3 AM in Chicago the Night the Columbus Statue Came Down


Would the Native people on whose land the statue stood be proud of this moment? Would they even care?
BY JONATHAN BALLEW JULY 25, 2020


GETTY IMAGES


Aman in the costume of a vagina argued intensely with the president of Chicago’s police union, who wore a jacket with the word “ITALIA” emblazoned across it in bright red letters. Off-duty cops shouted at protesters. Two car accidents occurred nearby. Hundreds of street-racing motorcycles poured past, popping wheelies and squealing their tires. It was the night the Columbus statue came down in Chicago, and in and around Grant Park, where the statue had presided for 87 years, it was a total shitshow.

Like most statues of Columbus—who beat, raped, and enslaved Native people from the moment he landed in the Caribbean—it became a potent symbol of America’s fraught history and the systemic racism plaguing it today. In Chicago, it has sharply divided residents, especially the city’s most conservative and progressive members.

When it fell at 3:00 a.m. on Friday morning, I wanted to cheer. As a reporter who’s covered nearly every type of news event in Chicago, I’m supposed to remain neutral, neither applauding nor booing events I seek to capture. But, as an indigenous tribal member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, I didn’t shed a tear for the plight of Columbus. While there are Italian-Americans who view Columbus as a symbol of exploration and courage, to me he will always be an avatar of genocide, bloodshed, and exploitation.

The Columbus statue in Chicago’s Grant Park, which crews had wrapped in a covering to protect during demonstrations and attempts to remove it.
Scott OlsonGetty Images

Friday marked the fourth time in recent months that I had camped out near the statue after hearing rumors that it was coming down. Last week, protesters swarmed the statue, trying to topple it with two small ropes (seemingly impossible to anyone who has seen the massive monument up close). Eventually, police descended on the protesters, dispersing them with pepper spray and beating them with fists and batons. Protesters also attacked cops, with some shooting fireworks into the crowd of officers, or throwing projectiles at them. One Chicago police officer was caught on video punching an 18-year-old female protester in the face, knocking out some of her teeth.

“Fifty-two police officers got hurt defending that statue and now the mayor wants to spit in their face and take the statue down,” Chicago police union President John Catanzara said that evening to reporters in front of the Columbus statue. “It’s Columbus today, it’ll be something next month and something else the month after that. The mob cannot rule the city. The politicians are supposed to rule this city, and they are cowards.”

Demonstrations to defund the police in Chicago the day after the Columbus statue came down.
Scott OlsonGetty Images

As midnight approached on the night it came down, there was no sign the city intended to do anything. Protesters on both sides of the argument exchanged fighting words, along with some pushing and shoving, though the violence that gripped the city the week before did not come to pass. It appeared this was another false alarm. The statue, which was wrapped in a covering because of recent vandalism and attempts at removal from protesters, would remain where it was.

But, around 15 minutes after midnight, a park district truck arrived with a small hardhat crew. By 1:00 a.m. it was clear Columbus would spend his last night in Grant Park as larger vehicles and machinery showed up and police began to cordon off the park and usher the press to a special viewing area. City workers wrapped Columbus in chains, like he had done to so many Natives. The removal crew made quick work of him, all things considered, and Chicago’s press scrum waited for the moment to get the historic shot.

Crews work to remove the Columbus statue in Chicago.
DEREK R. HENKLEGetty Images

Tyrone Muhammad, executive director of Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change, watched from across the street with a group of Chicagoans eager to see the statue come down. “This is a great opportunity for our children to get some motivation about something that the city actually listened to their voices,” he told me. He lamented what he called a misallocation of resources to have so many Chicago police officers dispatched to a statue on multiple weekends. And he hoped the symbolic move would lead to “true economic” relief for Chicago communities left behind for too long.

And then—after all the waiting and protesting and violence—a sudden crack reverberated through the air. The crews had severed Columbus from his base, and he was hanging from a rope. It happened so quickly, most of the press missed the shot. With the statue suspended in mid-air, I thought about my Pokagon ancestors. I thought of the struggles they have endured for hundreds of years. I thought of the Fort Dearborn massacre, which took place just a mile or two from the site of the Columbus statue, where Potawatomi struggled to reclaim land from which they would ultimately be expelled. I wondered if they would be proud. I wondered if they would even care.

The Columbus statue hangs in the air after it was severed from its base.
DEREK R. HENKLEGetty Images

But as I saw the toppled Columbus loaded up in the back of a flat-bed truck, still wrapped up from the week before, it looked like a body covered in a white sheet on the highway after a gruesome death. And as the flat-bed drove away from what will always be Native land, I couldn’t help but smile at the symbolic expulsion of Columbus, dead and driven from land that was never his. I even let out the smallest of cheers.

Related Story

Tearing Down Monuments Is For History, Not Against

JONATHAN BALLEW is a Chicago-based freelance journalist, Marine Corps veteran, and citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.

Russian and Syrian troops surrounded thousand of militants, Turkey cannot intervene

By TOC  On Jul 25, 2020

DAMASCUS, (BM) – On the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, a large-scale military operation was launched against illegal armed groups, learned BulgarianMilitary.com citing Sentry Syria news agency.

Syrian government forces, with the active support of the Russian Aerospace Forces aviation, launched a large-scale offensive against the positions of radical groups in the northwest of this Arab country.

According to the publication “Sentry Syria”, the territory in which Assad’s army is carrying out a sweep is about 1.5 thousand kilometers. At the moment, information has been received that about 3 thousand pro-Turkish militants have been surrounded.


While Russian warplanes attack militant positions from the air, government forces strike with artillery. The resource notes that over the past 24 hours, five fighters took to the skies from “Khmeimim”.

The offensive operation in Syria was deployed after the Russian military successfully cleared the M-4 highway in this direction.

Turkey, as noted by the media, cannot intervene and provide support to its militants during a large-scale offensive.

The reason is that, in accordance with earlier agreements, the territory of the Aleppo, Idlib and Hama provinces south of the M-4 highway is coming under the control of Russian troops.

Syria, decided to arm itself with Iranian missile systems

We reported on this step to the Syrian government on 11 July. Then, The Syrian Defense Ministry has come to a general agreement with Iran regarding the supply of anti-aircraft missile systems and updating the existing Syrian air defense system.


Iranian air defense systems are ready to provide full protection for Syrian airspace, military experts firmly state this. The deployment of the Bavar-373 air defense systems is planned to be carried out throughout Syria. I want to note that this air defense system is a complete analogue of the Russian S-300, because the characteristics of these weapons are similar, as is the price segment.

This whole issue of modernization was posed due to the downtime of the S-300 and their inaction. Let me remind you that Russian air defense systems S-300 are based in Syria, but they do not carry out their work, since Russia does not fully intervene in this military-political conflict and the Syrian military campaign as a whole.

Also, the Iranian military is ready to share their experience with Syrian soldiers in the issue of managing and operating Iranian air defense systems; moreover, military experts note that the Bavar-373 air defense system has extensive experience in detecting American fighters.

In general, Russian systems are “idle” for obvious reasons, if they intercept American stealth fighters or Israeli / Turkish UAVs, then a new military-political conflict could easily erupt. That is why Russian air defense systems are inactive.

War in Syria

In February, Turkey lost at least 62 troops killed in Syria, nearly 100 soldiers were wounded, dozens of Turkish armored vehicles were destroyed and more than ten drones, including drone, were shot down. Washington has repeatedly accused Moscow of involvement in the deaths of Turkish soldiers, Russia rejects these allegations.


In early March, the presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, concluded an agreement according to which a ceasefire came into force in the Idlib de-escalation zone.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad later said that if the US and Turkish military did not leave the country, Damascus would be able to use force.

The reason for the Russian-Turkish negotiations was a sharp aggravation of the situation in Idlib, where in January a large-scale offensive by the Syrian army against the positions of the armed opposition and terrorists began.

Government forces recaptured nearly half of the Idlib de-escalation zone and left behind a number of Turkish observation posts. After that, Ankara sharply increased its military contingent in the region and launched the operation “Spring Shield” to push the Syrian troops. Turkey is also supported by militants loyal to it.

Climate emergency ‘a danger to peace’: top UN official

July 25, 2020

File Photo

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 25 (APP):The climate emergency generated by global warming “is a danger to peace” as climate change exacerbates existing risks of conflict “and creates new ones,” a top United Nations official has said.

Speaking in the United Nations Security Council on Friday, Miroslav Jenca, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, called on peace and security actors to play their role and help speed up implementation of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change.

“The failure to consider the growing impacts of climate change will undermine our efforts at conflict prevention, peacemaking and sustaining peace, and risk trapping vulnerable countries in a vicious cycle of climate disaster and conflict”, he said.

Jenca briefed the Council at the start of an open video-teleconference debate on climate and security, one of the key themes of this month’s German presidency of the 15-member Council.

Noting that the consequences of climate change vary from region to region, he said the fragile or conflict-affected situations around the world are more exposed to – and less able to cope with – the effects of a changing climate.

“It is no coincidence that seven of the 10 countries most vulnerable and least prepared to deal with climate change, host a peacekeeping operation or special political mission”, Jenca said.

Differences exists between regions, within regions and within communities, with climate-related security risks impacting women, men, girls and boys in different ways, he said.

In the Pacific, rising sea levels and extreme weather events pose a risk to social cohesion, he said. In Central Asia, water stress and reduced access to natural resources can contribute to regional tensions.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America, climate-driven population displacement could undermine regional stability. And in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, the effects of climate change are already deepening grievances and escalating the risk of conflict – providing fodder for extremist groups.

Outlining some actions that Member States can take together, he said that new technologies must be leveraged to strengthen the ability to turn long-term climate foresight, into actionable, near-term analysis.

Jenca also recommended stronger partnerships that would bring together the efforts already being made by the UN, Member States, regional organizations and others, to identify best practices, strengthen resilience and bolster regional cooperation.

Woodrow Wilson’s racist liberalism
By Adekeye Adebajo
22 July 2020 | 

Wilsons. PHOTO: HISTORY

Last month, one of America’s most prestigious universities – Princeton – decided, following a five-year student-led campaign by the Black Justice League, to remove the name of Woodrow Wilson from its School of Public and International Affairs, as well as from an undergraduate hall of residence. This was the most striking toppling of an icon in the recent global ferment against discredited historical figures. Princeton’s trustees devastatingly noted that “Wilson’s racism was significant and consequential even by the standards of his own time…. [his] racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake.” Wilson was a former president of the United States (1913-1920) and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. He also served as President of Princeton (1902-1910) where he had been a Professor and an undergraduate.

So, was this decision justified? Woodrow Wilson was born in the American South a decade before the country’s civil war (1861-1865) into a family that employed slave labour, and a pastor-father who defended slavery on biblical grounds. This was the bone-deep racism that a young Woodrow inherited, a prejudice that he found difficult to shake off because it would have been akin to betraying his faith. Ironically, Wilson also remains the most intellectually accomplished American president, having obtained a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University and published nine books on American politics and history. He further taught at several American liberal arts colleges, eventually rising to become a full Professor at Princeton.


Wilson identified strongly with the “Lost Cause” movement which promoted a revisionist view of the history of the American Civil War that portrayed the Southern Confederacy as decent people seeking to preserve an agrarian lifestyle against Northern industrialists, rather than the slavery-supporting white supremacists they were. Slaves were depicted by this movement as “happy”. Many of the Confederate monuments currently being toppled were erected by Lost Cause adherents in the early 1900s during Wilson’s own political ascendancy. While I was studying International Relations at Oxford University in the 1990s, Wilson was held up as the patron saint of a liberal international order and an anti-imperial prophet of national self-determination. But there was also much that our Eurocentric curriculum had left unsaid. We were not, for example, taught that Wilson did not recognise the most basic rights of his black citizens, and that he believed that the US should follow the model of his British cousins by assisting “less civilized” peoples to attain the “habit of law and obedience.”

Wilson’s racism was already evident while president of Princeton when he refused to admit black students at a time when Harvard and Yale were doing so. As Governor of New Jersey, he refused to hire blacks into the state’s service. As president, Wilson attacked the modest progress of African Americans under the decade of Reconstruction (1866-1876) by observing that “the dominance of an ignorant and inferior race was justly dreaded…It was a menace to society itself that the negroes should thus of a sudden be set free and left without tutelage or restraint.” He praised “docile” slaves who stayed with their masters, contrasting them favourably with “vagrants, looking for pleasure and gratuitous fortune” who inevitably “turned thieves or importunate beggars.” He described the end of Reconstruction as “the natural, inevitable ascendancy of the whites, the responsible class,” writing that blacks were being denied the vote in the South not because their skin was dark, but because their minds were dark.


Wilson’s most egregious racism as president was to introduce discriminatory practices that led to the unfair and widespread retrenchment and demotion of black workers from government service. His resegregation of the federal civil service, which had been desegregated for decades, led to apartheid practices in offices – in some cases, black workers worked in cages like animals in a zoo – toilets, canteens, and dressing rooms. The cynical introduction of photo identification for applications into the civil service further resulted in open discrimination against black applicants. Wilson was sympathetic to the murderous Ku Klux Klan: arsonist, hooded terrorists and white supremacists who emerged to oppose black progress during the decade of Reconstruction. The US president effusively endorsed the notorious 1915 film, The Birth of A Nation, screening it at the White House. The movie – which elicited protests in Boston, New York and other major American cities – provided a positive depiction of the Ku Klux Klan, helping to revive it as an active movement, and portrayed blacks as an inferior race and lecherous assaulters of white women.

But despite his racism, Wilson did have some domestic achievements, including creating the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission. Some of his contemporary supporters have sought to excuse his racism by citing his supposedly liberal foreign policy. But even in this sphere, Wilson was a blatant imperialist, engaging in “gunboat diplomacy” in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, and Mexico.

Though Wilson became famous for championing “peace without victory” and “making the world safe for democracy” in 1917 during the First World War, as well as opposing secret agreements between European imperial powers, he was naïve in placing too much faith in idealism over the Realpolitik of European leaders during Paris peace negotiations in 1919. In the end, the peace adopted was a punitive one that helped trigger the grievances exploited by German dictator, Adolf Hitler, to sweep aside the fledgling Weimar Republic, resulting in the Second World War. The 1919 Versailles Treaty itself was dead-on-arrival in an isolationist US Senate.


Wilson’s appeals to “world public opinion” also had a quixotic air to it, since flag-waving European publics had enthusiastically supported their countries’ entry into the First World War. The League of Nations failed not just because it lacked American participation, it was based on an unrealistic reflection of power politics and national interests, and also excluded two critical powers: Germany and Soviet Russia. The world body thus epitomized the very “Victor’s Justice” that the US president had consistently sought to avoid.

Wilson died in February 1924. Two foundations, numerous schools, a government-funded think tank, a navy submarine, and the Geneva-based headquarters of the UN refugee agency all still bear his name. Despite Wilson being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919, he however failed to convince his own country to join the international organisation set up to preserve the post-war peace. Due to the failure of the League of Nations and the outbreak of another global conflict, Wilson’s international reputation had been badly damaged by 1939.

After 1945, his legacy was, however, resurrected by crusading “Wilsonian” American foreign policy jingoists seeking to spread a gospel of democracy and human rights around the world, while often hypocritically doing everything possible to prevent its practice in much of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia by supporting brutal autocrats. Based on the history we have just recounted, there was nothing progressive or liberal about Wilson’s career. He remained until his death a dyed-in-the-wool racist, even by the moral standards of his own age. Princeton’s action in expunging his name from two major buildings thus provides an ideal opportunity to start writing a more accurate, inclusive, and complex version of history than the one I was taught at Oxford.

Professor Adebajo is director, University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation, South Africa.

The wealthy Republicans who want to oust Trump in November's election
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jimmy Tosh, who runs a multi-million dollar hog and grain farm in Tennessee, is a lifelong Republican. He is pro-gun, supports lower taxes and agrees with most of Republican President Donald Trump’s agenda.


He is also spending his money to help defeat Trump in November’s election.

“I agree with 80% of the things he does; I just cannot stand a liar,” Tosh, 70, said of Trump.

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Tosh is one of a growing number of wealthy conservative Americans who say Trump is a threat to democracy and the long-term health of the Republican Party. They are actively supporting his Democratic opponent in the Nov. 3 vote, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Several billionaire and millionaire donors to The Lincoln Project, the most prominent of Republican-backed groups opposing Trump’s re-election, told Reuters that elected Republicans should also be punished for enabling him. Some even support the ouster of vulnerable Republican senators to hand control of the chamber to Democrats.

Their money has fueled an unprecedented campaign from members of a sitting president’s own party to oust him from office. This is a sign that Trump has alienated some Republicans, most recently with his response to the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests over police brutality against Black Americans.

The ultimate impact of these actions remains to be seen in a country so deeply polarized. The “Never Trump” Republicans failed to stop his ascent in 2016 and became marginal figures as Trump came to dominate the party during his presidency. But this year could be different, some strategists from both parties said.

“The distinction in 2020 that we didn’t see in 2016 is the amount of money backing their efforts and their size,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist and a spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

“The number of people willing to go public about Trump and put serious money behind beating him — I don’t think we’ve seen an effort on this scale.”

Besides The Lincoln Project, several Republican-backed groups have been formed in recent months to support Biden including 43 Alumni for Biden, a super PAC involving hundreds of officials who served in Republican President George W. Bush’s administration, and a coalition of former Republican national security officials.

Others are skeptical, noting that Trump is vastly outraising and outspending the Never Trump groups and still enjoys nearly 90% support among Republicans. In June alone, Trump’s campaign raised $55.2 million, compared to the $20 million that The Lincoln Project has raised since its formation in December.

Yet in a close election, even peeling away a sliver of wavering Republicans and some independents could make a difference, analysts said.

Tosh, who has given $11,000 to The Lincoln Project after seeing one of their ads attacking Trump, said he might give to other Republican-led groups too.

“I made the decision I will not support a Republican candidate in an election until Trump is gone,” he said.
Other top individual donors to The Lincoln Project include Christy Walton, the Walmart heiress who has mainly given to Democratic candidates in recent years; hedge fund billionaire Andy Redleaf, who sits on the board of visitors at the conservative Federalist Society; and Sidney Jansma Jr., an oil and gas executive from Michigan and a frequent donor to Republican candidates and causes.

The Lincoln Project ads have attacked Trump over his response to economic and health crises and racial tensions, targeting wavering Trump voters and independents.

Democratic ad maker Jimmy Siegel who worked on Clinton’s 2008 campaign, said some of the spots, viewed by millions, could be persuasive to “teetering” Republicans on the fence.

Erin Perrine, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, said of the anti-Trump groups: “This is the swamp – yet again – trying to take down the duly elected president of the United States.” She said Trump’s level of support among Republicans is “something any former president of any party could only dream of.”

‘REPUBLICANS SHOULD BE PUNISHED’

It is not just conservatives giving to the Republican anti-Trump groups. The Lincoln Project, for instance, is also receiving large sums from wealthy Democrats, filings with the Federal Election Commission show. Its biggest single donation in June was $1 million from hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel, a prolific Democratic donor.

Reed Galin, one of the group’s founders who worked for Bush and the late Republican U.S. Senator John McCain, said Trump’s bullying brand of politics is “not good for the party, and it’s also bad for the country.”

Redleaf, founder of Minnesota-based hedge fund Whitebox Advisors, said Biden will be the first Democratic presidential candidate he has voted for.


Readleaf, who calls himself a “conservative libertarian,” has donated $35,000 to The Lincoln Project. He said he agreed with the group’s push to also target Republican senators who face tough re-election battles in November.

Tosh said he has “mixed emotions.”

“I’ve been a Republican all my life and want to stay Republican - but the Republican Party has to change after what it’s done over the past three years.”

Disabled Americans mark milestone as crisis deepens job woes

Patrice Jetter, a furloughed school crossing guard, poses for a photograph, Thursday, July 23, 2020, in Hamilton, N.J. Jetter, who has cerebral palsy and partial hearing loss, wanted to work with kids when graduating from high school. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The Americans With Disabilities Act was a major turning point in opening large parts of U.S. society to disabled people, but three decades after its passage disabled workers still face higher unemployment than other adults -- a problem compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

Sunday marks 30 years since the ADA was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush with wide bipartisan support. It prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in areas such as employment, transportation and public accommodations.

In practice, that’s meant everything from usable public bathrooms to seats in movie theaters and access to public schools.


“The historically dominant view was that it was an individual problem that each person or family had to cope with on their own,” said Douglas Kruse, an economist at Rutgers University who began using a wheelchair after a drunk driver crashed into him in 1990. “The ADA represented a shift in perspective that a lot of the problems with disability are more societal and environmental.”

That’s led to something simple but crucial: visibility.

“It’s not uncommon to see people with wheelchairs or blind people out doing what they need to do, or want to do, in cities or in restaurants,” said his wife Lisa Schur, a political scientist at Rutgers who studies disability and employment. “Before the ADA, it was unusual. People would be stared at. Now it’s more accepted.”

The law was a hard-fought milestone that came after years of work from disabled people and their supporters, said Peter Berns, CEO of The Arc, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Nevertheless, “the reality still is, people with disabilities are subject to pervasive discrimination in employment and many aspects of life, so the work of the ADA is not done.”

When it comes to employment, things were looking up in the booming June 2019 economy before the coronavirus hit. Still, the unemployment rate was nearly 8% — double that of other workers — even though a large majority said in surveys they can and want to work, Kruse said. Those who are employed often hold low-level jobs in industries like food service, home health care and janitorial work.

“It really seems to be last hired, first fired,” Schur said. “Even 30 years after the ADA, there’s still a lot of employer reluctance.”

The situation has gotten worse during the pandemic. The entire country is reeling from record unemployment and widespread layoffs as large sectors of the economy essentially shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus, but it’s even more pronounced among disabled people.



In June 2020, the unemployment rate for disabled people rose to 16.5%, compared to 11% for workers without a disability, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The ranks of the newly unemployed include Patrice Jetter of Hamilton, New Jersey. She applied to be a crossing guard every year for 12 years before she was first hired in 1993. Jetter, who has cerebral palsy and partial hearing loss, wanted to work with kids when graduating from high school, but had little preparation for taking her SATs in special education classes, so her scores weren’t high enough for college.

She finally got her job after writing to the newly elected mayor. She walked to work every day, even when snow kept her driving colleagues at home.

She loved joking with the elementary school kids who passed her with a vest and stop sign and wishing a good day to the drivers going past — including one woman who changed her route to work because Jetter’s smiles and waves brightened her morning.

“Once you’ve been a crossing guard, it’s in you. You’re never happy doing something else,” she said.

But in March, Jetter, 56, and the rest of the crossing guards in Hamilton were laid off since the pandemic had shut down schools and kids weren’t crossing the street.

“I remember there were nights I didn’t sleep I was so worried about falling behind on bills,” she said. She’s gotten by so far with help applying for benefits like unemployment and rent reductions and finding ways to pool her resources with other disabled friends. She’s also been able to wear a mask and return to practicing her Special Olympics sport of skating, where the leg problems caused by the disease fade away as she glides along the ice.

But it’s still unclear whether schools will be able to reopen and allow her job to restart in the fall. She’s worried about returning to the job market with a rush of other people also looking for work, many of whom won’t have to deal with discrimination she’s encountered over the years as a disabled Black woman.

Still, she’s got her optimism, ingenuity and determination on her side.

“The ADA has opened more doors for people with disabilities,” she said. “There’s still a lot more that has to be worked on, but if we keep plugging away things are going to get better and better.”

Advocates with groups such as The Arc are also pushing Congress to add more funding through Medicaid in the next coronavirus aid package for things like job coaches and transportation to help people such as Jetter get back to jobs that can help them live independently and be more connected to their community.

The pandemic has meant millions of people are working from home, with accommodations that some disabled people have long been denied. It’s shown that workers can be productive from home, though for those gains to translate effectively to the disabled community, access must be increased to the education and computers that make those careers possible, the professors said.

“There may be a silver living,” Kruse said. “Maybe this will shake up the view of how work can be done.”

Poland to quit treaty on violence against women, minister says

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland will take steps next week to withdraw from a European treaty on violence against women, which the right-wing cabinet says violates parents’ rights by requiring schools to teach children about gender, the justice minister said on Saturday.

Zbigniew Ziobro told a news conference his ministry would submit a request to the labour and families ministry on Monday to begin the process of withdrawing from the treaty, known as the Istanbul Convention.

“It contains elements of an ideological nature, which we consider harmful,” Ziobro said.


Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and its coalition partners closely align themselves with the Catholic Church and promote a conservative social agenda. Hostility to gay rights was one of the main issues promoted by President Andrej Duda during a successful re-election campaign this month.

On Friday, thousands of people, mostly women, protested in Warsaw and other cities against proposals to reject the treaty.

“The aim is to legalise domestic violence,” Magdalena Lempart, one of the protest organisers said on Friday at a march in Warsaw. Some protesters carried banners saying “PiS is the women’s hell”.

PiS has long complained about the Istanbul Convention, which Poland ratified under a previous centrist government in 2015. The government says the treaty is disrespectful towards religion and requires teaching liberal social policies in schools, although in the past it has stopped short of a decision to quit.

Ziobro, the justice minister, represents a smaller right-wing party within the ruling coalition. A government spokesman was not available on Saturday for comment on whether Ziobro’s announcement of plans to quit the treaty represented a collective cabinet decision.

The World Health Organization says domestic violence has surged this year in Europe during months of lockdown aimed at fighting the coronavirus.

Female priests now outnumber male ones in Church of Sweden

1 of 5Rev. Elisabeth Oberg Hansen, right, of the Church of Sweden smiles to her student Rikard Kjellman as he puts on his clergy robes for the first time, ahead of his first sermon in Stockholm, Thursday, July 23, 2020. For the first time ever, there are more female than male priests inside the Church of Sweden, according to numbers released this month, a sign that gender equality has made huge strides since the first woman was ordained in Sweden in 1960. (AP Photo/David Keyton)


STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Church of Sweden has more female than male priests for the first time, according to numbers released this month, a sign of huge strides for gender equality since women were first allowed to be ordained in 1960.

The Lutheran institution, which was the official Swedish state church until 2000, now counts 1,533 women serving as priests and 1,527 men. Its archbishop and several bishops are also women.

“It’s a mirror of the society, in a way,” the Rev. Elisabeth Oberg Hansen said after giving a sermon in a small church in Stockholm. “It’s as it should be.”

Oberg Hansen became a priest more than 30 years ago, and she clearly recalls the discrimination she faced when the first parish she was assigned to didn’t accept her.

Rev. Cristina Grenholm, head of theology and Secretary of the Church of Sweden poses for a portrait in Uppsala, Sweden, Tuesday, July 21, 2020. For the first time ever, there are more female than male priests inside the Church of Sweden, according to numbers released this month, a sign that gender equality has made huge strides since the first woman was ordained in Sweden in 1960. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

But times have changed. The European Institute for Gender Equality last year ranked Sweden at the top of its annual equality index, giving the country a score of 83.6 compared to an average of 67.4 for the European Union as a whole.

“It’s a good thing, but I don’t think so much about it nowadays,” Oberg Hansen said of the gender issue in her work.

Sweden’s path towards gender parity is shared across Scandinavia, with roughly equal numbers of men and women serving in the clergy ranks of the Church of Denmark and women well-represented in the priesthood of the Church of Norway.


Rev. Elisabeth Oberg Hansen of the Church of Sweden reviews the service planned by her student Rikard Kjellman ahead of his first sermon in Stockholm, Thursday, July 23, 2020. For the first time ever, there are more female than male priests inside the Church of Sweden, according to numbers released this month, a sign that gender equality has made huge strides since the first woman was ordained in Sweden in 1960. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Rev. Elisabeth Oberg Hansen, centre left and church assistants prepare for a short service in Stockholm, Thursday, July 23, 2020. For the first time ever, there are more female than male priests inside the Church of Sweden, according to numbers released this month, a sign that gender equality has made huge strides since the first woman was ordained in Sweden in 1960. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Church of Sweden Bishop Eva Brunne, who retired after a decade leading the Stockholm diocese, helped push for the acceptance of women but stressed she does not think the priesthood should become an overwhelmingly female profession.

“I’ve been asked during my 10 years as a bishop, ‘Where are all the men?’ and all I can say is ‘I don’t know. I don’t know,’” Brunne said in a telephone interview. “It’s the same thing if you look at universities in Sweden — more women than men. That means more female lawyers, female doctors, etcetera.”

Sweden’s church has some 5.8 million members, representing some 57.7% of the country’s population. But many pews are empty these days, and are more likely to be occupied by women as well.

“I do think it is something we should take as a warning, always, when we see that there is an imbalance,” the Rev. Cristina Grenholm, the head of theology for the Church of Sweden, said, calling the gender imbalance among worshippers “striking.”

“I do think that men have something to discover in the church,” Grenholm said.


A church assistant installs number on a hymn board ahead of a sermon in Stockholm, Thursday, July 23, 2020. For the first time ever, there are more female than male priests inside the Church of Sweden, according to numbers released this month, a sign that gender equality has made huge strides since the first woman was ordained in Sweden in 1960. (AP Photo/David Keyton)


Anna Inghammer, 42, a mother of three studying theology and a candidate for the priesthood, said the balance of men and women in the church made sense to her, but she thinks more work is needed to bring equality in other areas.

“Jesus, in his time, was standing up for justice for people of all classes and all genders, so I think it’s time for women to even more take a step forward,” Inghammer said.

“Of course, representation is good, representation of women, but also ethnicity and class...and that’s also something that we need to work on that,” she said. “The church is for everyone.”

THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN SWEDEN HAS BEEN PROGRESSIVE FOR THE PAST CENTURY AS SHOWN BY ITS ITINERANT TRAVELING PREACHERS LIKE THIS FAMOUS WOBBLY

Thai LGBT activists raise pride flag in anti-government rally



Thai police officers stand among demonstrators during a protest demanding the resignation of Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, in Bangkok, Thailand, July 25, 2020. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Hundreds of Thai LGBT activists and allies raised rainbow flags on Saturday evening as they called for democracy and equal rights, the latest in a series of youth protests calling for the government to step down.

Several youth-led demonstrations have sprung up across the country since last week, when thousands of Thai activists defied a coronavirus ban on gatherings and staged one of the largest street rallies since a 2014 military coup.

The activists on Saturday danced and sang and performed stand-up comedy sketches making jabs at the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief who ousted an elected government six years ago. Pride flags were waved against the backdrop of Bangkok’s Democracy Monument.


“We’re here today mainly to call for democracy. Once we achieve democracy, equal rights will follow,” said a 21-year-old activist who went by a made-up name, Viktorious Nighttime.

“The LGBT group do not yet have equal rights in society, so we’re calling for both democracy and equality,” added Viktorious, who was wearing a glittery tiara and a face mask.

The calls came after Thailand’s cabinet backed a civil partnership bill earlier this month that would recognise same-sex unions with almost the same rights as married couples.


Saturday’s gathering was the latest in a series of protests under the Free Youth movement, which has issued three demands: the dissolution of parliament, an end to harassment of government critics, and amendments to the military-written constitution.

“Even if they don’t step down from power today, we want to let them know that we won’t go anywhere, we will be here,” said a 21-year-old protestor who gave her name as Yaya. “Even if they get rid of us, our ideology will never die, we will pass this on to the next generation.”


Writing by Patpicha Tanakasempipat
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Hedge fund to pay $312M for McClatchy newspaper chain

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management says will pay $312 million to buy newspaper publisher McClatchy out of bankruptcy protection.

Chatham said Friday that it plans to offer employees at the 30-newspaper chain their current jobs with the same pay and benefits, and it will honor collective bargaining agreements.

Chairman Kevin McClatchy, CEO Craig Forman and their fellow board directors will step down when the deal closes by Sept. 30, the chain said in a statement. The deal would need the approval of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge, and a hearing is scheduled for Aug. 4.

McClatchy Co., which is headquartered in Sacramento, California, is one of the largest newspaper companies in the U.S. It owns the Miami Herald, the Charlotte Observer and the Sacramento Bee. It filed for bankruptcy protection because of a heavy debt load stemming from its $4.5 billion purchase of the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain in 2006, just as the newspaper industry went into steep decline.

Chatham was McClatchy’s largest shareholder and debt holder. It beat out a bid from Alden Global Capital, another hedge fund that has taken a leading role in the U.S. newspaper business.