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Father's Day Quotes in Hindi
June 21, 2020 at 06:00AM
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Greg Gutfeld says Klobuchar 'saw the writing on the wall' before bowing out of Biden running mate race "The Five" co-host Greg Gutfeld said Friday that Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., removing herself from contention to be presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's running mate was "like when you find out when you're about to be fired and right before they say, 'You're fired,' you say, 'No, I quit.'"
June 20, 2020 at 07:27AM
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Fox News Poll: Voters say yes to face masks, no to rallies Voters gave a thumbs-up to face masks and a thumbs-down to political rallies in the latest Fox News Poll. 80 percent have a favorable view of mask-wearers, including 89 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of Republicans, and 61 percent of those who strongly approve of President Trump's job performance.
June 20, 2020 at 07:00AM
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Oklahoma Supreme Court Rejects Call for Mandatory Masks at Trump Rally
The Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected a request to require everyone attending President Donald Trump's campaign rally Saturday in Tulsa to wear face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The state court ruled Friday that several local residents who made the request for all rally attendees to wear face masks could not establish they a had clear legal right to seek such a mandate.
The Trump campaign said organizers would be providing masks and hand sanitizer to all who want them. Organizers will be checking the temperature of all attendees to guard against the spread of the virus. The campaign said it is taking "safety seriously" as some health experts have warned that the large gathering could promote the spread of the coronavirus.
The managers of the Bank of Oklahoma Center, the indoor multipurpose arena in Tulsa where the rally will take place, have asked the president's campaign for a written health and safety plan. BOK Center officials said they requested the plan because Tulsa has experienced a recent increase in coronavirus cases.
The arena has seats for 19,000 people, and the Trump campaign says more than a million people have sought tickets.
Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum says crowds of 100,000 or more people are expected in the area around the rally.
Bynum declared a civil emergency and set an overnight curfew for the area around the arena, citing the unrest that followed some of the recent protests across the country against police brutality.
However, Trump tweeted Friday that he spoke to Bynum and there would not be a curfew.
I just spoke to the highly respected Mayor of Tulsa, G.T. Bynum, who informed me there will be no curfew tonight or tomorrow for our many supporters attending the #MAGA Rally. Enjoy yourselves - thank you to Mayor Bynum! @gtbynum
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020
The mayor's office originally said the curfew would remain in effect from 10 p.m. Friday until 6 a.m. Saturday and would again be in force on Saturday night.
Bynum said in his order, "I have received information from the Tulsa Police Department and other law enforcement agencies that shows that individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behavior in other states are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally." Bynum did not identify the groups to which he was referring.
Trump tweeted on Friday, "Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!"
Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020
A White House spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, said Trump was referring to violent protesters, not peaceful ones.
The Tulsa rally was originally scheduled for Friday but was pushed back a day after criticism that it fell on Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the United States, and takes place in a city where racial killings occurred in 1921 that left several hundred African Americans dead.
It is Trump's first major reelection event since a coronavirus shutdown across much of the country and recent nationwide protests sparked by the death of African American George Floyd while in the custody of white police officers in Minneapolis last month.
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The Infodemic: Is it Safe to Wear Contact Lenses During the Pandemic?
Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here.
"[Fact Check] Is it Still Safe to Wear Contact Lenses During the Coronavirus Pandemic? What About Eye Glasses?"
Read the full story: The Science Times, June 19
Claim: The acronym "COVID" in COVID-19 stands for "Certificate Of Vaccination Identification."
Verdict: False
Read the full story at: Check Your Fact
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WHO Chief Warns Coronavirus Pandemic is Accelerating
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared Friday the coronavirus pandemic is "accelerating" and warned that lockdown measures are still needed to halt it.
"We are in a new and dangerous phase," Tedros said at a news conference in Geneva.
Tedros said more than 150,000 cases worldwide were reported Thursday, the largest one-day increase since the outbreak began in December. Significant numbers of the new cases were in South Asia and the Middle East.
As of Friday, there were more than 8.5 million cases worldwide, a quarter of which were in the U.S., the world leader with over 2.2 million, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.
Brazil is next with more than 978,000 and Russia comes in third with more 568,000.
Experts at the University of Washington's School of Medicine told the U.S.-based broadcasting network CBS News that according to their model, Brazil's death toll is poised to surpass that of the United States as early as next month.
Hopkins reports a U.S. death toll of 118,435 and a death toll of 47,748 for Brazil.
Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, has dismissed COVID-19 as being nothing more than a "little flu" and said anyone worried about the virus is being neurotic. He has encouraged Brazilian businesses to reopen and states to lift their lockdowns.
Oklahoma rally
The managers of the Bank of Oklahoma Center, the arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where U.S. President Donald Trump is holding a Make America Great Again rally Saturday, have asked the president's campaign for a written health and safety plan for the massive rally that is being held in the midst of a global pandemic.
BOK Center officials said they requested the plan because Tulsa has experienced a recent uptick in coronavirus cases.
BOK officials said they will share the plans with the local health department when they receive them from the president's campaign.
The campaign has already agreed to conduct temperature checks on all attendees and to distribute masks and hand sanitizer to everyone.
The BOK Center holds 19,000 people. Campaign officials say more than one million people have expressed interest in attending the rally.
Victims of abuse
More and more children are victims of hate, bullying and violence because of the coronavirus pandemic, a new United Nations report says.
According to the experts, without access to support networks such as educators, friends and extended families they usually find at school, some children have been stranded in abusive homes with no place to turn for help as schools are locked down to control the spread of COVID-19.
Overall, about a billion children suffer from physical, sexual or psychological abuse each year, especially in places where the governments have failed to set up support programs. COVID-19 isolation is making the problem worse.
"There is never any excuse for violence against children," WHO chief Tedros said.
Lifting restrictions
In Iran, officials say regular Friday prayers will resume in Tehran next week despite a jump in the number of coronavirus cases over the past few weeks.
Iran had reported 197,647 confirmed cases and 9,272 deaths as of Thursday, according to trackers at Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus research center.
With a little over 100,000 cases, Canadian officials said the COVID-19 outbreak appears to be slowing.
While the 13 Canadian provinces and territories are starting to reopen their economies, major restrictions are still in place in the country's two biggest cities – Montreal and Toronto.
Californians are now required to wear face masks in most indoor and outdoor settings, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered Thursday.
"Science shows that face coverings and masks work," Newsom said. "They are critical to keeping those who are around you safe, keeping businesses open and restarting our economy."
The governor said since restrictions started to be lifted last month on restaurants and some stores, not enough people have been taking the proper precautions by covering their faces.
Wayne Lee, Fern Robinson and Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this report.
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UN human rights chief urges nations to pay reparations for slavery, colonialism United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged countries to address today's systemic racism and "centuries of violence and discrimination" through reparations and other processes.
June 18, 2020 at 07:25AM
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Europe's Longtime Powers Unite Behind EU's COVID-19 Rescue Package
When European Union leaders meet virtually for a summit Friday, a familiar duo will again grab the spotlight.
COVID-19, which has battered European economies, is also giving a new boost to Europe's traditional economic engines, France and Germany, and possibly the so-far underwhelming relationship between their leaders.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have found common cause in pushing for a massive coronavirus recovery plan for the 27-member bloc — one that flouts Germany's traditional budgetary orthodoxy and puts Berlin at odds with other frugal states.
But whether the newfound unity opens a new chapter for the two countries to power other joint European initiatives is less certain. Key hurdles still face the coronavirus rescue package, framed in an $843 billion proposal of grants and loans the European Commission unveiled last month.
"I think we can look ahead to a big dogfight," said Daniel Gros, director of the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies, or CEPS, of the opposition facing the package.
Still, Gros added of member states, "They will have to come together — that's quite clear."
Germany's EU presidency: Brexit and budget
Friday's summit is a key marker in other ways. Next month, Europe's biggest economic power, Germany, takes over the rotating six-month EU presidency that will also tackle thorny Brexit negotiations. On the menu, too, will be discussions about the bloc's next seven-year budget running through 2027.
It comes as Merkel, the EU's longest-serving leader, prepares to leave office next year.
Tara Varma, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations' Paris office, believes Merkel is looking toward her legacy.
"She knows she has a massive, critical role to play," Varma said, particularly on establishing European health sovereignty, after the pandemic found the bloc heavily dependent on medical imports from China and India. "She sees the necessity for the EU to be able to protect itself and its citizens."
But the immediate task Friday may be finding consensus on money.
Europe's "Frugal Four," who generally oppose big spending — Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and Austria — have reiterated their concerns about the commission's COVID-19 bailout plan, aimed primarily at helping more economically strapped southern countries.
"How can it suddenly be responsible to spend €500billion [$562 billion] in borrowed money and to send the bill into the future?" they wrote in a letter published in the Financial Times this week, noting European taxpayers would have to shoulder the burden.
The four have instead called for loans, rather than grants that would not have to be paid back.
Germany has traditionally shared such spending concerns. But last month, Merkel joined Macron in proposing a $562 billion recovery plan for the bloc, which was rolled into the commission's broader proposal.
Announcing it last month, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — Merkel's former defense minister — called the plan "Europe's moment," that would see the bloc recovering from the pandemic together, rather than "accepting a union of haves and have-nots."
Visiting Germany earlier this month, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire offered a broader take.
"We are seeing a turning point in Franco-German relations," Le Maire told Der Spiegel in an interview, sketching other areas for potential joint initiatives, including industrial projects.
Analyst Varma is also hopeful about a reboot.
"At the beginning of the relationship, there were expectations on both sides that weren't met," Varma said of Merkel and Macron, who took office in 2017.
Macron had big ideas for Europe; Merkel was weakened by a divided coalition.
"He was expecting her to meet him halfway and build this Franco-German moment," Varma added. "And from the German side, there were different expectations."
Old disagreements
Berlin has not shared Macron's push for closer EU fiscal and defense integration. But this week, Bloomberg reported the two countries are now pushing for tighter European defense ties.
The call is backdropped by U.S. President Donald Trump's confirmation of plans to withdraw 9,500 American troops from Germany, which he has criticized for failing to spend enough on defense.
"Germany used to look at the U.S. and the transatlantic relationship for security issues," Varma said. "And I think we're seeing a shift here, too."
"Germany is now coming to terms that it will need the EU to protect not only its economic interests but its security interests," she said "which is a position France has been holding for a long time."
But other analysts believe the current unity over the COVID-19 rescue package may be a one-off.
"Macron is overwhelmed by his domestic concerns," said Gros of the CEPS policy center. "And Merkel knows there's only so far she can take Germany along" in other EU areas.
John Springford, deputy director for the London-based Centre for European Reform policy institute, is similarly skeptical.
"There's a realization she's nearing the end of her term and wants to have been a chancellor that has made Europe stronger," Springford said of Merkel.
"And so, there's a kind of happy marriage of interests now between her and Macron," he added of the rescue fund, "which is why we've ended up with something that's actually pretty ambitious."
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UN Racism Debate Produces Calls for Inquiry Into Floyd's Death
Participants in a debate Wednesday at the U.N. Human Rights Council on systemic racism have called for an independent investigation into the death of African American George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
The council meeting began with a moment of silence for all the victims of racial injustice.
In opening the debate, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said merely condemning expressions and acts of racism was not enough to alleviate generations of suffering resulting from racial injustice.
Speaking by teleconference from New York, she said the debate was taking place as marches for racial justice and equality take place around the world.
'Enough'
Mohammed said the "most recent trigger" for the protests was the Floyd case, "but the violence spans history and borders alike, across the globe. Today, people are saying, loudly and movingly, 'Enough.' The United Nations has a duty to respond to the anguish that has been felt by so many for so long."
In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet deplored the death of Floyd and said it had come to symbolize the systemic racism that harms millions of people of African descent.
"It has brought to a head the outrage of people who feel they are neither adequately served, nor adequately heard, by their governments," Bachelet said. "It has brought to their feet millions of allies — people who are now beginning to acknowledge the realities of systemic discrimination suffered by others, and to join their demand that every person in their countries be treated with equality, fairness and respect."
Floyd's brother gave an emotional address to the council by teleconference from his home in Houston. Philonise Floyd described his family's anguish while watching the last moments of his brother's life.
"You in the United Nations are your brothers' and sisters' keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd," he said. "I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us — black people in America."
In advance of the debate, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Andrew Bremberg issued a statement affirming Washington's commitment to addressing racial discrimination and injustices stemming from that.
In alluding to the death of George Floyd, he said President Donald Trump had condemned the brutal actions of the police involved and was implementing police reforms. He cited the steps as an example of government transparency and responsiveness in holding violators accountable for their actions.
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Beijing Returns to Lockdown After 106 COVID-19 Cases Reported in Recent Days
Beijing is reintroducing strict lockdown measures and conducting mass testing of residents after a fresh cluster of COVID-19 cases emerged in one of its largest wholesale food markets.
The Chinese capital went into what state media calls "wartime mode" after 106 new cases were reported around the Xinfadi wholesale food market in Beijing's southwestern Fengtai District. The city has deployed 100,000 epidemic control workers, put at least 28 local communities under strict lockdown, and kept closed schools, sports and entertainment facilities that were scheduled to reopen. Officials in Beijing are barring residents who live in high-risk areas from leaving the capital, and taxis and ride-sharing services have been banned from taking people outside the city.
Analysts say a vigorous response is vital for the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after it built domestic support by declaring victory over COVID-19 despite an early cover-up and missteps. Yet some experts believe that Beijing is cracking down too hard, and residents are calling for more people-friendly measures for controlling the outbreak.
Strict measures
According to the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, there have been 106 new COVID-19 cases in Beijing since a locally transmitted infection was reported on June 12, the first in nearly two months. All patients are receiving treatment in Beijing's Ditan Hospital.
Beijing then entered "wartime mode" on June 13. The city upgraded the risk level of a township in the Fengtai district, where the COVID-19 cases were first discovered, to the highest level. Some 28 regions in four districts in Beijing upgraded their COVID-19 risk level to medium.
The government has adopted lockdown measures for the Xinfadi market and surrounding neighborhoods and has closed other wholesale markets around the city.
Xinfadi supplies residents of greater Beijing with 1,500 tons of seafood, 18,000 tons of vegetables and 20,000 tons of fruit every day, according to the market's website and Reuters.
More than 10,000 people at the Xinfadi market reportedly have taken nucleic acid amplification tests. These reveal if a patient is actively infected with SARS-CoV-2, according to the American Society for Microbiology.
China's state media has reported that the coronavirus was first detected in the market on the chopping boards used for preparing imported salmon in the market, prompting major supermarkets in Beijing to remove all salmon from their shelves overnight.
Beijing authorities suspended sports events and the arrival of tourists from other parts of China immediately following discovery of the new cases. The city government also announced Tuesday that all students from grades 1-12 will stop going to school, and all restaurants will suspend hosting weddings and large parties.
An employee at a local bank who asked to remain nameless told VOA Mandarin that to enter the bank, customers must now answer a list of questions including whether they have visited the Xinfadi wholesale market in addition to having temperatures taken at the door.
Many see overreaction
The Chinese government has continued to contend the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, first reported late last year, originated outside China, despite no evidence. Chinese officials also have also downplayed their own role in slowly responding as the virus spread in Wuhan and then holding back information as it spread abroad.
As of Tuesday, COVID-19 has killed 438,843 people worldwide and infected 8,096,403 in 188 countries and regions, according to Johns Hopkins University trackers. Some 3,917,055 people have recovered from an infection, as cases continue to spread globally.
But keeping the coronavirus contained at home is vital for the ruling CCP, which has repeatedly framed its response to the pandemic as a painful but necessary step, while highlighting how western countries, especially the United States, are struggling to reduce the spread.
Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of state newspaper Global Times, vowed Beijing would not become the second Wuhan, the origin site of the global pandemic.
"There is no way Beijing becomes Wuhan 2.0. The world will see China's powerful capacity in controlling the epidemic, including government's strong leadership, respect to science, public's willingness to cooperate and nationwide coordination of control measures. We will win again," he tweeted on Sunday.
There is no way Beijing becomes Wuhan 2.0. The world will see China's powerful capacity in controlling the epidemic, including government's strong leadership, respect to science, public's willingness to cooperate and nationwide coordination of control measures. We will win again.
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) June 14, 2020
In response, Chen Weihua, the European Union bureau chief for the official China Daily, who has also reported from Washington, DC, and New York City, tweeted, "If Beijing, with its capacity and alert, becomes Wuhan 2.0, then there will be 50 NYC 2.0 in the US, given its total election campaign mode and disregard for the spike warnings."
If Beijing, with its capacity and alert, becomes Wuhan 2.0, then there will be 50 NYC 2.0 in the US, given its total election campaign mode and disregard for the spike warnings.
— Chen Weihua （陳衛華） (@chenweihua) June 14, 2020
Yet overly strict measures can be counterproductive.
A man selling peaches on the street, who didn't want his name used, told VOA Mandarin that he used to sell fruit in Xinfadi market but said, "Now we can't enter the market. I get my products from the local farmers, now they have their peaches sitting at home rotting."
Ms. Liu, a retired teacher who asked that her full name be withheld, told VOA Mandarin that she hopes this time the Chinese government could adopt more people-friendly measures and strive to protect patients' sensitive information. "So, people wouldn't discriminate [against] Beijingers as they did with people from Hubei three months ago," she said.
Even medical authorities inside China are warning about overreacting to the current outbreak in Beijing.
"In fact, the current cases are limited to specific communites, and have not spread to entire Beijing area," said China's chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyou. "I don't think we need to limit travel to Beijing. I also don't think people who travel from Beijing have to be quarantined unless they've been to the high-risk areas."
Lin Yang of the VOA Mandarin Service contributed to this report.
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COVID-19 Vaccine to Be Free in US, Official Says
The Trump administration says it will make an eventual COVID-19 vaccine available for free to virtually anyone in the United States who wants it.
Insurance companies are expected to cover the vaccine for most Americans, according to a senior administration official at a briefing Tuesday to discuss the government's efforts to develop a vaccine by the end of the year.
For those who are not insured, the official added, "Our role as the federal government is to ensure anyone who is vulnerable, cannot afford it and desires it gets it."
The official said Americans would get any vaccine produced with federal funding before it would be made available to other countries.
"Our priorities are very clear. Let's take care of Americans first," the official said.
"To the extent there is surplus, we have an interest in ensuring folks around the world are vaccinated," since the virus arrived through international travel, he noted.
Other countries are signing separate contracts to manufacture the vaccine elsewhere, he said.
"In no way are we inhibiting through our contracts those vaccines from getting to others around the world," the official added.
As part of Operation Warp Speed, the administration is aiming to deliver 300 million doses of a vaccine by January 2021. Vaccines typically take a decade or more to develop.
Government contracts
The government has announced more than $3 billion in contracts to back companies in testing, manufacturing and distributing a vaccine. Congress has appropriated nearly $10 billion to develop vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for COVID-19.
The pandemic and lockdowns aimed at staunching the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 have devastated economies around the world. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the U.S. economy will shrink by 11% in the second quarter of 2020 alone.
"While we're investing billions of dollars in this effort, it's to address a multitrillion-dollar challenge," the official said, who could not be identified according to ground rules for the briefing.
Fourteen vaccine candidates have been chosen from more than 100 in development. The government said it will select the most promising seven for clinical trials.
President Donald Trump's administration has already announced support for candidates produced by three companies: Moderna, which entered the first phase of the three-step clinical trial process in mid-March; Johnson & Johnson, which plans to start phase 1 testing this summer; and AstraZeneca, which is entering the final, large-scale testing phase this summer with a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford. The administration says this vaccine could be available as soon as October if it works.
Federal funding is going toward building manufacturing capacity at the same time as vaccine candidates undergo testing, so that whatever vaccine proves safe and effective can be distributed as soon as possible.
The government has also signed contracts with companies that make the vials and syringes to package vaccines.
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In France, Street Names Carry a Colonial Burden
Throughout France, long-dead slave traders live on in French port cities like Nantes, Bordeaux and La Rochelle, where streets bear their names. Statues and schools still bear the monikers of Joseph Gallieni, a military commander who quelled rebellions in former colonies, and Jules Ferry, who is lauded for founding the secular school system, but who also believed in superior races.
Here, as in Europe's other former colonial powers, police violence, #BlackLivesMatter protests and toppled Confederate monuments in the United States are sparking attacks on colonial-era relics and soul searching in France –including how the country should move forward.
Some, including former socialist Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, want the names of at least some controversial historical figures to be scrubbed from streets and monuments, or to at least add contextual plaques. Others believe doing so offers a dishonest take on history — and still others claim today's French should not have to apologize for their forebears.
"With the slavery debate again out in the open in the U.S., it seems to me that militant groups are taking the opportunity to open it in France," said historian Nicole Bacharan.
"Despite very different pasts, both countries are confronted with the key question of 'do we have the right or not to revisit history?'" Bacharan added. "And I think we do."
National conversation
If questions about France's colonial and slave trading legacy are not new, they have catapulted into the national conversation in recent days, amid swelling protests against police violence and accusations of discrimination against minorities.
Last week, activists tried to steal a 19th century African pole from Paris' Quai Branly Museum, with the apparent intent of returning it to Africa.
And even before George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis, protesters in the French overseas territory of Martinique attacked a pair of statues of 19th century abolitionist Victor Schoelcher – who was also a staunch supporter of colonialism.
More recently, ex-prime minister Ayrault waded into the debate, calling buildings named after 17th century French statesman Jean-Baptiste Colbert to be rebaptized.
"Maybe we should say he wasn't just a great economy minister, but also the minister of colonialism and the minister of the Black Code," Ayrault said in an interview with French radio, referring to the code that regulated conditions for slavery in former French colonies.
But Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron flatly rejected editing or obscuring the colonial-era monikers.
"The Republic will not wipe away any trace or any name from its history," Macron said in a televised address. "It will not forget any of its works. It will not take down any of its statues but lucidly look at our history and our memory together."
The debates and protests are mirrored in other European countries with colonial pasts.
In Belgium, protesters burned and daubed in blood red a statue of King Leopold II, who oversaw the brutal rule of the then-Belgian Congo, which he treated as his personal property. Leopold's grand-niece, Princess Esmeralda, has called for an official Belgian apology on colonization.
In Britain, where protesters toppled a slave trader statue in Bristol, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the country cannot "edit or censor history." Yet Johnson has also sparked anger, including in Africa, for downplaying Britain's past and role in the slave trade, as a member of parliament in 2002.
Yet both countries, along with the Netherlands and soon, Germany, have national museums dedicated to their colonial histories. France does not.
Addressing France's past
Still, perhaps more than many of his French predecessors, President Macron has taken steps to address France's colonial past. As presidential candidate in 2017, he sparked controversy for calling France's colonization of Algeria a "crime against humanity."
More recently, he announced France would return looted artifacts to former African colonies that request them.
"I belong to a generation which was not that of colonization," Macron said in a visit to Abidjan last December, following an announcement that another colonial symbol — the West African CFA franc currency — would be transformed into the Eco.
But now, Macron's thumbs down to removing colonial-era names from edifices and streets has sparked sharp divisions.
"He's shutting the discussion," said Karfa Diallo, the Senegalese head of Bordeaux-based association of Memoires et Partages (Memories and Sharing), which has fought for greater awareness of the city's darker legacy as a former slave trading port. "The government is absent from the debate. It doesn't realize the ... anger that's mounting worldwide."
On the other side of the debate, former far-right lawmaker Marion Marechal rejected any links to the colonial past in the recent deaths of African American Floyd and Frenchman Adama Traore, who was killed in police custody in 2016.
"I don't have to apologize as a white French woman," she tweeted recently.
For others, remembering the past, with all its blemishes, is essential.
"Removing names from roads for the symbolism in some cases is important," said prominent historian Pascale Blanchard in an interview with France Info radio. But others should be left alone, Blanchard said, with explanatory plaques added instead.
"We can't make history without a trace, without patrimony, without an archive," he said.
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United Airlines Places Stricter Consequences on Face Covering Policy
United Airlines announced that any passengers who do not comply with its mandatory face covering policy will be placed on an internal travel restriction list, starting Thursday.
In May, the airline started requiring all on-board employees and customers to wear face masks. Now customers who refuse to wear a face mask will be placed on the internal travel restriction list after a series of steps.
If a flight attendant is informed of a passenger not wearing a face covering, and does not qualify for an exception, the attendant will "proactively inform" the passenger of the face covering requirement, United said.
The flight attendant will then offer the passenger a face mask. If the customer continues to be non-compliant, the attendant will file a report and final decisions regarding the customer's future flight benefits will occur after the plane has reached its destination and the incident is investigated by the security team.
United Airline's stricter face mask policy comes with a simultaneous announcement from Airlines for America (A4A), the trade organization representing leading U.S. airlines.
"[A4A's] member carriers will be vigorously enforcing face covering policies," the organization said.
A4A further specified that "Each carrier will determine the appropriate consequences for passengers who are found to be in noncompliance of the airline's face covering policy."
Member carriers in A4A include United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines.
United Airlines' new policy will be in effect for at least 60 days starting June 18.
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Greg Gutfeld: 'Infantile' Seattle occupiers realizing 'that having no structure is leading to fascism' "The Five" co-host Greg Gutfeld said Monday that the denizens of Seattle's quasi-anarchist "Capitol Hill Organized Protest" zone (CHOP) are engaging in an "experiment in infantile behavior."
June 16, 2020 at 08:16AM
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Demand Escalates for Removal of Confederate Statues, Monuments
A bronze statue of a lone Confederate soldier had stood watch over a main street in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington, for 131 years. The controversial figure was suddenly taken down, following protests in the United States after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
The protests over police brutality have provoked debate over the removal of Confederate statues, monuments and memorials — symbols of hate and slavery to some people, and a revered southern cultural heritage to others.
From 1861 to 1865, the southern Confederacy and northern Union were pitted against each other during the U.S. Civil War, after the south seceded from the rest of the country over states' rights, including owning slaves.
Several years after the Confederacy lost the War, Confederate statues and monuments began appearing in the South. Two of the most popular statues are Robert E. Lee, the Confederate Army commander, and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.
"They started to be put up around 1890, during the rise of Jim Crow laws," said Carol Anderson, a professor of African American studies at Emory University in Atlanta.
Those laws enforced racial segregation and discriminated against black people in the South, including their voting rights.
Now, protesters shouting "Black Lives Matter" across the United States are demanding that Confederate statues and monuments be removed.
At the state capitol in Kentucky, a statue of Davis was taken down and is to be moved to a site where he was born. Another Davis statue was pulled down by protesters in Richmond, Virginia. In Montgomery, Alabama, a statue of Lee was knocked down by demonstrators at a high school.
"I think part of what we're seeing with people yanking statues down is when the traditional institutions are not responsible to the will of the people, then the people will act," Anderson told VOA.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, more than 1,700 symbols of the Confederacy are on public land. The largest number are in Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina — three of the 11 states that had been part of the Confederacy.
"These are massive emblems of white supremacy," Anderson asserted, "in public squares, parks, on the lawns of courthouses, state legislatures and governors' mansions to put black people back in their place."
"The point is that they were erected several decades after the war as part of the reassertion of white supremacy, said Michael Jeffries, an American studies professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
But others disagree and contend that the Confederacy's principles were just and heroic.
Ben Jones, a former congressman from Georgia who was an actor on the TV comedy "The Dukes of Hazzard," is an outspoken proponent of keeping Confederate statues, monuments and flags on public lands.
"These statues honor men who served their country in the military and politics," he said. "To me, it's a recognition of the past," which also included slavery "as their way of life at that time."
In a VOA interview, Jones said some of his ancestors fought on the Confederate side.
This is an effort to destroy our past with "cultural cleansing," he said.
Calling that a myth that has been perpetuated, Jim Grossman, executive director of the American History Association, said, "These statues are there to honor southern cultural heritage, but the cultural heritage they're honoring is the era of slavery."
Jones, who says he is not a racist and took part in the 1960s U.S. civil rights movement, calls removing the statues an "insanity" that is dividing America.
"This isn't a worship of racism," he said. The statues should be "put in a historical context" and remain where they are.
"There are lessons to be learned by keeping them," Jeffries said, but somewhere else, "such as museums and libraries, rather than being placed outside in a celebratory manner."
Grossman agreed.
"We can't erase history. We don't want to forget our history includes erecting statues to commemorate and celebrate white supremacy."
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Hong Kong, Arms Control on Agenda of Planned US-China Meeting
Top diplomats from the United States and China are planning for a closed-door meeting Wednesday in Honolulu, as anti-U.S. propaganda from China's state-controlled media outlets intensifies, exacerbating rising tensions between the two countries.
The planned one-day meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinese Politburo Member Yang Jiechi, would take place ahead of the U.S.-Russia arms-control talks in Vienna, scheduled to start June 22. In Honolulu, the U.S. is expected to renew its call for China to join three-way arms control talks.
Politico first reported Pompeo was quietly planning a trip to Hawaii to meet with Chinese officials.
A diplomatic source told VOA that China had requested the meeting.
The U.S. is described as "unenthusiastic" about the meeting, after Beijing officials used the George Floyd protests to accuse the Trump administration of a double standard when it criticized China's crackdown on Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.
Senator Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said he does not trust Communist China's intentions, nor does he think they're acting in good faith.
"Until Communist China agrees to be transparent, fulfill the obligations under the Phase 1 trade deal, and stop violating human rights, stealing from the U.S., militarizing the South China Sea, taking away the rights of those in Hong Kong and threatening Taiwan, they will never be a trustworthy partner to the United States. We have to remember that Communist China never lives up to their agreements," Scott told VOA Mandarin.
The planned meeting comes as the U.S. is trying to deter China from implementing a new national security law in Hong Kong that would erode the territory's rights and freedoms under the Basic Law. While it's unlikely that Washington can compel Beijing to not enact the legislation, the specific implementation remains open-ended, and this is likely where the U.S. can still exert pressure.
"You can imagine which [Hong Kong] will be the issue of dialogue between China and U.S.," said EU High Representative Josep Borrell after a virtual meeting with Pompeo on Monday morning. Borrell was asked by a reporter following his video conference with Pompeo where the EU stands regarding the new Hong Kong national security law.
"For us, it's important to stay together with the U.S. in order to share concerns and look for a common ground to defend our values and our interests," Borrell said.
Substantial U.S.-China diplomatic and security talks have been in limbo for more than a year. The two countries last met for their annual U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue on November 9, 2018.
Some analysts said the Honolulu meeting is unlikely to defuse the rising tensions that have been building over many issues including COVID-19, trade, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South China Sea, pushing the bilateral relationship to its worst in decades.
"China prefers to dial down the heated rhetoric," Brett Bruen, former White House Global Engagement Center director under the Obama administration, told VOA.
"That allows them to continue the crackdown on Hong Kong, and subtle, but significant disinformation efforts on their responsibility for COVID-19."
"They also know [U.S. President Donald] Trump is facing a tough reelection and needs 'wins,' so they will try to dangle out some new billion-dollar purchases of American products in exchange for the White House easing up on their critique," Bruen added.
Others said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is "out of options."
"They are probably concerned about their economy," retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Robert Spalding, who served on President Trump's National Security Council, told VOA. "Their banking system is a mess. Manufacturers are fleeing,"
Nuclear arms talks
Next week, top officials from the U.S. and Russia plan to meet in Vienna to discuss nuclear arms reduction negotiations.
"China also invited. Will China show and negotiate in good faith?" asked U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea in a tweet. Billingslea said he and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov have agreed to meet for nuclear arms negotiations.
Today agreed with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov on time and place for nuclear arms negotiations in June. China also invited. Will China show and negotiate in good faith?
— Ambassador Marshall S. Billingslea (@USArmsControl) June 8, 2020
The Trump administration has voiced a general interest in preserving the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which obliges the United States and Russia to halve their inventories of strategic nuclear-missile launchers. The treaty expires in February 2021.
U.S. officials are hoping to negotiate a three-way deal that brings Beijing into a new arms-control framework. China, whose nuclear arsenal remains significantly smaller than those of Moscow and Washington, has declined to join the trilateral talks.
A source from a hotel in Honolulu's Waikiki Beach said the Chinese delegation is currently expected to check out on June 18 (Thursday.)
How the Chinese officials are complying with a local quarantine requirement during the coronavirus outbreak remains unclear.
A statewide order by Hawaii Governor David Ige requires a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all visitors arriving after March 26, 2020. The order says the designated quarantine location is the hotel room or rented lodging of visitors.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. did not respond to a request for comment on the planned meeting or how Chinese officials are complying with the mandatory quarantine.
Pompeo and Yang last met in New York in a closed meeting in August 2019.
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WHO Confirms Surge of COVID Cases in Beijing
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday that a recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Beijing shows that even places that have successfully suppressed the virus must remain vigilant against a resurgence.
At his regular press briefing Monday, WHO Secretary-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Beijing had gone 50 days without reporting a new case of the new coronavirus, and yet, since last week, a cluster of 100 new cases has been confirmed.
Tedros said the origin and extent of the Beijing outbreak are being investigated, and he noted the virus is surging elsewhere as well. He said that worldwide "it took more than two months for the first 100,000 cases to be reported. For the past two weeks, more than 100,000 new cases have been reported almost every single day."
He said 75% of recent cases come from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia. However, increasing numbers of cases are seen in Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, even in countries that have demonstrated the ability to suppress transmission.
When asked about the safety of air travel as borders opened across Europe Monday, the WHO warned there is no "zero risk" environment for the virus.
WHO Health Emergencies Executive Director Michael Ryan told reporters, "What we need to do is identify the risks that may be involved or the increased risk that may be associated with travel."
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Coronavirus Resurgence in Beijing Mars China's Self-Proclaimed Success in Containing It
A resurgence of COVID-19 infections in Beijing has ended the capital city's two-month-long virus-free period and threatened to cloud China's self-proclaimed success in combating the pandemic.
A week earlier, China released a 37,000-word white paper chronicling its monthslong fight against the coronavirus and heralding its success in containing COVID-19.
As of Sunday, the number of confirmed cases in Beijing has surged to 79, most of which are linked to the Xinfadi wholesale food market in the city's southwestern Fengtai district, Beijing health authorities said at a press conference on Monday.
Countrywide, China totaled 177 confirmed cases on Sunday after having accumulated more than 83,000 patients in the past six months.
Bold measures
The city government has taken aggressive measures to stem the latest wave of outbreaks, including expansive testing, contact tracing and quarantining, as well as a lockdown of 21 residential compounds, officials said Monday.
At least nine schools near the market have been shut down. People who were exposed to the market's workers and visitors were ordered to work from home for the next 14 days.
Since Saturday, Beijing has closed itself to tourists.
Initial genome sequencing of the viral strain from the Beijing market showed it originated from Europe, state media reported Monday, citing epidemiologists.
Officials fired
Three district officials, including Zhou Yuqing, deputy head of Fengtai district, were removed from their posts for "failing" to prevent the disease, Mayor Cai Qi said Sunday, declaring that the city has since entered a "wartime emergency mode."
But those efforts have not helped to ease residents' minds.
On Weibo, China's Twitter-like social microblogging site, one user asked, "Will Beijing become the next Wuhan? Please keep the public updated. Don't put people's lives at risk for the sake of economic growth."
Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, is believed to be where the coronavirus originated and caused the global pandemic that began in December.
Many others complained about the city's slow response in disclosing the movement map of new COVID-19 patients on Monday.
"Please look to the movement map of those three confirmed patients, made public by the Hebei (government). Can you please do your job!" another user wrote.
Economic impact
Economic activities near the Xinfadi wholesale market, the city's largest, have once again come to a halt.
"I don't know much (about the outbreak), except I learned from (video-sharing platform) TikTok that we have to take PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests," a resident who lives close to the Xinfadi market and works in a nearby hotel, told VOA on the condition of anonymity. "Basically, many of us (in the neighborhood) just hurl up at home."
A nearby restaurant has also suffered huge losses in recent days.
"We are hit pretty bad because we are (a place) mostly for large gatherings," the restaurant manager who refused to be identified, told VOA. "Today, there's not a single (dine-in) customer. Throughout the outbreak, there have been fewer and fewer (dine-in) customers. … I will be lying if I say I'm not worried."
Contaminated food?
People who live far from the market were not as panicked, although many worried about contaminated food, particularly salmon. Coronavirus was earlier found on the chopping board of a seller of imported salmon at the market.
With declining demand, the city's salmon supply has plummeted in recent days.
A resident in downtown Beijing told VOA that the market serves as Beijing's kitchen, supplying 70% of the city's demand for protein and vegetables.
According to local media reports, more than 10,000 wholesalers and workers, some of whom are not registered, and 3,000 trucks operated daily in the market before it was closed on Saturday, fueling worries that the resurgence of infection may get worse.
The Beijing resident who spoke to VOA anonymously attributed the city's new wave of outbreak to its relaxation of COVID-19 controls last month.
That echoes some netizens' concerns, since many subway commuters, including senior citizens, have not worn face masks.
A Beijing-based dissident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he believed Chinese authorities will now tighten controls to stabilize the city's outbreak, including a stable supply of vegetables after panic-buying kicked in.
He said the vegetables were all gone when he last visited the supermarket. The city's tightened controls and an emerging cluster of patients will further force many to avoid crowded places, he said.
He added that people's freedom of speech will also be tightened, since authorities want to control its official narrative against the outbreak.
Already, VOA's request to talk to a public health expert in Beijing was rejected after the expert replied that state police had ordered him not to accept any interviews with foreign media.
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Earthquake todayearthquake in ahmedabad, ahmedabad earthquake, gujarat earthquake 2020
June 15, 2020
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'Harry Potter' star Rupert Grint on JK Rowling's gender comments: 'Trans women are women. Trans men are men.' Rupert Grint is the latest member of the "Harry Potter" family to respond to J.K. Rowling's recent comments on transgender individuals.
June 15, 2020 at 06:45AM
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George Floyd's brother Philonise tells police: 'You can do your job and still maintain respect for others' George Floyd's brother Philonise spoke out against the growing movement to defund the police on Sunday, telling Fox News' Arthel Neville that officers can do their jobs "and still maintain respect for others."
June 15, 2020 at 06:17AM
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French President Macron refuses to 'erase' history by removing colonial-era statues Macron has tried to support efforts to combat racism even as he refuses to cave to key demands.
June 15, 2020 at 05:36AM