys polio vaccine each fall as protection against flu.Now some scientists in several countries are taking a keen interest in the idea of repurposing existing vaccines, like the one with live poliovirus and another for tuberculosis, to see if they can provide at least temporary resistance to the coronavirus. Russians are among them, drawing on a long history of vaccine research -- and of researchers, unconcerned about being scoffed at as mad scientists, experimenting on themselves.Experts advise that the idea -- like many other proposed ways of attacking the pandemic -- must be approached with great caution."We are much better off with a vaccine that induces specific immunity," Dr. Paul Offit, a co-inventor of a vaccine against the rotavirus and professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a telephone interview. Any benefits from a repurposed vaccine, he said, are "much shorter-lived and incomplete" compared with a tailored vaccine.Still, Dr. Robert Gallo, a leading advocate of testing the polio vaccine against the coronavirus, said that repurposing vaccines is "one of the hottest areas of immunology." Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said that even if the weakened poliovirus confers immunity for only a month or so, "it gets you over the hump, and it would save a lot of lives."But there are risks.Billions of people have taken live poliovirus vaccine, nearly eradicating the disease. However, in extremely rare cases, the weakened virus used in the vaccine can mutate into a more dangerous form, cause polio and infect other people. The risk of paralysis is estimated at 1 in 2.7 million vaccinations.For those reasons, public health organizations say that once a region eliminates naturally occurring polio, it must stop routine use of the oral vaccine, as the United States did 20 years ago.And this month, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases delayed a study designed by Gallo's institute, the Cleveland Clinic, the University of Buffalo and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center to test the effectiveness of live polio vaccine against the coronavirus using health care workers as subjects. The agency raised safety concerns, including the chance of live poliovirus making its way into water supplies and infecting others, according to researchers familiar with the study application. The press office of the NIAID declined to comment.But other countries are moving ahead. Trials with the polio vaccine have begun in Russia and are planned in Iran and Guinea-Bissau.A specific vaccine for the coronavirus would be one that trains the immune system to target that virus specifically, and more than 125 vaccine candidates are under development around the world.Repurposed vaccines, in contrast, use live but weakened viruses or bacteria to stimulate the innate immune system more broadly to fight pathogens, at least temporarily.The first polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, an American, used "inactivated" virus -- particles of killed virus. It had to be injected, an obstacle to immunization campaigns in poorer countries.When that vaccine was widely introduced in 1955, Dr. Albert Sabin was testing a vaccine using live but attenuated poliovirus, which could be taken orally. But in the United States, with the Salk vaccine already in use, authorities were reluctant to take the perceived risk of conducting live-virus trials.Sabin gave his three strains of attenuated virus to a married pair of virologists in the Soviet Union, Dr. Mikhail Chumakov, founder of a polio research institute that now bears his name, and Voroshilova.Mikhail Chumakov vaccinated himself, but a medicine intended primarily for children needed child test subjects, so he and Voroshilova gave it to their three sons and several nieces and nephews.Their experiment enabled him to persuade a senior Soviet official, Anastas Mikoyan, to proceed with wider trials, eventually leading to the mass production of an oral polio vaccine used around the world. The United States began oral polio vaccinations in 1961 after it was proved safe in the Soviet Union."Somebody has to be the first," Peter Chumakov said in an interview. "I was never angry. I think it was very good to have such a father, who is confident enough that what he is doing is right and is sure he will not harm his children."His mother was, if anything, even more enthusiastic about running the tests on the boys, he said."She was absolutely sure there was nothing to be scared of," he said.Something Voroshilova noticed decades ago has renewed interest in the oral vaccine.A typical healthy child is host to a dozen or so respiratory viruses that cause little or no illness. But Voroshilova could not find any of them in children soon after they were immunized against polio.A huge study in the Soviet Union of 320,000 people, from 1968 to 1975, overseen by Voroshilova, found reduced mortality from flu in people immunized with other vaccines, including the oral polio vaccine.She won recognition in the Soviet Union for demonstrating a link between vaccinations and broad protection against viral diseases, likely by stimulating the immune system.Voroshilova's and Chumakov's work clearly influenced their sons' minds as well as their health; not only did all of them become virologists, they embraced self-testing as well.Peter Chumakov today is chief scientist at the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology at the Russian Academy of Sciences and co-founder of a company in Cleveland that treats cancer with viruses. He has developed about 25 viruses for use against tumors -- all of which, he said, he has tested on himself.He is also now taking the polio vaccine, which he grows in his own laboratory, as possible protection against the coronavirus.Dr. Ilia Chumakov, a molecular biologist, helped sequence the human genome in France.Dr. Alexei Chumakov, who was not yet born when his parents experimented on his brothers, worked as a cancer researcher at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles for much of his career. While working in Moscow, he developed a vaccine against hepatitis E, which he tested first on himself."It's an old tradition," he said. "The engineer should stand under the bridge when the first heavy load goes over."Dr. Konstantin Chumakov is an associate director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Vaccine Research and Review, which would be involved in approving any coronavirus vaccines for use in Americans. He is also a co-author, with Gallo and others, of a recent article in the journal Science that promotes research into repurposing existing vaccines.In an interview, he said he cannot remember eating the sugar cube back in 1959 -- he was 5 years old -- but approved of his parents' experiment as a step toward saving untold numbers of children from paralysis."It was the right thing to do," he said. "Now there would be questions, like, 'Did you get permission from the ethics committee?'"This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Where's Markey? Senator misses dozens of votes in pandemic Posted: 25 Jun 2020 05:02 AM PDT  When the U.S. Senate gathered to debate a major, bipartisan bill aimed at spending nearly $3 billion on conservation projects last week, just two senators failed to cast votes. One was Sen. Edward Markey, who is locked in a tough re-election primary battl e against a fellow Democrat — U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III. Only Markey and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state missed the vote. It was one of many Markey missed during the prior month and a half as the coronavirus pandemic raged and both he and Kennedy struggled to come up with ways to campaign without holding traditional rallies or shaking hands with voters.
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| LGBTQ Pride at 50: Focus shifts amid pandemic, racial unrest Posted: 25 Jun 2020 04:53 AM PDT  LGBTQ Pride is turning 50 this year a little short on its signature fanfare, after the coronavirus pandemic drove it to the internet and after calls for racial equality sparked by the killing of George Floyd further overtook it. Activists and organizers are using the intersection of holiday and history in the making — including the Supreme Court's decision giving LGBT people workplace protections — to uplift the people of color already among them and by making Black Lives Matter the centerpiece of Global Pride events Saturday. "Pride was born of protest," said Cathy Renna, communications director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, seeing analogies in the pandemic and in common threads of the Black and LGBTQ rights movements.
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| 4 Secrets To Successful Freelancing In 2020: 'That's What The Highest-Paid Freelancers Do' Posted: 25 Jun 2020 04:46 AM PDT  Freelancing isn't quite what it used to be. The old framework typically included one-off projects in photography, writing, transcription or a similar field amounting to part-time employment."Today, freelancing is way bigger," Nick Tubis, founder of Freelanceclients.com, told Benzinga. "Freelancing is kind of like the new consultant. You can start a freelance business, and it really could be anything."The gigs are often full-time and include sales, customer service, human resources, public relations, marketing and accounting -- "things that add value to a business."The new freelancing model leverages technology to find clients quickly worldwide, Tubis said, adding that most freelancers contract with businesses rather than individuals. "It's really helping businesses solve a problem."Where Freelancing Is Going: Recent global events have been a boon for the freelance industry, he said."Because of what's going on with COVID-19, businesses are hiring more freelancers than ever before," Tubis said.The industry has opened up employment opportunities for older generations. Tubis' website, which offers free training programs to budding freelancers, serves mostly baby boomers, he said. "The reason why is not just because of COVID-19. It's that people don't retire at age 50 anymore like they used to. People want to continue to work even if it's a part-time thing," he said, noting that many companies choose younger candidates over baby boomers due to wage cost or tech proficiency.Tubis recently interviewed some of the highest-paid freelancers listed on Upwork Inc (NASDAQ: UPWK) to figure out their secrets to success.Secret No. 1: Identify what's in demand.While the freelancer terminal on Upwork shows only the "help wanted" posts of prospective clients, the client terminal shows the going rate for projects within different skillsets.Tubis recommends that freelancers set up a client account to determine how much money peers make for different projects and then tailor their offerings to provide the highest-paid services.Secret No. 2: Focus early on getting reviews."Focus on small jobs in the beginning that you can do really quickly: short-term, fast jobs that you can do quickly to get five-star reviews really quickly, and then clients will start reaching out to you and you don't have to reach out to them," Tubis said.Secret No. 3: Raise the rates."To make as much as possible and have more freedom, you have to max out your rates as much as you can," he said. He recommends testing demand at different prices by increasing the rate 20% each month until demand peaks.Secret No. 4: Transition to a virtual agency model.Tubis recommends that, once demand far exceeds supply, freelancers train and hire other freelancers to share the work and support more clients."That is what the highest paid freelancers do," he said. "That's how they gain that leverage and make six or seven figures."Such a model also provides financial stability, Tubis said. "The goal is to have multiple clients so you have more security if you lose a client and also for tax purposes," he said. "There's a way to get around that if you have more of the agency type model and you have 10, 20 or 30 clients that make up all of your revenue."See more from Benzinga * This Day In Market History: Brexit Vote Rocks Europe * Tesla's Electric Vehicle Competition 'Not A Measurable Threat' Yet, Gene Munster Says * Rocket Mortgage Classic Announces Fund To Tackle Detroit's Tech Access, Digital Literacy Gaps(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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| Iran says coronavirus deaths top 10,000 Posted: 25 Jun 2020 04:19 AM PDT  Iran on Thursday announced 134 new deaths from the novel coronavirus took the overall toll in the Middle East's deadliest outbreak past 10,000. The Islamic republic has struggled to contain the spread of the virus since it reported its first cases in the Shiite holy city of Qom in late February. Official figures have shown a rising trajectory in new confirmed cases since early May, when Iran hit a near two-month low in daily recorded infections.
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| Iran's new coronavirus death toll climbs above 10,000 Posted: 25 Jun 2020 04:16 AM PDT |
| Congo announces end to 2nd deadliest Ebola outbreak ever Posted: 25 Jun 2020 04:13 AM PDT  Eastern Congo marked an official end Thursday to the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which killed 2,280 people over nearly two years, as armed rebels and community mistrust undermined the promise of new vaccines. Thursday's milestone was overshadowed, though, by the enormous health challenges still facing Congo: the world's largest measles epidemic, the rising threat of COVID-19 and another new Ebola outbreak in the north. "We are extremely proud to have been able to be victorious over an epidemic that lasted such a long time," said Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, who coordinated the national Ebola response and whose team also developed a new treatment for the once incurable hemorrhagic disease.
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