Larry Kudlow Vows End To $600 Unemployment Aid As 'Disincentive' To Work
THE REAL DISINCENTIVE TO WORK IS THE FAILURE OF EMPLOYERS TO PAY A LIVING WAGE

Mary Papenfuss, HuffPost•June 14, 2020


President Donald Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Sunday vowed an end to an extra $600 a week in unemployment payments for the jobless, calling it a “disincentive to work” — assuming there is work.

Kudlow’s dismissive attitude about the payments amid massive unemployment amid the COVID-19 pandemic was a dramatic contrast to his defense of the Payment Protection Plan for businesses, which can use the forgivable public loans to pay exorbitant executive salaries.

He insisted to Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the extra unemployment aid “might have worked for the first couple of months,” but “it’ll end in late July.”

Kudlow insisted that “almost all businesses ... understand” that the $600 additional benefit is “a disincentive” to work. “I mean we’re paying people” without jobs “not to work,” he added. “It’s better than their salaries would get.”

He said the Trump administration is considering a “reform measure” that might provide an incentive to return to work — but that it won’t be as much.

The extra aid is in addition to regular unemployment payments that can be as low as an average of $250 a week in some states.

Kudlow’s comment assumes there will be jobs for everyone now collecting on unemployment, even though many experts predict jobless numbers will remain in the double digits at least until year’s end.

Tapper said he has a “tough time really believing that people don’t want to go back to work.” He also pointed out that some workers’ jobs aren’t coming back, which Kudlow called a “fair” point.

“I personally agree with you; I think people want to go back to work,” Kudlow added, undercutting his own claim.

The mediocre aid to the average worker came up as Kudlow staunchly defended the Trump administration’s refusal to reveal the recipients of some $500 billion in PPP aid to business owners — even though Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin promised the massive taxpayer aid would be “transparent.”

PPP loans become grants if the money is spent on particular costs, such as rent, utilities and payroll — including salaries up to $100,000. Only 9% of Americans earn $100,000 a year or more, leaving the 91% of taxpayers who earn less to subsidize the top rate covered by public PPP funds.

Tens of millions of PPP dollars are going to prop up wages in wealthy publicly traded corporations and companies owned by wealthy Trump donors.

The Heroes Act passed by the House would extend the $600 additional weekly unemployment benefit for workers through the end of January 2021. No similar legislation has been passed by the Senate.

No justice, no peace: Why SOME*** Catholic priests are kneeling with George Floyd protesters

Anna L. Peterson, Professor of Religion, University of Florida,
The Conversation•June 15, 2020

Bishop Mark Seitz and priests from his diocese knelt for 8 minutes and 46 seconds to honor George Floyd, El Paso, June 1, 2020. Courtesy of Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters, CC BY-ND

Two days after the Catholic bishop of El Paso, Mark Seitz, knelt with a dozen other priests in a silent prayer for George Floyd holding a “Black Lives Matter” sign, he received a phone call from Pope Francis.

In an earlier era Seitz, the first known Catholic bishop to join the anti-racism protests spurred by Floyd’s killing, might have expected censure from the Vatican, which is often associated with social conservatism.

Instead, Steitz told the Texas news site El Paso Matters, the pope “thanked me.”

Days earlier Pope Francis had posted a message to Americans on the Vatican’s website saying he “witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest” in the United States and calling Floyd’s death “tragic.”

“My friends,” he wrote, “we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life.”

Francis is seen as a progressive pope, but these are not isolated examples of his personal values. As a scholar of religion and politics, I recognize that both Steitz’s actions and the pope’s approval reflect a distinctive commitment to social justice that has entered the Catholic mainstream over the past 50 years.

Changing social role

This commitment has transformed a millennia-old Catholic tradition of valuing peace over justice.

Writing in the chaos surrounding the fall of the Roman Empire, the prominent fifth-century theologian St. Augustine asserted that peace was the greatest good humans can attain on Earth. While both peace and justice are valuable, Augustine believed, peace – meaning civil order – takes priority. He thought justice could not be sustained amid violence.

Many bishops, priests and theologians since Augustine have used similar arguments to criticize social changes and legitimize the status quo, insisting that the faithful should bear worldly injustices and seek their reward in heaven. This moral theology provided justification for the church to ally with economic, political and military elites, from medieval kings to Latin American dictators.

That began to change with the Second Vatican Council of 1962 to 1965, which brought together bishops from around the world to reevaluate the church’s role in modern society. The council’s final document sided firmly with social justice.

Inverting Augustine’s thinking, Catholic bishops asserted that peace cannot “be reduced to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies.” The only way to achieve lasting peace, they asserted, was to address the sources of unrest.

As Pope Paul VI stated in 1972: “If you want peace, work for justice.”

Fr. Joseph Rahal of Washington, D.C. honors George Floyd on Friday, June 5, 2020. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Liberation at any cost  BUT NOT LIBERATION THEOLOGY

Pope Paul’s rhetoric echoed a core principle of liberation theology, a Catholic movement that was emerging from Latin America around the same time.

Liberation theologians see violence not as an individual flaw but as a feature of unjust social or political structures. This “institutionalized violence,” as the Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez termed it, is the root cause of all violence – including government repression and popular uprisings against that repression.

The best way to avoid violence, as the Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador wrote in 1979, is “to guarantee a truly democratic state, one that defends the fundamental rights of all its citizens, based on a just economic order.”

Under Romero’s leadership, large sectors of the Salvadoran Catholic Church backed the popular uprising against the country’s oppressive military regime in what became the Salvadoran Civil War. Catholic leaders and laypeople also supported opposition movements in Nicaragua, Brazil, Chile and other Latin American countries.

Romero, who was assassinated in 1980, became a Catholic saint in 2018.
Not ‘both sides’

Liberation theologians believe that those seeking change should employ peaceful methods whenever possible. But when nonviolent protests and legislative channels prove fruitless or are met with violence, new tactics might be necessary.

“The church cannot state, in a simplistic fashion, that it condemns every kind of violence,” Romero wrote.

Romero criticized Salvadoran “moderates” who saw violence on both sides of the country’s civil war as equally wrong, implying a moral equality between those who uphold injustices and those who challenge them. The church, he insisted, must side with the victims of institutionalized violence.


This principle, known as the “preferential option for the poor,” guided Bishop Seitz’s decision to protest in El Paso.

“When religion becomes stagnant, we can forget that the Word always comes to us crucified and powerless,” Seitz told the National Catholic Reporter on June 4 to explain his silent protest. In Christian tradition, “the Word” refers to Jesus, the word of God incarnate.

Seitz then cited the prominent midcentury theologian James Cone, who said U.S. Christians must fight for racial justice because, “In America, the Word comes tortured, black and lynched.”

This isn’t the first time Seitz has sided with society’s most marginalized. In March 2019, he apologized to migrants for their treatment at the U.S.-Texas border.

“To say…that black lives matter is just another way of repeating something we in the United States seem to so often forget,” Seitz continued: “That God has a special love for the forgotten and oppressed.”

[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

*** THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE AMERICAN CARDINALS OR ARCHBISHOPS WHOSE REIGN IS IN THE MATERIAL WORLD RUNNING VATICAN CORPORATE AND BANKING INTERESTS.

Reconsider reparations. We need them morally and economically, and we can afford them.
Ross K. Baker, Opinion columnist,
USA TODAY Opinion•June 14, 2020

I attended recently a rally in my town that should have left me filled with hope. I heard a policeman telling a neighbor that he estimated the crowd to be more than a thousand people — that’s about 10% of the town’s population.

Even more inspiring was the abundance of young people in the throng. But their signs and placards bore slogans that I’ve seen for years in demonstrations, and the chants and slogans sounded all too familiar: “Black Lives Matter,” “No Justice, No Peace,” “I Can’t Breathe.” And as I thought about this outpouring of grief for the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police, what first came to mind is how little lasting influence demonstrations such as this one have had beyond letting people vent some steam and make others feel virtuous. What remains of them is a lot of debris to clean up but no serious changes in public policy.

I’m not an inveterate demonstration attendee, but having taught at a university for 50 years, I’ve seen my share of them. Yet I have come to question whether anyone out there is listening. The Vietnam War ended when Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger wanted it to end, not because of public indignation over the uprisings after the Kent State or Orangeburg massacres.
Black Americans need real progress

The results of the demonstrations following the deaths of black Americans at the hands of police, for all of their grief and passion, have left this 13% of America pretty much where it has always been: poor, sick, living in substandard housing and viewed by many whites as either pitiable or ominous. So much of what has afflicted this community can be ascribed to one burden that they bear disproportionately: poverty, and without the wherewithal to advance economically.

Across generations, for example, African Americans have been paying rent to landlords to keep a roof over their heads. Only about 40% of black Americans own their homes compared to about 70% of whites. The simple inability to purchase a house and benefit from its appreciation in value has deprived so many of them access to a tangible asset.

In Over-the-Rhine, Ohio, on June 7, 2020.

Homeownership gives all people a stake in their community and a proprietary interest in its safety and prosperity. And it doesn’t have to be a three-bedroom home on a quarter-acre lot, it could be a person’s very own space in a high-rise with the wherewithal to trade up to something bigger and better.

Solutions are obvious: Pandemic and police killings reveal brutal status quo. We can fix this. Why won't we?

For those who have been critical of the rioting and looting in the aftermath of the deaths of African Americans, it is useful to note that people who demonstrate in the aftermath of these killings may get angry but if they have a stake in the system are less inclined to vandalism and arson. Having a job is another stake, and in 2018, black unemployment was almost double that of whites and creates a pool of people with nothing to lose. While the only systematic study of why people loot is 50 years old, as University of Michigan political scientist Christian Davenport told The Atlantic, “The best way to prevent looting is to provide people with a living wage, provide for their basic needs, treat them with human dignity, and facilitate a life that is about thriving.”
Reparations don't seem extravagant

I once thought that reparations were a terrible idea, as likely to generate resentment among whites as to be welcomed by Black people. Money alone can never be sufficient atonement for slavery; it is a crime for which no living person can be made whole. But the possibility of a single endowment for tens of millions of people no longer seems extravagant at a time when the federal government is shoveling trillions of dollars out the door to sustain a crippled economy.

A targeted investment in a group of our fellow citizens who are descendants of those who endured a monumental injustice can certainly be justified. And it would be a shot in arm to the economy by boosting the purchasing power of tens of millions of Black Americans.

America's overdue reckoning with white supremacy: 'We have allowed evil to flourish'

The recipients should be those who can trace their roots to an enslaved ancestor. That should not be difficult to establish given the explosion of genealogical services, such as Ancestry.com. Skin color alone should not qualify. The compensation would not go to recent immigrants from Somalia or anyone whose ancestors emigrated from Africa of their own free will, although it would include the offspring of such people who married the descendants of the formerly enslaved.

There is an obvious precedent for reparations to black Americans in the legislation that compensated Japanese Americans for their internment during World War II. The principles are identical. The only difference would be the scope of the indemnification; $1.6 billion was paid in reparations to over 82,000 Japanese Americans.

Bills to study how a reparations program might work are pending in the Senate and House, and gathering Democratic co-sponsors. Perhaps the indignation unleashed by the killing of George Floyd will prompt more members from the other side of the aisle to support efforts to right a historic wrong.

Ross K. Baker is a distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers University and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter: @Rosbake1.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Reparations would help right a historic wrong and we can afford them

John Cleese Jabs At Fox News’ Monty Python Ignorance After Anchor Confuses ‘Holy Grail’ Line With Seattle CHAZ Report – Update

 Bruce Haring June 15, 2020

WE ANARCHO-SYNDICALISTS LOVE THIS MOVIE

View photos


Click here to read the full article.

Update, with John Cleese response Monty Python co-founder John Cleese has taken note of Fox News’ Python cluelessness, tweeting, “BREAKING: No one @FoxNews has ever seen @montypython & The Holy Grail. #runit #goodjournalism #factchecking.”

See the Cleese tweet below.

More from Deadline

Fox News Apologizes For Infographic That Showed Stock Market Gains After Martin Luther King Assassination, Other Moments Racial Unrest

Previous, Sunday Fox News confused a social media post quoting a line from the film Monty Python & The Holy Grail with a report about in-fighting in the Seattle Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ).

On Friday, Fox’s Martha MacCallum reported on the network’s show The Story that there was evidence of problems between the leaders of the Seattle protest camp.The CHAZ is a six-block area in Seattle where Black Lives Matter protesters have taken over.

MacCallum’s report showed an image of a Reddit post that was headlined, “I didn’t vote for Raz.” Fox apparently thought it was a reference to Raz Simone, a rapper who has been identified as an unofficial leader of the CHAZ.

Accompanying the image was the suggestion that “infighting among some of the occupiers and some signs of rebellion against Raz Simone.”

Unfortunately, the post was not a reference to the CHAZ, but was a quote from the 1975 comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

In the film, Terry Jones and Michael Palin say they are members of ‘an autonomous collective.’

‘We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune,’ says Palin’s character.

Fox and MacCallum also did not report on the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.

BREAKING: No one @FoxNews has ever seen @montypython & The Holy Grail. 😂 #runit #goodjournalism #factchecking pic.twitter.com/46sKRh4qQi

— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) June 15, 2020

MORE CONSERVATIVE BLACK CAUCUS BS

'Nobody is going to defund the police': Top black congressman says Democrats want to 'deconstruct' US policing

THE MAN WHO CROWNED BIDEN IS NOT PROGRESSIVE HE IS A TIRED BLACK LIBERALGriffin Connolly,
The Independent•June 14, 2020
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 08: House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) joins fellow Democrats from the House and Senate to announce new legislation to end excessive use of force by police and make it easier to identify, track, and prosecute police misconduct at the U.S. Capitol June 08, 2020 in Washington, DC. Democrats introduced the legislation following the recent deaths of unarmed African-Americans in police custody, including George Floyd, and the nationwide demonstrations demanding an overhaul of law enforcement. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)More

The top black US congressman has signalled in clear terms he does not support calls to "defund the police," despite a wave of activism calling for such measures in the wake of the death of George Floyd and other black people during incidents involving police.

“Nobody is going to defund the police. We can restructure the police forces — restructure, reimagine policing. That is what we are going to do,” House Minority Whip James E Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the chamber, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

“The fact of the matter is the police have a role to play. What we've got to do is make sure that their role is one that meets the times. One that responds to these communities that they operate in," Mr Clyburn said.



"This did not call for lethal force and I don't know what's in the culture that would make this guy do that," @WhipClyburn reacts to the killing of a black man, Rayshard Brooks, by a police officer in Atlanta. "It's got to be the culture, it's got to be the system." pic.twitter.com/N076K5sxK5

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu)

June 14, 2020

Mr Clyburn, a longtime ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is one of 213 co-sponsors for House Democrats' so-called Justice in Policing Act that, while enacting significant changes for US law enforcement, would not abolish police departments outright.

Such steps must be taken at the state and local level.

And while federal lawmakers have less of a hand in how to govern local policing, most Democrats in Washington, similar to Mr Clyburn, have said they do not support defunding police.

Congressional Democrats' bill would reform “qualified immunity" laws to make it easier to prosecute and sue police and other government agencies for misconduct, and also ban choke holds and no-knock warrants in drug cases at the federal level while incentivising local departments to adopt similar measures by withholding funding for those that don’t.

The Democrats' bill would also provide funding for training to reduce racial bias; create a national misconduct registry for officers to ensure officers with lengthy and questionable records cannot simply change departments to avoid accountability; and require state and local law enforcement agencies to report use-of-force incidents to the Justice Department.

The House is scheduled to return on Thursday, 25 June, for a vote on the bill.

It is not likely to pass in the Republican-controlled Senate without major changes.

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is leading the Senate GOP's efforts to put together a policing reform package, has said reforming qualified immunity to make it easier to sue police officers would be a "poison pill" for his party.

"The president has sent a signal that qualified immunity is off the table. [Republicans] see that as a poison pill on our side," Mr Scott said in an interview with CBS News on Sunday.

Lawmakers from both parties have expressed optimism negotiators can reach a bipartisan compromise deal.

But Democrats have indicated they will not settle for changes around the edges. They want wholesale reform.

“The fact of the matter is, this is the structure that has been developed that we've got to deconstruct," Mr Clyburn said. "I wouldn't say defund — deconstruct our policing,” he said.

CBC IS ALL DEMOCRATS TIME THEY ADDED TIM SCOTT THE REPUBLICAN TOKEN CONSERVATIVE TO THEIR CAUCUS

Lone black Republican senator says he is open to 'decertification' of bad police

Tim Scott, the only black Republican member of the U.S. Senate, said on Sunday he is open to exploring whether to enact a new law that would decertify bad police officers as part of a larger law enforcement reform package. Speaking on CBS "Face the Nation," Scott said a new policy to decertify police who engage in misconduct could be a compromise as he negotiates with Democrats, who have called for more drastic measures, such as ending the "qualified immunity" legal doctrine that helps shield officers from liability. Scott acknowledged that implementing decertification standards could be an uphill battle due to opposition by police unions, but he said the proposal is nevertheless up for discussion.

• 
  California police unions unveil plan for national reform

  KABC – Los Angeles
• 
  Tim Scott says ending qualified immunity is "poison pill" in police reform bill

  CBS News Videos

Mass grave found of Sudanese conscripts killed in 1998: prosecutor


Issued on: 15/06/2020 -

A picture taken on June 13, 2020, shows members of a forensic team at a cemetery where a mass grave of conscripts killed in 1998 was discovered, in the Sahafa neighbourhood, south of the Sudanese capital Khartoum - AFP


Khartoum (AFP)

Sudan's public prosecutor announced Monday the discovery of a mass grave containing conscripts allegedly killed after trying to flee a military camp in 1998 under ousted president Omar al-Bashir's regime.

The grim discovery came as part of investigations into misdeeds committed under al-Bashir, who ruled the country with an iron fist before the army deposed him amid huge street protests in April 2019.

A investigating committee "found the mass grave in the past four days after hearing witness accounts," about killings at Ailafoon military camp, public prosecutor Tagelsir al-Hebr told reporters in Khartoum.

Some of those suspected of involvement in the incident have fled the country, said Hebr, who did not disclose how many bodies were found.

"The grave was exhumed and now the committee will continue to work with forensic authorities and examine the evidence," said Wael Ali Saeed, a member of the investigation committee.

Ailafoon military camp, located southeast of the capital Khartoum, was used for training new conscripts under Bashir's rule.

In 1998, a group of conscripts died as they attempted to escape the base for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holidays.

The Sudanese government said at the time that around 55 young conscripts who fled the base drowned when their overloaded boat capsized in the Blue Nile.

Opposition groups accused the regime of deliberately killing the conscripts and reported a death toll of more than 100.

- Other investigations -

Many Sudanese families reported that their sons went missing and their remains were never found.

Bashir used conscripts in the civil war against rebels in the oil-rich south, which seceded in 2011.

Following Bashir's ouster last year, the country has since August been led by a civilian-majority administration presiding over a three-year transitional period.

Sudanese authorities have vowed to probe "violations" committed under Bashir as well as violence during last year's protests against his rule.

Hebr also disclosed on Monday that an investigatory team is looking into the 1989 Islamist-backed military coup that brought Bashir to power.

Other ongoing investigations include cases of corruption and violence against demonstrators during anti-government protests that took place from December 2018, he added.

Doctors linked to Sudan's protest movement said at least 246 were killed and hundreds others wounded during the 2018-19 protests.

Since his ouster, Bashir and many of his aides have been kept in Khartoum's Kober prison on multiple charges.

In December, he was sentenced to two years detention in a correctional facility in an initial corruption case.

The ex-president has for a decade been wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court, where he faces charges of genocide and war crimes committed in the war ravaged Darfur region of western Sudan.

The Darfur conflict, which erupted in 2003 between African minority rebels and Bashir's forces, killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million others.

Last week, top militia leader Ali Kushayb, who was accused of atrocities in Darfur, handed himself over to the ICC.

© 2020 AFP

Qatar Airways to slash foreign pilots' pay: memo15/06/2020 -

  

Qatar Airways, which flew to more than 170 destinations with 234 aircraft as of March, has been hit by airport closures and travel bans imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 disease KARIM JAAFAR AFP/

Doha (AFP)
Qatar Airways will slash some pilots' salaries and make others redundant to offset the revenue collapse caused by the novel coronavirus travel crisis, it said in a memo seen by AFP Monday.
The Gulf airline, which flew to more than 170 destinations with 234 aircraft as of March, has been hit by airport closures and travel bans imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
The International Air Transport Association warned in April that air traffic in the Middle East and North Africa would plummet by more than half this year.
Qatar Airways' most senior pilots "will be subjected to a 25 percent reduction" in salaries, chief flight operations officer Jassim al-Haroon wrote to pilots in a memo dated June 4.
"In the upcoming weeks many of our captains, senior first officers, first officers and cadet pilots will be made redundant," Haroon wrote, without specifying how many would be let go.
More junior pilots will face an immediate 15 percent cut to their salaries, although the measures will not be applied to the airline's Qatari pilots, the memo added.
The airline warned cabin crew at the start of May that they faced "substantial" job losses.
At the worst point of the novel coronavirus travel crisis, the airline had to slash its passenger services to just 35 destinations. It has since begun to resume some mothballed routes.
The economy of super-wealthy gas exporter Qatar has been buffeted by the global economic downturn and associated energy price collapse caused by the pandemic.
Doha-based sports broadcaster BeIN will shed around 100 jobs and cut some salaries in response to the virus downturn and the fallout from piracy of its output, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
© 2020 AFP

US ends emergency authorization of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19

Issued on: 15/06/2020 - 19:56Modified: 15/06/2020 - 19:54

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was granted the authorization in March 2020 after it was found to inactivate the virus in test tubes, and early small studies appeared to show it worked well in humans, too GEORGE FREY AFP/File

Washington (AFP)

The United States on Monday withdrew emergency use authorizations for two antimalarial drugs favored by President Donald Trump to treat the new coronavirus, effectively shutting the door on the politically charged treatments.

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and chloroquine (CQ) were authorized in March after they were found to inactivate the virus in test tubes, and early small studies appeared to show they worked well in humans, too.

Since that time, however, larger, better-controlled experiments have found that the two medicines are ineffective in treating COVID-19 or in preventing infection among people who have been exposed to the virus.

Meanwhile, safety concerns have been raised around their use -- particularly the risk of causing irregular heart rhythm in certain patients.

"It is no longer reasonable to believe that oral formulations of HCQ and CQ may be effective in treating COVID-19," Denise Hinton, chief scientist of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote in a letter.

"Nor is it reasonable to believe that the known and potential benefits of these products outweigh their known and potential risk.

"Accordingly, FDA revokes the EUA for emergency use of HCQ and CQ to treat COVID-19."

The emergency approvals paved the way for the medicines to be donated from a national stockpile to hospitals to fight COVID-19, and were seen as an intermediary step before full regulatory approval.

Both drugs are approved for use against malaria, as well as the autoimmune conditions rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

Doctors will therefore still be able to prescribe them "off label" against COVID-19, though this is strongly discouraged by US health authorities.

Even so, the end of the authorizations presents a blow to Trump, who has personally backed HCQ on numerous occasions, calling it a potential "game changer" based on his gut feelings.

He has also said he used the drug to ward off infection -- but a recent clinical trial found it to be ineffective for this purpose too.

HCQ has likewise received ringing endorsements from right-wing news media, including Fox News, and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, as well as in France from supporters of scientist Didier Raoult, who conducted one of the early experiments that showed favorable results.

On the whole, it has pitted politicians against the scientific establishment.

In May, Rick Bright, a prominent government scientist, testified in Congress that he was removed from his vaccine development role because he had raised concerns about HCQ and resisted its widespread use.

Two major clinical trials this month, one in the United Kingdom and another in the US and Canada, underscored the drugs' lack of efficacy.

But HCQ was also at the center of an academic scandal when the prestigious journal The Lancet retracted a study that claimed the drug raised the risk of death.

The paper was withdrawn after most of its authors said they could no longer vouch for the authenticity of a dataset supplied by a small Chicago-based health care company.

Despite the affair, scientific consensus appears to have hardened against HCQ's use for COVID-19.

© 2020 AFP

Top Russia newspaper editors quit, denouncing censorship
Issued on: 15/06/2020 -

Vedemosti joined forces last year with two other leading dailies to denounce the arrest of investigative reporter Ivan Golunov on drugs charges that were later dropped Yuri KADOBNOV AFP

Moscow (AFP)

Senior editors at Russia's most influential business newspaper quit Monday in protest against what they say is censorship while its founder accused the new owner of seeking to destroy the daily.

Vedomosti is one of the last major independent newspapers in Russia, where journalists are increasingly squeezed by curbs on press freedoms and pressure from the Kremlin.

All five Vedomosti deputy editors said Monday they were quitting in protest following the appointment of controversial media figure Andrei Shmarov as editor-in-chief.


Launched in 1999, Vedomosti was co-founded and co-owned by Dutch entrepreneur Derk Sauer's Independent Media, the London-based Financial Times and US business daily, The Wall Street Journal.

"It's tragic," Sauer told AFP of the editors' exodus.

"It's the end of Vedomosti as we know it."

He noted that there was no proof that the Kremlin might be behind the changes but noted that it did not interfere to find a possible compromise either.

While Sauer said he was saddened personally, he added that it was a "much bigger tragedy for Russia".

While the daily newspaper focuses on business and industry news, its editorial section has become a vital space for dissenting voices and debate on political life in Russia.

Like the Financial Times, Vedomosti is published on salmon-coloured paper.

The newspaper has changed hands several times since its first print run, as lawmakers introduced legislation limiting foreign ownership of Russian media.

In March, its reporters and editors were shaken by an announcement from then-owner Demyan Kudryavtsev that he planned to sell the newspaper.

Shmarov, a 65-year-old co-founder of a Kremlin-friendly magazine, was appointed acting editor-in-chief the same month, before the sale was finalised.

- 'My heart is bleeding' -

The newspaper was eventually sold to the head of a little-known regional news agency called FederalPress, Ivan Yeryomin.

Vedomosti journalists have denounced censorship under Shmarov, saying his appointment was political.

They complain they have been barred from covering negative opinion polls of President Vladimir Putin and that Shmarov interfered in coverage of oil giant Rosneft, which is run by Putin's ally Igor Sechin.

In an open letter published by The Bell, an independent news site, the deputy editors said Shmarov repeatedly violated editorial norms and guidelines adopted at Vedomosti.

"We have no other choice but to leave," they said.

Speaking to AFP, executive editor Dmitry Simakov did not rule out Rosneft's playing a role in the affair.

"Rosneft was a major creditor," he said, admitting that "this card might have been played."

An investigation in May by several Russian news outlets, including Vedomosti, concluded that Rosneft leveraged control over the newspaper through debts owed by Kudryavtsev to the oil giant's bank.

Simakov said he had worked at the newspaper for 18 years.

"My heart is bleeding," he said. "But a horrible end is better than endless horror."

The new owner has said he is certain the newspaper would retain "high professional standards".

- 'Vedomosti RIP' -

Vedomosti journalists recently put forward an alternative candidate to lead the paper.

Although nearly 70 staff members backed a long-serving colleague to be editor-in-chief, the owner went ahead with the appointment of Shmarov, they said.

Kremlin critics praised Vedomosti staff for fighting for editorial independence until the end.

"Vedomosti RIP," Yulia Galyamina, a local deputy in Moscow, said on Twitter.

Anna Kachkaeva, a media expert, said: "Vedomosti will be published but it will be a different newspaper."

In May, 2019 the entire politics desk of Russian business daily Kommersant, a Vedomosti rival, quit in protest over censorship.

Last year Vedomosti, Kommersant and a third business newspaper, RBK, helped win the release from jail of investigative reporter Ivan Golunov who was detained on trumped-up drug charges.

All three newspapers published the same front page with the words "I am/we are Ivan Golunov" in giant letters -- a bold act of defiance in a country where most media toe the Kremlin line.

© 2020 AFP

CHAZ CAPITOL HILL AUTONOMOUS ZONE NO COPS---SEATTLE 

'We created a safe space for everyone': Seattle protesters set up their own autonomous zone


Protesters in Seattle created an 'autonomous zone' where they broadcast films, hold discussions on race and hold vigils for black people killed by the police. (Photos from social media)

UNITED STATES / DEMONSTRATIONS - 06/15/2020

After a week of protests and tense encounters with security forces, protesters in Seattle set up an area that they are calling an “autonomous zone” with the blessing of city government. Inside CHAZ, they’ve been handing out food, holding vigils for black people killed by the police and organising discussion groups. They say its main aim is to be a “safe space” for protesters.

If you search the hashtag #Chaz, which stands for the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone", then you’ll come across hundreds of photos and videos from Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighbourhood, which has been transformed into a space for protesters. One of the entrances is marked with a sign that says “you are now entering Free Cap Hill”. Inside, people set up a wall paying homage to black people killed by police or during protests against police violence and systemic racism.

If you want to know what the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone is like, it’s beautiful. #CHAZ pic.twitter.com/v61ECgi7Yv Sarah Johnson (@sarahjohnson572) June 11, 2020

#CHAZ is busier than its first two days. More tables set up. People painting the streets. pic.twitter.com/ZazJfdMqCM Chase Burns in the CHAZ (@chaseburnsy) June 11, 2020

Protests against police violence have been ongoing in Seattle since May 25. On June 7, after a week of particularly tense protests, police abandoned the East Precinct station in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in an attempt to lower the heat. Since then, protesters have occupied Cal Anderson park as well as two neighbouring streets.

This map, made by activists, shows the area that they have occupied.
Activists immediately started organising events within the zone, including concerts, speeches and screenings of films. Some people even started setting up tents.

Without police the protest movement in Seattle has gotten completely out of hand.

Last night people watched an educational MOVIE in the #SeattleAutonomousZone. Utter chaos.

pic.twitter.com/04jZrO9gfv Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) June 10, 2020


Exactly what I’m saying. Was just at CHAZ tonight. It’s going beautifully. pic.twitter.com/wWnFbOy11T Matthew Butler | BLM (@_Matthiato) June 11, 2020
Groups have been holding concerts in the area.


In the CHAZ, people are planting gardens to honor Black and Native lives lost to police violence, holding antiracism discussion groups, brainstorming, playing music and making art. They aren't afraid of dying by police. Tell me this isn't the best of Seattle. pic.twitter.com/ssLKap1KK2 Jacob W. (@jacobw125) June 12, 2020


'CHAZ has been a great place for talking and been a support for the other protests happening in the city'

Matthew Butler is a bartender in Seattle. He’s been out protesting with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement since protests began on May 25. He goes to CHAZ almost every day.

Black Lives Matter protesters have created this space as a “safe space” for protestors. We created a list of demands that were given to the city [Editor’s note: one demand is to change the police station into a community centre] and we expect them to start a conversation and change.

We provide everyone with food and water thanks to donations and help from local stores. We have a large agreement on masks and social distancing. Everyone is taking precautions there and no one is unnecessarily exposing themselves.

CHAZ has been a great place for talking and to support the other protests happening in the city. The general idea of the place was to provide a space that is safe from the police so that the protesters could get care and a chance to be surrounded by others. I would say that about 60 to 70% of people in CHAZ are black and about 30 to 40% are allies. We make sure that black people in the community take the lead. We are here to support them.

We want to force the city to stop and listen to us as well as the other six city council members who have been joining the protestors. CHAZ is not only a statement, it’s also a movement that has perpetuated around the world already so that means we are accomplishing something.

This is a list of local stores that support the Black Lives Matter movement. (Photo: Matthew Butler)

 

Anyone can grab free food in CHAZ. The poster reads: “Help yourself, this is by you, for you!” (Photo: Matthew Butler)

Free food

The Capitol Hill neighborhood has a rich history as a symbolic place of protest in Seattle. In 1999, huge protests took place in Capitol Hill during a summit of the World Trade Organization. Occupy Seattle (a movement inspired by Occupy Wall Street) took over the area in 2011.

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“These ugly Anarchists must be stooped IMMEDIATELY.” https://t.co/5t31fnPD9Z pic.twitter.com/8KE97bLcgh Chase Burns in the CHAZ (@chaseburnsy) June 11, 2020
"Those ugly Anarchists must be stooped [sic] immediately,” wrote one social media user, alongside of photo of colorful sidewalk painting reading “Welcome to CHAZ.” The tweet is a reference to a tweet by President Donald Trump on June 11. He tweeted the mayor of Seattle and Governor of Washington state, saying: "Ugly anarchists must be stopped immediately!"

"It’s a space that states ‘the people, united, will never be divided’, which is especially important in the USA with so many different races and ethnicities"
"The Luminous Pariah" (who prefers to remain anonymous) works in a Seattle cabaret and is African American. He has been documenting the protests on his Instagram account and goes to CHAZ as often as he can.

It is lovely now that the police aren’t instigating violence. Before, I was helping with medical for people who had been tear-gassed and pepper sprayed. When things are quiet, I’ve been helping to make sure that supplies are distributed. I help hand out masks, food, etc. Folks are organising amongst themselves in small groups. They tell their unique stories, they talk about their experiences with the police and they talk about what needs to change.

Some people believe that it’s a literal takeover. That we “won” against the police. Others, like me, think that this space is more symbolic and states “the people, United, will never be divided”, which is especially important in the USA with so many different races and ethnicities.

Jenny Durkan, the Democratic mayor of Seattle, responded to President Trump’s directive to get her city back under control by defending Seattle residents’ right to protest. She also told Trump to “Go back to your bunker.”

Protesters in CHAZ say they will stay until their demands are met. They are calling for a drastic reduction in the police budget and for that money to be reallocated to health and other community services.

It’s relatively common to set up autonomous zones during large protest movements. In 2016, several hundred people gathered in Paris’s Place de la République as part of the Nuit Debout movement, which was protesting against proposed labour reforms.

Article by Marie Genries.

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