Confederate monuments coming down around South amid protests


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Robert Walker poses for a photograph on the remains of a Confederate memorial that was removed overnight in Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. The city took down the more than 50-foot-tall obelisk following protests over the police death of George Floyd and a night of vandalism in the city. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Sarah Collins Rudolph thought she’d never see what happened in her hometown: Prompted by protests, the city removed a 115-year-old Confederate monument near where her sister and three other black girls died in a racist church bombing in 1963.

A wave of Confederate memorial removals that began after a white supremacist killed nine black people at a Bible study in a church in South Carolina in 2015 is again rolling, with more relics of the Old South being removed from public view after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota.

In Birmingham, where Rudolph lives, the graffiti-covered, pocked base of a massive Confederate monument was all that remained Tuesday after crews dismantled the towering obelisk and trucked it away in pieces overnight. Other symbols came down elsewhere, leaving an empty pedestal in Virginia and a bare flagpole in Florida.

Rudolph, whose sister Addie Mae Collins died in the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church, had to see the sight for herself. She lowered a protective face mask to take in the absence of an edifice she long considered a symbol of oppression.

“I’m glad it’s been removed because it has been so long, and we know that it’s a hate monument,” said Rudolph, 69. “It didn’t represent the blacks. It just represented the hard times back there a long time ago.”

Graffiti, toilet papers and eggs are seen on and around the Confederate Monument in downtown Norfolk, Va., on Sunday, May 31, 2020. Protesters sprayed paint on the monument on Saturday night protest on May 30, 2020. (The N. Pham/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)


Confederate symbols across the South have been targeted for vandalism during demonstrations sparked by Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis. Now, even some of their longtime defenders have decided to remove them.

In Alexandria, Virginia, it was the United Daughters of the Confederacy that took action early Tuesday, removing the statue of a soldier gazing south from Old Town since 1889. And outside Tampa, Florida, a Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter lowered a huge Confederate battle flag that has long been flown in view of two interstate highways.

Birmingham took down the obelisk a day after protesters tried to remove the monument themselves, during one of the many nationwide protests. Crews were preparing to finish the job by pulling up the base.

The monument had been the subject of a protracted court battle between the city and state, which passed a law to protect Confederate icons after rebel monuments were challenged and removed following the killings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the city of Birmingham, seeking to fine the city $25,000 for violating the state law. Mayor Randall Woodfin said earlier this week that the fine was more affordable than the cost of continued unrest in the city. Online fundraising drives have raised more than enough money to pay the fine.


An unidentified man walks past a toppled statue of Charles Linn, a city founder who was in the Confederate Navy, in Birmingham, Ala., on Monday, June 1, 2020, following a night of unrest. People shattered windows, set fires and damaged monuments in a downtown park after a protest against the death of George Floyd. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)

The state lawsuit does not specifically ask Birmingham to restore the monument.

Work to remove the monument began Monday, which was Alabama’s holiday honoring Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who was sworn in Montgomery. There, on the same day, someone knocked over a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee outside a mostly black high school named for him.

Four people were arrested on criminal mischief charges, and the toppled statue was removed.

Sarah Collins Rudolph, who survived a racist church bombing that killed sister Addie Mae Collins and three other girls in 1963, stands with husband George Rudolph at the remains of a Confederate memorial that was removed in Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. The city took down the more than 50-foot-tall obelisk following protests over the police death of George Floyd and a night of vandalism in the city. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)

In Alexandria, a city spokesman said the United Daughters of the Confederacy informed the city on Monday that it would remove the statue, and the city’s only role was to provide traffic support. By morning, the pedestal was all that was left. City officials were not told where the statue was taken.

Titled “Appomattox,” it depicts a solitary Confederate soldier, his head bowed slightly. In 1890, a state law was passed barring local officials from ever removing it. That law was repealed earlier this year.

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson tweeted photos of the removal on Tuesday, saying “Alexandria, like all great cities, is constantly changing and evolving.”

In Birmingham, Rudolph saw the removal of the monument as unfinished business from decades ago. The more than 50-foot-tall (15-meter-tall) memorial to Confederate soldiers and sailors was located just blocks from the church where Rudolph was badly injured and her sister died when a bomb went off on a Sunday morning decades ago.

“The things that we were fighting for in the ’60s aren’t solved yet,” said Rudolph, who testified against Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in the bombing. “We shouldn’t be treated the way they treat us.”

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Associated Press writers Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; and Matthew Barakat in Falls Church, Virginia; contributed to this report.

THE DISPOSSED OF THE EMPIRE

UK study finds minorities at higher risk of COVID-19 death


Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks during a media briefing on coronavirus, in Downing Street, London, Tuesday June 2, 2020. (Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street via AP)


LONDON (AP) — People from ethnic minorities have died from COVID-19 in larger relative numbers in England than their white compatriots, according to a study published by health authorities Tuesday.

The Public Health England report indicated reasons for the discrepancy but didn’t offer any recommendations. The government didn’t offer any solutions, prompting concerns that people from black, Asian and other minority backgrounds will still face a disproportionate risk if there is a second spike in the coronavirus outbreak.

Dr. Kailash Chand, a former deputy chair of the British Medical Association council, said the report could be viewed as a “whitewash” for failing to deliver recommendations.
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“This was something to show that they were appearing to do something,” he said.

The study, commissioned by the government in April at the height of the U.K. outbreak, found that people of Bangladeshi ethnicity had about twice the risk of death from the virus as white Britons. It said people of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, other Asian, Caribbean and other black backgrounds also had a higher risk of death than white Britons – of between 10% and 50%.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was inarguable that “being black or from a minority ethnic background is a major risk factor” in the pandemic.

“This is a particularly timely publication because right across the world people are angry about racial injustice,” Hancock said at a news conference, referring to unrest in the United States over the death of unarmed black man George Floyd while he was being detained by police.

“I get that,” Hancock said of people’s anger. “Black lives matter.”

Hancock said the government would investigate the issues involved in the coming weeks and months.

“I totally understand the urgency, the importance and the sensitivity of getting this right,” he said.

The main opposition Labour Party said the government must act now to protect ethnic-minority groups. It said the review, which drew on official statistics and other data, largely confirmed what was already known about racial and health inequalities.

“When it comes to the question of how we reduce these disparities, it is notably silent,” said Marsha de Cordova, Labour’s equalities spokeswoman. “The government must not wait any longer to mitigate the risks faced by these communities.”

The study did not take account of factors such as obesity — which increases the risk of death from the coronavirus — or the occupations of those who have died. However, it acknowledged that these are “important factors because they are associated with the risk of acquiring COVID-19, the risk of dying, or both.”

It did find that care workers, security guards and road transport drivers, all jobs in which ethnic minority workers are strongly represented, had significantly higher than average death rates.

The report noted that an analysis of over 10,000 patients with COVID-19 admitted to intensive care in U.K. hospitals suggested that, “once age, sex, obesity and comorbidities are taken into account, there is no difference in the likelihood of being admitted to intensive care or of dying between ethnic groups.”

Dr. Veena Raleigh, a senior fellow at health care think tank the King’s Fund, said the report highlighted “profound inequalities” but that there were still some “very big unanswered questions” about the virus’ impact on ethnic groups. Raleigh acknowledged the “time constraints” involved in analysing all the data but said future research has to adjust for pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, obesity, household densities and occupations, among others.

“This is not a lightbulb moment,” the epidemiologist said.

The study confirmed that the biggest risk factor with COVID-19 is age, with people aged 80 or over 70 times more likely to die from the virus than those aged under 40.

It also found that working age men were twice as likely to die as working age women. It also found that the mortality rates from COVID-19 in the most deprived areas were more than double those in the least deprived areas, and that that was the case for both men and women.

Rebecca Hilsenrath, Chief Executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said the broader context of entrenched racial inequality across all areas of life needs to be addressed.

“Only a comprehensive race equality strategy will address these issues,” she said. “Now is a once in a generation opportunity for government to deliver one.”

Movie night in Venezuela barrio offers respite from troubles

The film Aladdin is projected on a screen set up on the roof of a home in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, late Monday, June 1, 2020. A neighborhood group called The Download Zone set up the movie as a free entertainment option for families cooped up since mid-March under the COVID-19 quarantine. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)


CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — At nightfall in one corner of Venezuela’s largest and most notorious barrio, all eyes turned to the glow of a temporary movie screen set up on a hillside terrace atop stacked, red cinder block homes.

Families crawled up cramped stairwells, squeezing together on blankets and plastic chairs spread on their flat rooftops. Some leaned out of their kitchen windows, peering through tangled power lines, while others clustered at the foot of long stairways — anyplace to catch a view.

For a short time Monday, hundreds of families in the neighborhood of Petare had a front row seat for a showing of Disney’s “Aladdin,” allowing residents to escape the stress of the coronavirus quarantine and political wrangling that darkened their TV signals among Venezuela’s deepening troubles.

“We’re going to make some popcorn,” resident Adriana Carrillo said through the bars on her front door as her 5-year-old daughter, Aranza Sofía Guerrero, squirmed next to her. “It’s a great distraction, especially for the children.”

The movie projected a bright spot amid the shadow the pandemic has cast around the world at a time when Venezuelans were already struggling under years of political and social crisis. U.S. sanctions bent on forcing President Nicolás Maduro from power recently forced DirecTV to cut its satellite signal, leaving most families in barrios like Petare with no way to watch movies.


The coronavirus has not hit Venezuela as hard as neighboring Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. So far, officials report just over 1,600 illnesses and 17 deaths, but some fear it could easily overwhelm Venezuela’s hospitals.

A group of neighbors who lead the movie night project called The Official Download Zone work on donations from local charities to set up the screen, a projector and speakers on the rooftop terrace, providing low-budget entertainment for families cooped up since mid-March.

The group has been showing movies in the streets for about seven years, among its projects designed to help build a sense of community among Petare’s poor and working class neighborhoods, which have a reputation for violence.

Jimmy Pérez, one of the organizers, said the quarantine and lack of satellite TV made their movie night even more important to residents. They’re taking advantage of families’ rooftop terraces, which already hold an important place in Venezuelan culture, he said.

“It’s on our terraces that we dream and gather together,” Pérez said. “It’s where we bid farewell to each year, set off fireworks at Carnival and fly kites.”




The group, which pushes no political agenda in a deeply divided Venezuela, picks family movies that bring hope-filled messages as they move among neighborhoods, with one planned for each night this week.

They also believe the project will create a narrative for Petare that runs contrary to one of unbridled violence that too many people see. They highlight residents born and raised there who went on to become Major League Baseball players, beauty queens and professionals.

Still, many residents watching “Aladdin” said they remain shaken by a bloody turf war among gangs last month in a nearby part of Petare. The sound of heavy gunfire lasted through several nights. One neighbor described seeing a police helicopter hover outside her front door, making her run for cover.

 

On Monday, however, the only sound echoing throughout this part of Petare was the Disney soundtrack to “Aladdin,” bouncing through the canyon of hillside homes. Its songs and plot tell the story of an Arabian street urchin who wins a princess’s heart despite the obstacles a villain throws his way.

Santiago Vega, 9, said he would normally be playing on his tablet at this time of night, whiling away the hours. Rather, he squeezed in between his dad and uncle to watch the movie, grateful for something different for at least one night.

“I want to be able to see my grandmother, my cousins,” he said, wondering if he’ll be able to properly celebrate his birthday coming up on July 4. “But I can’t, because of all this.”

Concerns mount about two studies on drugs for coronavirus

 This Monday, April 6, 2020 file photo shows an arrangement of hydroxychloroquine pills in Las Vegas. On Tuesday, June 2, 2020, concerns are mounting about studies in two influential medical journals on drugs used in people with coronavirus, including one that led multiple countries to stop testing a malaria pill. (AP Photo/John Locher,File)

Concerns are mounting about studies in two influential medical journals on drugs used in people with coronavirus, including one that led multiple countries to stop testing a malaria pill.

The New England Journal of Medicine issued an “ expression of concern ” Tuesday on a study it published May 1 that suggested widely used blood pressure medicines were not raising the risk of death for people with COVID-19.

The study relied on a database with health records from hundreds of hospitals around the world. “Substantive concerns” have been raised about the quality of the information, and the journal has asked the authors to provide evidence it’s reliable, the editors wrote.

The same database by the Chicago company Surgisphere Corp., was used in an observational study of nearly 100,000 patients published in Lancet that tied the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to a higher risk of death in hospitalized patients with the virus. Lancet issued a similar expression of concern about its study on Tuesday, saying it was aware “important scientific questions” had been raised.

Although it wasn’t a rigorous experiment that could give definitive answers, the Lancet study had wide influence because of its size. The World Health Organization said it would temporarily stop a study of hydroxychloroquine and France stopped allowing its use in hospitals.

The drug has been mired in controversy since President Donald Trump repeatedly promoted it and even took it himself without clear evidence that it’s safe or effective for preventing or treating coronavirus infection.

Dr. Mandeep Mehra of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston led both studies, and the authors include Desai Sapan, Surgisphere’s founder.

A hospital statement says the authors launched an independent audit of the data in the New England Journal paper on Monday. A second statement notes that the Lancet posted a correction Friday on a discrepancy found in that study, and that an independent review would be done of its data too. The correction did not change the overall results or conclusions.

A statement on Surgisphere’s site says it stands behind the integrity of its studies, and notes that observational data like what it supplied from electronic health records are not a substitute for rigorous experiments to test a drug.

The Lancet and the authors need to do more to address the many concerns that scientists have raised, said Dr. Eric Topol, a research methods expert and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego.

“I had accepted the Lancet paper on its face” because the journal and lead author are highly regarded, and because the results are consistent with prior research -- 13 studies have found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus, Topol said.

With the new concerns and correction, the cloud around the database “has now been greatly amplified,” Topol said.

Bell, Telus give 5G contracts to Europeans, Huawei shut out

In this May 18, 2020, file photo, a man wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus walks past a Huawei retail store in Beijing. One of China’s biggest tech companies has criticized the Trump administration for “politicizing business” after it slapped export sanctions on 33 more Chinese enterprises and government entities. The announcement expanded a U.S. campaign against Chinese companies Washington says might be security threats or involved in human rights abuses. Beijing criticized curbs imposed earlier on tech giant Huawei and other Chinese companies but has yet to say whether it will retaliate. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)


TORONTO (AP) — Two of Canada’s three major telecommunication companies announced Tuesday they’ve decided not to use Chinese tech giant Huawei for their next-generation 5G wireless network.

Bell Canada announced that Sweden-based Ericsson will be its supplier and Telus Corp. later announced that it had also selected Ericsson and Nokia. Rogers already has a longstanding partnership with Ericsson.

Canada and its security agencies have been studying whether to use equipment from Huawei as phone carriers prepare to roll out fifth-generation technology. 5G is designed to support a vast expansion of networks to facilitate medical devices, self-driving cars and other technology.

Huawei is the world’s biggest supplier of network gear used by phone and internet companies, but has long been seen as a front for spying by China’s military and its highly skilled security services.

The U.S. has urged Canada to exclude Huawei equipment from their next-generation wireless networks as they claim Huawei is legally beholden to the Chinese regime. The United States and Australia have banned Huawei, citing concerns it is an organ of Chinese military intelligence — a charge the company denies.

“We look forward to the federal government completing its 5G review and making an evidence-based decision about Huawei’s role in helping build Canada’s next-generation wireless networks,” Huawei spokesman Alykhan Velshi said in an email.

The Canadian government is studying the use of Huawei as Canada and China are locked in a political dispute. China’s imprisonment of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor is widely seen as retaliation for the arrest in Canada of Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant. A Canadian judge ruled last week the U.S. extradition case against a senior Huawei executive can proceed to the next stage.

DUMPY TRUMP PLAYS TRICKY DICKY

Trump offers ‘domination’ of DC protests as model for states

Claiming he is backed by a “silent majority,” President Donald Trump turned the nation’s capital into a model for the overwhelming force

By ZEKE MILLER, JONATHAN LEMIRE and MICHAEL BALSAMO

President Donald Trump visits Saint John Paul II National Shrine with first lady Melania Trump, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Claiming he is backed by a “silent majority,” President Donald Trump turned the nation’s capital into a model for the overwhelming force he believes critical to stop sometimes-violent protests that have spread across the country in a time of racial unrest. His tactics were decried Tuesday by some fellow Republicans as well as his presumptive Democratic opponent.

The violent dispersal of peaceful protests near the White House the night before was a potent symbol of Trump’s policing tactics and a physical manifestation of the rhetorical culture war he has stoked since before he was elected. Moments after historic Lafayette Park was cleared, Trump walked across to pose with a Bible in front of a church damaged by fire during protests the previous evening.

“D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination,” Trump tweeted Tuesday, after a night in which heavily armed military forces and federal officers swarmed the city. Trump added: “(thank you President Trump!).”

The president wanted to make the aggressive action in the nation’s capital — where he wields disproportionate powers — an example for the rest of the country, a senior White House official said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss internal thinking. Trump hoped his personal walk to the church, after federal officials dispersed protesters, would send a message about how dominant force could restore law and order.

The president has threatened that if states do not take tough enough action, he will deploy active duty military across the country to quell unrest in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“SILENT MAJORITY!” Trump tweeted Tuesday, embracing a phrase popularized by President Richard Nixon decades ago, in claiming broad support for his actions. Trump also emphasized the political importance of the moment to his supporters on Twitter and declared that “My Admin has done more for the Black Community than any President since Abraham Lincoln.”

The District of Columbia’s federal status gives the president outsized authority to act, allowing him to direct the deployment of the National Guard. He authorized Attorney General William Barr to oversee a surge in the deployment of federal law enforcement officers, including the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team and agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought to distance themselves from Monday night’s events after former military officials criticized their appearance with the president. Senior defense officials told reporters the two were not aware that the Park Police and law enforcement had made a decision to clear the square or that Trump intended to visit the church. They had been in Washington to coordinate with federal law enforcement officials but were diverted to the White House to brief Trump on military preparations, the officials said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said of Trump posing for photos holding up a Bible: “I just wish he opened it once in a while.”

And D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said of the routing of the protesters, “At no time do we think it was appropriate that people who had not violated the curfew or anything else received that treatment.”

Democrats weren’t the only ones saying Trump had gone too far.

“There is no right to riot, no right to destroy others’ property, and no right to throw rocks at police,” said Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse. “But there is a fundamental — a constitutional — right to protest, and I’m against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop.”

It was Barr who gave the order Monday afternoon for law enforcement to clear out the protest before Trump’s walk to the church and ahead of Washington’s 7 p.m. curfew. Officials said the decision to clear the park was made earlier in the day in response to violence the night before.

Trump also ordered military aircraft to fly above Washington on Monday night as a “show of force,” according to two Defense Department officials. They said the U.S. military and National Guard were operating under the mission name “Operation Themis.” In Greek mythology, Themis is a titaness of divine law and order, whose symbols are the scales of justice.

Execution of the order to clear the park created striking split-screen images as officers deployed pepper spray, flash bangs and mounted units to break up the peaceful protest even as Trump was in the Rose Garden saying he supported the rights of peaceful protesters. Chemical remnants still hung in the air as he walked to the church.

Trump reacted to the clearing of the protesters with enthusiasm, pumping his fist at officers in the park. He’d been furious about weekend images juxtaposing the fires in the area with the darkened White House in the background, according to current and former campaign and administration officials not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Trump was also angry about the news coverage revealing that he had been rushed to the White House bunker during weekend protests, believing the park fires in what amounts to his extended front yard made him appear weak.

But some White House and Justice Department officials privately acknowledged that Monday’s events didn’t serve the administration well.

Trump on Tuesday appeared to be backing off his threat to deploy federal troops to quell unrest under the 1807 Insurrection Act. White House officials said Monday night’s events indicated that the resources already available to local governments should be able to restore order.
Full Coverage: America Protests

Instead, Trump turned his Twitter fire on New York officials, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a frequent political sparring partner.

“New York was lost to the looters, thugs, Radical Left, and all others forms of Lowlife & Scum,” Trump tweeted. “The Governor refuses to accept my offer of a dominating National Guard. NYC was ripped to pieces.”

The federal government has provided all affected states with a list of National Guard resources available to them, the White House official said. The official added that Trump’s message to governors was that if they don’t use all the tools in their arsenal they shouldn’t expect a sympathetic response to any request for federal dollars to help with cleanup and recovery down.

Trump, meanwhile, toured a Catholic shrine on Tuesday in his second straight religious-themed appearance after he declared himself to be the “president of law and order.”

Washington Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory called it “reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree.”

On Tuesday’s drive to the shrine, Trump’s motorcade sped past National Guard members deployed around the World War II Memorial. Some onlookers along the route booed, held “black lives matter” signs or made obscene gestures as the convoy rolled past.

Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him down and pressed Floyd’s neck with his knee as the man pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. Violent demonstrations have raged in scores of American cities, marking a level of unrest unseen for decades.

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Lemire reported from New York.

‘We won’t tolerate’: Sports world unites behind Floyd
By STEVE DOUGLAS

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In this Monday, June 1, 2020 photo, Dínico Perry-Ellis leads a chant on Station Street in Pittsburgh, protesting the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)


layers who scored in the German and Hungarian soccer leagues removed their jerseys to display undershirts with the words: “Justice for George Floyd.”

Others from English soccer clubs Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle dropped to one knee during practice in a clear gesture of support.

In New Zealand, a Nigerian-born UFC fighter addressed a crowd of 4,000, imploring those listening to “speak up” and take peaceful action to register their discontent.

Dismayed by the death of Floyd and inspired by the actions of Colin Kaepernick, athletes from around the world have come together during one of the most politically charged periods in modern history.

“I can’t tolerate. I won’t tolerate. WE WON’T TOLERATE,” Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba, one of the world’s most famous soccer players and a World Cup champion with France, wrote on his Instagram page to his 41 million followers alongside a picture of him looking to the sky with a clenched right fist.

It was powerful image to accompany the picture of 29 Liverpool players kneeling around the center circle at Anfield Stadium at the end of a practice session on Monday. Or the entire Chelsea squad kneeling down and forming the letter “H” — for humans — during training on Tuesday.

Their actions mimicked the one made by Kaepernick during the national anthem in 2016 in silent protest of police brutality and racism while then playing for the San Francisco 49ers.

Kaepernick’s gesture kicked off a period of pregame activism in the NFL and other sports but it didn’t gain a strong hold worldwide.

Not like the killing of Floyd, a black man and former community college basketball player who died after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and stopped pleading for air.

“It hit a nerve in this very particular time, which I think made people all around the world reflect on the environment we live, not only in the U.S. but in all kinds of places where there is a perpetuation of discrimination and inequality,” Jonas Baer-Hoffmann, secretary general of global soccer players union FIFPro, told The Associated Press.

We’re seeing a generation of players right now moving into the steps of athletes in the past who were socially quite engaged and willing to put themselves behind causes they care about. I think it’s incredibly empowering to see these players step forward and share in that fight for a better society.”

Things have escalated so much that FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, took the rare step of urging competition organizers to consider not sanctioning players who support justice for Floyd during matches. The laws of the game prohibit “any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images.”

“The application of the laws of the game … should use common sense and have in consideration the context surrounding the events,” FIFA said, acknowledging “the depth of sentiment” regarding Floyd’s death.

English soccer leaders have already said players will be able to show solidarity without the prospect of facing sanctions when games resume this month after a three-month break because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Emboldened soccer players appear to be more confident in speaking out about racism than ever before, including Jadon Sancho, who revealed a handwritten “Justice for George Floyd” message on his undershirt after scoring a goal for Borussia Dortmund on Sunday, openly and knowingly flouting the rules.

Marcus Rashford, a black striker for Manchester United, called for justice for Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor — two other black people killed in shooting incidents in America this year — on Twitter in the wake of Floyd’s death.

Soccer players may also take what has happened to Floyd more personally because of how often black players have been abused inside stadiums around Europe in recent years. The sanctions for racism — if they are handed out at all — can often be derisory.

As their own form of protest, some black players have taken to walking off the field after being racially abused by fans because many have little faith in authorities and governing bodies to effect change.

That’s the position many protesters in the United States are finding themselves in.

Baer-Hoffman said the reaction of sports stars was a reflection of uncertain times around the world since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

“Maybe it’s because we are living in a time where the interconnectedness of people through the pandemic has become more conscious to us all,” he said.

“When you look at the images (of the incident involving Floyd), it is manifestly disturbing. It scares you and forces you to think … I think it stands for something much greater. For footballers in this context, they are people ... They are speaking out and, of course, have a bigger platform than most.”

When Kaepernick took a knee four years ago, United States star Megan Rapinoe was one of the few high-profile soccer players to champion his cause publicly. But the clear parallel between Kaepernick’s action and the knee of the police officer on Floyd’s neck has roused more athletes to speak out.

“In no way are we asking black lives to matter more than white lives,” DeAndre Yedlin, a U.S. soccer international who plays with Newcastle in England, wrote on Twitter.

“All we’re asking is we are seen as equal, as more than 3/5 of a man, as humans. My heart goes out in solidarity to George Floyd, his family, and all of the countless number of victims that have had their lives taken at the hands of meaningless police brutality.”

___

Minneapolis police face civil rights probe over Floyd death


This undated file photo provided by Christopher Harris shows George Floyd. Floyd died May 25, after he was pinned to the pavement by a police officer who put his knee on the handcuffed black man's neck until he stopped breathing. (Christopher Harris via AP, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The state of Minnesota on Tuesday launched a civil rights investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department in hopes of forcing widespread changes following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for minutes, even after he stopped moving.

Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights announced the filing of the formal complaint at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. The governor and Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said they hope to reach agreement with the city to identify short-term ways to address the police department’s history of racial discrimination, and use the investigation to find long-term solutions for systemic change.

Lucero said their goal is to negotiate a consent decree with the city that courts could enforce with injunctions and financial penalties. There are precedents, she said, including a consent decree approved in Chicago last year after the U.S. Justice Department found a long history of racial bias and excessive use of force by police.

Widely seen bystander video showing Floyd’s death has sparked sometimes violent protests around the world. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been fired and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Three other officers involved were fired but have not been charged.
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“We know that deeply seated issues exist,” the governor said. “And the reason I know it is we saw the casual nature of the erasing of George Floyd’s life and humanity. We also know by the reaction of the community. They expected nothing to happen, and the reason is because nothing did happen for so many times.”

First Lt. Andrea Drost of the Minnesota Army National Guard joins protesters in a moment of prayer at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., Monday, June 1, 2020, during protests over the death of George Floyd, who died May 25 after being restrained by Minneapolis police. (Carlos Gonzalez/Star Tribune via AP)

Walz said the investigation into the police department’s policies, procedures and practices over the past 10 years will determine if the force has engaged in systemic discrimination toward people of color, and root it out. Lucero will lead the investigation.

All 12 members of the Minneapolis City Council endorsed a statement read by Council President Lisa Bender at a news conference later Tuesday in support of the investigation.

“We urge the state to use its full weight to hold the Minneapolis Police Department accountable for any and all abuses of power and harms to our community and stand ready to aid in this process as full partners,” the council said.

Mayor Jacob Frey said the state’s intervention will help break what he called a stalemate on reform.

“For years in Minneapolis, police chiefs and elected officials committed to change have been thwarted by police union protections and laws that severely limit accountability among police departments,” Frey said in a statement. “I welcome today’s announcement because breaking through those persistent barriers, shifting the culture of policing, and addressing systemic racism will require all of us working hand in hand.”

A police department spokesman and the president of the officers’ union didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The FBI is also investigating whether police willfully deprived Floyd of his civil rights.

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights enforces the state’s human rights act, particularly as it applies to discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and public services. Mediation is one of its first-choice tools, but the cases it files can lead to fuller investigations and sometimes end up in litigation.

The Minneapolis Police Department has faced decades of allegations of brutality and other discrimination against African Americans and other minorities, even within the department itself. Critics say its culture resists change, despite the elevation of Medaria Arradondo as its first black police chief in 2017.

Arradondo himself was among five black officers who sued the police department in 2007 over alleged discrimination in promotions, pay, and discipline. They said in their lawsuit that the department had a history of tolerating racism and discrimination. The city settled the lawsuit for $740,000.

State Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, who was neighboring St. Paul’s second black police chief, said good officers should welcome the investigation. He co-chaired a working group with Attorney General Keith Ellison that reported back in February on ways to reduce police-involved deadly force encounters.

“I’ve been a cop for 40 years. I have lived in this system that they’re talking about reforming. ... The cops I talk to, the cops I’ve worked with since 1977 to date will tell you, they want change,” Harrington said. “They don’t want to work in a flawed system. They don’t want to have to be wearing gas masks. They don’t want to have to be on riot control duty.”

Earlier Tuesday, an attorney for Floyd’s family again decried the official autopsy that found his death was caused by cardiac arrest as police restrained him and compressed his neck. The medical examiner also listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use, but not as the cause of death.

A separate autopsy commissioned for Floyd’s family concluded that that he died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression.

“The cause of death was that he was starving for air. It was lack of oxygen. And so everything else is a red herring to try to throw us off,” family attorney Ben Crump said. He said the Hennepin County medical examiner went to great lengths to try to convince the public that what was shown on bystander video didn’t cause Floyd to die.

Ellison told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that prosecutors are working as fast as they can to determine whether more charges will be filed.

Curfews give sweeping powers to cops, but are often flouted
By JEFFREY COLLINS and MICHAEL SISAK

Protesters march across the Brooklyn Bridge as part of a solidarity rally calling for justice over the death of George Floyd Monday, June 1, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)



COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Hundreds of cities have imposed curfews to keep the peace during a week of violent unrest across the U.S., employing a tactic that gives law enforcement sweeping arrest powers but is frequently flouted and criticized as being unconstitutional.

From New York City to Fargo, North Dakota, cities large and small have put curfews in place — in some cases for the first time in decades — sending out emergency notices on phones and highway signs urging people to stay off the streets.

But the deadlines aren’t hard and fast — many of them have exceptions for people heading to and from work, reporters, public transportation and even people buying groceries. Many protesters and citizens have routinely disregarded the restrictions, and police have allowed peaceful demonstrations to continue after curfew while focusing their attention on violent unrest

A curfew allows police the ability without any other reason to threaten to arrest or detain crowds of protesters that linger or groups that appear to be a danger to order. And curfews can be a deterrent to get law-abiding citizens off the street and allow police to focus their efforts on the unrest and not get bogged down in run-of-the-mill violations.

New York City put in place a large-scale curfew for what appeared to be the first time in nearly 80 years this week as groups vandalized buildings and stole from stores. The curfew was originally 11 p.m., but Mayor Bill de Blasio rolled it back to 8 p.m., before the sun goes down.

“If you choose to protest today, do it in the daytime hours and then please go home because we have work to do to keep a peaceful city,” de Blasio said.

Curfews have been installed in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit, Denver. Philadelphia and hundreds of other cities and communities across the country.

Curfews aren’t unusual in the United States but are typically used in natural disasters like hurricanes, floods and tornadoes to allow law enforcement to stop anyone on the streets and prevent stealing when many homes and empty or damaged. New York City has used curfews in specific locations like parks — sometimes with controversial results.

The 1988 Tompkins Square Park riot in Manhattan had to do in part with a then-newly imposed 1 a.m. parks department curfew in a bid to rid the park of drugs and crime. In enforcing the curfew, police flooded the park with officers and were accused of rampant abuses.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani ramped up enforcement of Central Park’s nightly closure after a string of robberies in the late 1990s. Giuliani was so strict about the curfew, he wouldn’t grant an exception for a late-night vigil to John Lennon, despite intercession from the lord mayor of Liverpool on behalf of aggrieved Beatles fans.

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During the unrest of the past week, police also want bystanders off the street during unrest — and the curfew solves that.

“The curfew really is to keep people from coming sort of to gawk at what’s going on and keep the looky-loos away,” said Sacramento City Councilman Steve Hansen, whose city’s 8 p.m. Monday curfew appeared to help prevent the destructive demonstrations from the night before.

The curfews also come on the heels of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, making for an unprecedented stretch in cities like New York.

In Columbia, South Carolina, officials lifted a weekend curfew and the mayor joined an afternoon protest at the state capitol calling for police reform. But several dozen people stayed for hours after the protest ended as tensions with police grew as shadows got longer.

Just before 7:30 p.m. Monday, Columbia, South Carolina , Mayor Steve Benjamin set a curfew for 7:45 p.m. for a small area of downtown and an areas of restaurants and shops. The city sent an emergency notice and protesters looked at their screens as their phones started to buzz and the curfew set in. The protesters immediately started to walk away.

But some civil rights organizations think hastily issued curfews are unfair and against the First Amendment of the Constitution.

“By making presence on public streets anywhere in these cities unlawful, these measures give police too much discretion over whom to arrest,” said the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California after a number of cities issued curfews.

New York City on Monday found out an unintended consequence of a curfew is keeping away law-abiding protesters. The night before, they banded together to stop vandalism and help police find lawbreakers.

It also sends a subtle message, said New York City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez.

“Implementing a curfew and increasing the number of police officers patrolling the streets is a tactic to effectively silence the voices raised in protest against the abuse of power and looting of black and colored bodies by members of the police,” Rodriguez said.

Curfews can cause other problems too. Charleston, South Carolina, had a curfew for three days after late night Saturday protests led to shattered windows for restaurants and businesses and stolen merchandise downtown.

Monday night was quiet. And Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said he immediately heard from a certain group of people.

“We want to give our businesses a chance to get back into business,” Tecklenburg told his City Council at a Tuesday meeting lifting the curfew.

A curfew also allows police to separate people who want to protest while following the law from people who want to cause harm, said Tamara Herold, an assistant professor in the Criminal Justice Department at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. That makes it easier for law enforcement to decide how to use force to break up unrest.

“One of the things police always want to avoid is using indiscriminate force against a large crowd,” Herold said.

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Associated Press Writers Claudia Lauer and Adam Beam contributed to this report.

AP SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
China delayed releasing coronavirus info, frustrating WHO

LONG READ

By The Associated Press 6/2/2020

1 of 15 https://apnews.com/3c061794970661042b18d5aeaaed9fae
FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2020, file photo, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus. It repeatedly thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus “immediately” and said its work and commitment to transparency were “very impressive, and beyond words.” But behind the scenes, there were significant delays by China and considerable frustration among WHO officials over the lack of outbreak data, The Associated Press has found. (Naohiko Hatta/Pool Photo via AP, File)


Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus. It repeatedly thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus “immediately,” and said its work and commitment to transparency were “very impressive, and beyond words.”

But behind the scenes, it was a much different story, one of significant delays by China and considerable frustration among WHO officials over not getting the information they needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, The Associated Press has found.

Despite the plaudits, China in fact sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information. Tight controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were to blame, according to dozens of interviews and internal documents.

Chinese government labs only released the genome after another lab published it ahead of authorities on a virologist website on Jan. 11. Even then, China stalled for at least two weeks more on providing WHO with detailed data on patients and cases, according to recordings of internal meetings held by the U.N. health agency through January — all at a time when the outbreak arguably might have been dramatically slowed.

WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference in Geneva in March. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

WHO officials were lauding China in public because they wanted to coax more information out of the government, the recordings obtained by the AP suggest. Privately, they complained in meetings the week of Jan. 6 that China was not sharing enough data to assess how effectively the virus spread between people or what risk it posed to the rest of the world, costing valuable time.

“We’re going on very minimal information,” said American epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, now WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19, in one internal meeting. “It’s clearly not enough for you to do proper planning.”

“We’re currently at the stage where yes, they’re giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV,” said WHO’s top official in China, Dr. Gauden Galea, referring to the state-owned China Central Television, in another meeting.

The story behind the early response to the virus comes at a time when the U.N. health agency is under siege, and has agreed to an independent probe of how the pandemic was handled globally. After repeatedly praising the Chinese response early on, U.S. President Donald Trump has blasted WHO in recent weeks for allegedly colluding with China to hide the extent of the coronavirus crisis. He cut ties with the organization on Friday, jeopardizing the approximately $450 million the U.S. gives every year as WHO’s biggest single donor.

In the meantime, Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to pitch in $2 billion over the next two years to fight the coronavirus, saying China has always provided information to WHO and the world “in a most timely fashion.”

The new information does not support the narrative of either the U.S. or China, but instead portrays an agency now stuck in the middle that was urgently trying to solicit more data despite limited authority. Although international law obliges countries to report information to WHO that could have an impact on public health, the U.N. agency has no enforcement powers and cannot independently investigate epidemics within countries. Instead, it must rely on the cooperation of member states.

Dr. Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization representative in China, during an interview at the WHO offices in Beijing. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

The recordings suggest that rather than colluding with China, as Trump declared, WHO was itself kept in the dark as China gave it the minimal information required by law. However, the agency did try to portray China in the best light, likely as a means to secure more information. And WHO experts genuinely thought Chinese scientists had done “a very good job” in detecting and decoding the virus, despite the lack of transparency from Chinese officials.

WHO staffers debated how to press China for gene sequences and detailed patient data without angering authorities, worried about losing access and getting Chinese scientists into trouble. Under international law, WHO is required to quickly share information and alerts with member countries about an evolving crisis. Galea noted WHO could not indulge China’s wish to sign off on information before telling other countries because “that is not respectful of our responsibilities.”

In the second week of January, WHO’s chief of emergencies, Dr. Michael Ryan, told colleagues it was time to “shift gears” and apply more pressure on China, fearing a repeat of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that started in China in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people worldwide.

Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies program, at a news conference in Geneva. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

“This is exactly the same scenario, endlessly trying to get updates from China about what was going on,” he said. “WHO barely got out of that one with its neck intact given the issues that arose around transparency in southern China.”

Ryan said the best way to “protect China” from possible action by other countries was for WHO to do its own independent analysis with data from the Chinese government on whether the virus could easily spread between people. Ryan also noted that China was not cooperating in the same way some other countries had in the past.

“This would not happen in Congo and did not happen in Congo and other places,” he said, probably referring to the Ebola outbreak that began there in 2018. “We need to see the data…..It’s absolutely important at this point.”
Full Coverage: Understanding the Outbreak

The delay in the release of the genome stalled the recognition of its spread to other countries, along with the global development of tests, drugs and vaccines. The lack of detailed patient data also made it harder to determine how quickly the virus was spreading — a critical question in stopping it.

Between the day the full genome was first decoded by a government lab on Jan. 2 and the day WHO declared a global emergency on Jan. 30, the outbreak spread by a factor of 100 to 200 times, according to retrospective infection data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus has now infected over 6 million people worldwide and killed more than 375,000.

“It’s obvious that we could have saved more lives and avoided many, many deaths if China and the WHO had acted faster,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

However, Mokdad and other experts also noted that if WHO had been more confrontational with China, it could have triggered a far worse situation of not getting any information at all.


If WHO had pushed too hard, it could even have been kicked out of China, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a global health professor at the University of Sydney. But he added that a delay of just a few days in releasing genetic sequences can be critical in an outbreak. And he noted that as Beijing’s lack of transparency becomes even clearer, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s continued defense of China is problematic.

“It’s definitely damaged WHO’s credibility,” said Kamradt-Scott. “Did he go too far? I think the evidence on that is clear….it has led to so many questions about the relationship between China and WHO. It is perhaps a cautionary tale.”

WHO and its officials named in this story declined to answer questions asked by The Associated Press without audio or written transcripts of the recorded meetings, which the AP was unable to supply to protect its sources.

“Our leadership and staff have worked night and day in compliance with the organization’s rules and regulations to support and share information with all Member States equally, and engage in frank and forthright conversations with governments at all levels,” a WHO statement said.

China’s National Health Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no comment. But in the past few months, China has repeatedly defended its actions, and many other countries — including the U.S. — have responded to the virus with even longer delays of weeks and even months.

“Since the beginning of the outbreak, we have been continuously sharing information on the epidemic with the WHO and the international community in an open, transparent and responsible manner,” said Liu Mingzhu, an official with the National Health Commission’s International Department, at a press conference on May 15.

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The race to find the genetic map of the virus started in late December, according to the story that unfolds in interviews, documents and the WHO recordings. That’s when doctors in Wuhan noticed mysterious clusters of patients with fevers and breathing problems who weren’t improving with standard flu treatment. Seeking answers, they sent test samples from patients to commercial labs.

By Dec. 27, one lab, Vision Medicals, had pieced together most of the genome of a new coronavirus with striking similarities to SARS. Vision Medicals shared its data with Wuhan officials and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, as reported first by Chinese finance publication Caixin and independently confirmed by the AP.

On Dec. 30, Wuhan health officials issued internal notices warning of the unusual pneumonia, which leaked on social media. That evening, Shi Zhengli, a coronavirus expert at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who is famous for having traced the SARS virus to a bat cave, was alerted to the new disease, according to an interview with Scientific American. Shi took the first train from a conference in Shanghai back to Wuhan.

Shi Zhengli works with other researchers in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. (Chinatopix via AP)

The next day, Chinese CDC director Gao Fu dispatched a team of experts to Wuhan. Also on Dec. 31, WHO first learned about the cases from an open-source platform that scouts for intelligence on outbreaks, emergencies chief Ryan has said.

WHO officially requested more information on Jan. 1. Under international law, members have 24 to 48 hours to respond, and China reported two days later that there were 44 cases and no deaths.

By Jan. 2, Shi had decoded the entire genome of the virus, according to a notice later posted on her institute’s website.

Scientists agree that Chinese scientists detected and sequenced the then-unknown pathogen with astonishing speed, in a testimony to China’s vastly improved technical capabilities since SARS, during which a WHO-led group of scientists took months to identify the virus. This time, Chinese virologists proved within days that it was a never-before-seen coronavirus. Tedros would later say Beijing set “a new standard for outbreak response.”

But when it came to sharing the information with the world, things began to go awry.

On Jan. 3, the National Health Commission issued a confidential notice ordering labs with the virus to either destroy their samples or send them to designated institutes for safekeeping. The notice, first reported by Caixin and seen by the AP, forbade labs from publishing about the virus without government authorization. The order barred Shi’s lab from publishing the genetic sequence or warning of the potential danger.

Chinese law states that research institutes cannot conduct experiments on potentially dangerous new viruses without approval from top health authorities. Although the law is intended to keep experiments safe, it gives top health officials wide-ranging powers over what lower-level labs can or cannot do.

“If the virologist community had operated with more autonomy….the public would have been informed of the lethal risk of the new virus much earlier,” said Edward Gu, a professor at Zhejiang University, and Li Lantian, a PhD student at Northwestern University, in a paper published in March analyzing the outbreak.

Commission officials later repeated that they were trying to ensure lab safety, and had tasked four separate government labs with identifying the genome at the same time to get accurate, consistent results.

By Jan. 3, the Chinese CDC had independently sequenced the virus, according to internal data seen by the Associated Press. And by just after midnight on Jan. 5, a third designated government lab, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, had decoded the sequence and submitted a report — pulling all-nighters to get results in record time, according to a state media interview.

Yet even with full sequences decoded by three state labs independently, Chinese health officials remained silent. The WHO reported on Twitter that investigations were under way into an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases with no deaths in Wuhan, and said it would share “more details as we have them.”

Meanwhile, at the Chinese CDC, gaps in coronavirus expertise proved a problem.

For nearly two weeks, Wuhan reported no new infections, as officials censored doctors who warned of suspicious cases. Meanwhile, researchers found the new coronavirus used a distinct spike protein to bind itself to human cells. The unusual protein and the lack of new cases lulled some Chinese CDC researchers into thinking the virus didn’t easily spread between humans — like the coronavirus that casues Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to an employee who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution.

Li, the coronavirus expert, said he immediately suspected the pathogen was infectious when he spotted a leaked copy of a sequencing report in a group chat on a SARS-like coronavirus. But the Chinese CDC team working on the genetic sequence lacked molecular specialists and failed to consult with outside scientists, Li said. Chinese health authorities rebuffed offers of assistance from foreign experts, including Hong Kong scientists barred from a fact-finding mission to Wuhan and an American professor at a university in China.

On Jan. 5, the Shanghai Public Clinical Health Center, led by famed virologist Zhang Yongzhen, was the latest to sequence the virus. He submitted it to the GenBank database, where it sat awaiting review, and notified the National Health Commission. He warned them that the new virus was similar to SARS and likely infectious.

“It should be contagious through respiratory passages,” the center said in an internal notice seen by the AP. “We recommend taking preventative measures in public areas.”

On the same day, WHO said that based on preliminary information from China, there was no evidence of significant transmission between humans, and did not recommend any specific measures for travelers.

The next day, the Chinese CDC raised its emergency level to the second highest. Staffers proceeded to isolate the virus, draft lab testing guidelines, and design test kits. But the agency did not have the authority to issue public warnings, and the heightened emergency level was kept secret even from many of its own staff.

By Jan. 7, another team at Wuhan University had sequenced the pathogen and found it matched Shi’s, making Shi certain they had identified a novel coronavirus. But Chinese CDC experts said they didn’t trust Shi’s findings and needed to verify her data before she could publish, according to three people familiar with the matter. Both the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology, which oversees Shi’s lab, declined to make Shi available for an interview.

A major factor behind the gag order, some say, was that Chinese CDC researchers wanted to publish their papers first. “They wanted to take all the credit,” said Li Yize, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.

Internally, the leadership of the Chinese CDC is plagued with fierce competition, six people familiar with the system explained. They said the agency has long promoted staff based on how many papers they can publish in prestigious journals, making scientists reluctant to share data.

As the days went by, even some of the Chinese CDC’s own staff began to wonder why it was taking so long for authorities to identify the pathogen.

“We were getting suspicious, since within one or two days you would get a sequencing result,” a lab technician said, declining to be identified for fear of retribution.

___________

On Jan. 8, the Wall Street Journal reported that scientists had identified a new coronavirus in samples from pneumonia patients in Wuhan, pre-empting and embarrassing Chinese officials. The lab technician told the AP they first learned about the discovery of the virus from the Journal.

The article also embarrassed WHO officials. Dr. Tom Grein, chief of WHO’s acute events management team, said the agency looked “doubly, incredibly stupid.” Van Kerkhove, the American expert, acknowledged WHO was “already late” in announcing the new virus and told colleagues that it was critical to push China.

Maria van Kerkhove, head of the Outbreak Investigation Task Force for the World Health Organization, at a news conference in Geneva. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)

Ryan, WHO’s chief of emergencies, was also upset at the dearth of information.

“The fact is, we’re two to three weeks into an event, we don’t have a laboratory diagnosis, we don’t have an age, sex or geographic distribution, we don’t have an epi curve,” he complained, referring to the standard graphic of outbreaks scientists use to show how an epidemic is progressing.

After the article, state media officially announced the discovery of the new coronavirus. But even then, Chinese health authorities did not release the genome, diagnostic tests, or detailed patient data that could hint at how infectious the disease was.

By that time, suspicious cases were already appearing across the region.

On Jan. 8, Thai airport officers pulled aside a woman from Wuhan with a runny nose, sore throat, and high temperature. Chulalongkorn University professor Supaporn Wacharapluesadee’s team found the woman was infected with a new coronavirus, much like what Chinese officials had described. Supaporn partially figured out the genetic sequence by Jan. 9, reported it to the Thai government and spent the next day searching for matching sequences.

But because Chinese authorities hadn’t published any sequences, she found nothing. She could not prove the Thai virus was the same one sickening people in Wuhan.

“It was kind of wait and see, when China will release the data, then we can compare,” said Supaporn.

On Jan. 9, a 61-year-old man with the virus passed away in Wuhan — the first known death. The death wasn’t made public until Jan. 11.

WHO officials complained in internal meetings that they were making repeated requests for more data, especially to find out if the virus could spread efficiently between humans, but to no avail.

“We have informally and formally been requesting more epidemiological information,” WHO’s China representative Galea said. “But when asked for specifics, we could get nothing.”

Emergencies chief Ryan grumbled that since China was providing the minimal information required by international law, there was little WHO could do. But he also noted that last September, WHO had issued an unusual public rebuke of Tanzania for not providing enough details about a worrisome Ebola outbreak.

“We have to be consistent,” Ryan said. “The danger now is that despite our good intent...especially if something does happen, there will be a lot of finger-pointing at WHO.”

Ryan noted that China could make a “huge contribution” to the world by sharing the genetic material immediately, because otherwise “other countries will have to reinvent the wheel over the coming days.”

On Jan. 11, a team led by Zhang, from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, finally published a sequence on virological.org, used by researchers to swap tips on pathogens. The move angered Chinese CDC officials, three people familiar with the matter said, and the next day, his laboratory was temporarily shuttered by health authorities.

Zhang referred a request for comment to the Chinese CDC. The National Health Commission, which oversees the Chinese CDC, declined multiple times to make its officials available for interviews and did not answer questions about Zhang.

Supaporn compared her sequence with Zhang’s and found it was a 100% match, confirming that the Thai patient was ill with the same virus detected in Wuhan. Another Thai lab got the same results. That day, Thailand informed the WHO, said Tanarak Plipat, deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control at Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health.

After Zhang released the genome, the Chinese CDC, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences raced to publish their sequences, working overnight to review them, gather patient data, and send them to the National Health Commission for approval, according to documentation obtained by the AP. On Jan. 12, the three labs together finally published the sequences on GISAID, a platform for scientists to share genomic data.

A giant TV screen at a quiet shopping mall in Beijing shows President Xi Jinping talking to medical workers at the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan in March. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

By then, more than two weeks had passed since Vision Medicals decoded a partial sequence, and more than a week since the three government labs had all obtained full sequences. Around 600 people were infected in that week, a roughly three-fold increase.

Some scientists say the wait was not unreasonable considering the difficulties in sequencing unknown pathogens, given accuracy is as important as speed. They point to the SARS outbreak in 2003 when some Chinese scientists initially — and wrongly — believed the source of the epidemic was chlamydia.

“The pressure is intense in an outbreak to make sure you’re right,” said Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealthAlliance in New York. “It’s actually worse to go out to go to the public with a story that’s wrong because the public completely lose confidence in the public health response.”

Still, others quietly question what happened behind the scenes.

Infectious diseases expert John Mackenzie, who served on a WHO emergency committee during the outbreak, praised the speed of Chinese researchers in sequencing the virus. But he said once central authorities got involved, detailed data trickled to a crawl.

“There certainly was a kind of blank period,” Mackenzie said. “There had to be human to human transmission. You know, it’s staring at you in the face… I would have thought they would have been much more open at that stage.”

_________________

On Jan. 13, WHO announced that Thailand had a confirmed case of the virus, jolting Chinese officials.

The next day, in a confidential teleconference, China’s top health official ordered the country to prepare for a pandemic, calling the outbreak the “most severe challenge since SARS in 2003”, as the AP previously reported. Chinese CDC staff across the country began screening, isolating, and testing for cases, turning up hundreds across the country.

Yet even as the Chinese CDC internally declared a level one emergency, the highest level possible, Chinese officials still said the chance of sustained transmission between humans was low.

WHO went back and forth. Van Kerkhove said in a press briefing that “it is certainly possible there is limited human-to-human transmission.” But hours later, WHO seemed to backtrack, and tweeted that “preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission” – a statement that later became fodder for critics.

A high-ranking official in WHO’s Asia office, Dr. Liu Yunguo, who attended medical school in Wuhan, flew to Beijing to make direct, informal contacts with Chinese officials, recordings show. Liu’s former classmate, a Wuhan doctor, had alerted him that pneumonia patients were flooding the city’s hospitals, and Liu pushed for more experts to visit Wuhan, according to a public health expert familiar with the matter.

On Jan. 20, the leader of an expert team returning from Wuhan, renowned government infectious diseases doctor Zhong Nanshan, declared publicly for the first time that the new virus was spreading between people. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the “timely publication of epidemic information and deepening of international cooperation.”

Respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan attends an oath-taking ceremony via video connections for two new probationary Communist Party members in Wuhan. (Deng Hua/Xinhua via AP)

Despite that directive, WHO staff still struggled to obtain enough detailed patient data from China about the rapidly evolving outbreak. That same day, the U.N. health agency dispatched a small team to Wuhan for two days, including Galea, the WHO representative in China.

They were told about a worrying cluster of cases among more than a dozen doctors and nurses. But they did not have “transmission trees” detailing how the cases were connected, nor a full understanding of how widely the virus was spreading and who was at risk.

In an internal meeting, Galea said their Chinese counterparts were “talking openly and consistently” about human-to-human transmission, and that there was a debate about whether or not this was sustained. Galea reported to colleagues in Geneva and Manila that China’s key request to WHO was for help “in communicating this to the public, without causing panic.”

On Jan. 22, WHO convened an independent committee to determine whether to declare a global health emergency. After two inconclusive meetings where experts were split, they decided against it — even as Chinese officials ordered Wuhan sealed in the biggest quarantine in history. The next day, WHO chief Tedros publicly described the spread of the new coronavirus in China as “limited.”

For days, China didn’t release much detailed data, even as its case count exploded. Beijing city officials were alarmed enough to consider locking down the capital, according to a medical expert with direct knowledge of the matter.

On Jan. 28, Tedros and top experts, including Ryan, made an extraordinary trip to Beijing to meet President Xi and other senior Chinese officials. It is highly unusual for WHO’s director-general to directly intervene in the practicalities of outbreak investigations. Tedros’ staffers had prepared a list of requests for information.

“It could all happen and the floodgates open, or there’s no communication,” Grein said in an internal meeting while his boss was in Beijing. “We’ll see.”

At the end of Tedros’ trip, WHO announced China had agreed to accept an international team of experts. In a press briefing on Jan. 29, Tedros heaped praise on China, calling its level of commitment “incredible.”

The next day, WHO finally declared an international health emergency. Once again, Tedros thanked China, saying nothing about the earlier lack of cooperation.

“We should have actually expressed our respect and gratitude to China for what it’s doing,” Tedros said. “It has already done incredible things to limit the transmission of the virus to other countries.”

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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org