Pernicious effects of stigma

Researchers uncover effects of negative stereotype exposure on the brain

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA BARBARA

 

The recent killings of unarmed individuals such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Tony McDade have sparked a national conversation about the treatment of Black people -- and other minorities -- in the United States.

"What we're seeing today is a close examination of the hardships and indignities that people have faced for a very long time because of their race and ethnicity," said Kyle Ratner, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at UC Santa Barbara. As a social psychologist, he is interested in how social and biological processes give rise to intergroup bias and feelings of stigmatization.

According to Ratner, "It is clear that people who belong to historically marginalized groups in the United States contend with burdensome stressors on top of the everyday stressors that members of non-disadvantaged groups experience. For instance, there is the trauma of overt racism, stigmatizing portrayals in the media and popular culture, and systemic discrimination that leads to disadvantages in many domains of life, from employment and education to healthcare and housing to the legal system."

Concerned by negative rhetoric directed at Latinx individuals, Ratner and his lab have investigated how negative stereotype exposure experienced by Mexican-American students can influence the way their brains process information.

In a recent paper published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, the research team focuses on how negative stereotype exposure affects responses to monetary incentives. Their finding: The brains of Mexican-American students exposed to negative stereotypes anticipate rewards and punishments differently versus those who were not so exposed. The discovery, he said, is the first step in a series of studies that could help researchers understand neural pathways through which stigma can have detrimental effects on psychological and physical health.

'I'm so tired of this'

Much existing research has focused on how experiencing stigma and discrimination triggers anger, racing thoughts and a state of high arousal. Although Ratner believes this is a reaction that people experience in some contexts, his recent work focuses on the psychological fatigue of hearing your group disparaged. "It's this feeling of 'oh, not again,' or 'I'm so tired of this,'" he said, describing a couple of reactions to the stress of managing self-definition in the face of negative stereotypes.

While noticing several years ago that experiencing stigma can produce this sense of withdrawal and resignation, Ratner was reminded of work he conducted earlier in his career relating stress to depressive symptoms.

"In work I was involved in over a decade ago, we showed that life stress can be associated with anhedonia, which is a blunted sensitivity to positive and rewarding information, such as winning money," he said. "If you're not sensitive to the rewarding things in life, you're basically left being sensitive to all the frustrating things in life, without that positive buffer. And that's one route to depression."

Given that experiencing stigma can be conceptualized as a social stressor, Ratner wanted to investigate whether negative stereotype exposure might also relate to sensitivity to reward.

Reward Processing in the Brain

Ratner and his colleagues focused on the nucleus accumbens, a sub-cortical brain region that plays a central role in anticipating pleasure -- the "wanting" stage of reward processing that motivates behaviors.

Using functional MRI to measure brain activity, the researchers asked Mexican-American UCSB students to view sets of video clips in rapid succession and then gave these students the opportunity to win money or avoiding losing money.

In the control group, the viewers were shown news and documentary clips of social problems in the United States that were relevant to the country in general -- childhood obesity, teen pregnancy, gang violence and low high school graduation numbers.

In the stigmatized group, subjects were shown news and documentary clips covering the same four domains, but that singled out the Latinx community as the group specifically at risk for these problems.

"These videos were not overtly racist," Ratner said of the stigmatizing clips. Rather, he explained, the videos tended to spend a disproportionate amount of attention on the association between specific social issues and their effects in the Latinx community, rather than presenting them as problems of American society as a whole. The clips were mostly from mainstream news agencies -- the newscasters and narrators, he said, appeared to be "presenting facts as they understood them," but the content of these clips reinforced negative stereotypes.

After repeated exposure to negative stereotypes, the research participants were asked to perform a Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task, which required them to push a button whenever they saw a star on the screen. Pressing the button fast enough resulted in either winning money or avoiding losing money.

In those individuals shown the stigmatizing clips, the nucleus accumbens responded differently to waiting for the star to appear, as compared to those who viewed the control clips, a pattern that suggests that negative stereotype exposure was "spilling-over" to affect how participants were anticipating winning and losing money.

"We saw that something about watching these stigmatizing videos was later influencing the pattern of response within this brain region," Ratner said. This suggests that the nucleus accumbens is representing the potential of winning and losing money differently in the brains of those who previously saw the stigmatizing videos than those who didn't, he explained. The researchers also found that the group that saw the stigmatizing videos reported lower levels of arousal right before starting the MID task, consistent with stigmatizing experiences having a demotivating effect.

"The nucleus accumbens is very important for motivated behavior, and sparks of motivation are important for many aspects for everyday life," Ratner said. A loss of motivation, he continued, is often experienced by those who perceive their situation as out of their control.

One reason negative stereotypes in the media and popular culture are so problematic is they make people feel stigmatized even when they are not personally targeted in their daily life by bigoted people, he explained. "It becomes something you can't escape -- similar to other stressors that are out of people's control and have been shown to cause anhedonia."

Ratner is careful to point out that this study merely scratches the surface of brain processes involved in intergroup reactions such as stigma -- how the brain processes social motivations is far more complex and necessitates further study.

"People shouldn't generalize too much from this specific finding," he said, pointing out that his sample of 40 Mexican-American college students, while not small for a brain imaging study, represents only a small segment of a far more diverse community. When his lab is back up and running following the COVID-19 related cessation, he said, he and his collaborators hope to study a larger, non-student sample.

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Scientists urge business and government to treat PFAS chemicals as a class

Researchers around the globe say "forever chemicals" should be avoided

GREEN SCIENCE POLICY INSTITUTE

 

BERKELEY, Calif.--All per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) should be treated as one class and avoided for nonessential uses, according to a peer-reviewed article published today in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

The authors--16 scientists from universities, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the European Environment Agency, and NGOs--say the extreme persistence and known toxicity of PFAS that have been studied render traditional chemical-by-chemical management dangerously inadequate. The article lays out how businesses and government can apply a class-based approach to reduce harm from PFAS, including fluoropolymers, which are large molecules.

"With thousands of PFAS in existence, assessing and managing their risks individually is like trying to drink from a fire hose," said Tom Bruton, Senior Scientist at the Green Science Policy Institute. "Phased-out PFAS that were used to make products like non-stick cookware have been replaced with other PFAS that have turned out to be similarly toxic. By avoiding the entire class of PFAS, we can avoid further rounds of replacing a banned substance with a chemical cousin which is also later banned."

Studied PFAS have been associated with cancer, decreased fertility, endocrine disruption, immune system harms, adverse developmental effects, and other serious health problems. The authors note that people are exposed to multiple PFAS at once, and there is little research on the effects of combined exposures.

Less than one percent of PFAS have been tested for toxicity, but all PFAS are either extremely persistent in the environment or break down into extremely persistent PFAS. Cleaning up contamination can take decades to centuries or more and every time an individual "forever chemical" has been studied, it was found to be harmful.

"When it comes to harm from PFAS, it is much more than our own health that's at stake. It is the health of our children, grandchildren and generations to come--indeed, of every creature on our planet," said Arlene Blum, Executive Director of the Green Science Policy Institute. "The longer we continue the unnecessary use of PFAS, the more likely the overall future harm to our world will rival, or even surpass, that of the coronavirus."

The article notes that some companies have already employed a class-based approach to PFAS. For example, IKEA phased out all PFAS in its textile products and Levi Strauss & Co. has committed to a similar phase-out.

"We're proud that our class-based approach to chemicals has helped protect our customers and the environment, for example by removing all PFAS from IKEA's textiles in 2016," said Therese Lilliebladh of IKEA. "It also helps us stay ahead of the curve and avoid falling into a problematic cycle of substituting a similar chemical for one that has been phased out."

Some government bodies have banned the entire class of PFAS for use in some products. For example, Maine and Washington have banned all PFAS in food contact materials and Denmark has banned PFAS from paper-based food packaging. The authors recommend expanding such regulation to all nonessential uses.

Contrary to recent PFAS manufacturer messaging, the authors emphasize that fluorinated polymers should be included in a class-based approach to PFAS. "These large molecule chemicals can release smaller toxic PFAS and other hazardous substances into the environment throughout their lifecycle, from production, to use, to disposal," said author Carol Kwiatkowski, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University. "Fluoropolymer microplastics also contribute to global plastic and microplastics debris."

"PFAS are a complex class of chemicals, but there is a clear pattern of persistence and potential for health harm that unites them all," said retired NIEHS Director Linda Birnbaum. "The use of any PFAS should be avoided whenever possible."

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CANADIAN, EH

Could your computer please be more polite? Thank you

Carnegie Mellon method automatically makes requests more polite

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS AT CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY HAVE DEVELOPED AN AUTOMATED METHOD FOR MAKING COMMUNICATIONS MORE POLITE. THIS IMAGE SHOWS ONE POSSIBLE IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS METHOD: AUTOMATED SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING POLITENESS IN... view more 

CREDIT: CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

PITTSBURGH--In a tense time when a pandemic rages, politicians wrangle for votes and protesters demand racial justice, a little politeness and courtesy go a long way. Now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed an automated method for making communications more polite.

Specifically, the method takes nonpolite directives or requests -- those that use either impolite or neutral language -- and restructures them or adds words to make them more well-mannered. "Send me the data," for instance, might become "Could you please send me the data?"

The researchers will present their study on politeness transfer at the Association for Computational Linguistics annual meeting, which will be held virtually beginning July 5.

The idea of transferring a style or sentiment from one communication to another -- turning negative statements positive, for instance -- is something language technologists have been doing for some time. Shrimai Prabhumoye, a Ph.D. student in CMU's Language Technologies Institute (LTI), said performing politeness transfer has long been a goal.

"It is extremely relevant for some applications, such as if you want to make your emails or chatbot sound more polite or if you're writing a blog," she said. "But we could never find the right data to perform this task."

She and LTI master's students Aman Madaan, Amrith Setlur and Tanmay Parekh solved that problem by generating a dataset of 1.39 million sentences labeled for politeness, which they used for their experiments.

The source of these sentences might seem surprising. They were derived from emails exchanged by employees of Enron, a Texas-based energy company that, until its demise in 2001, was better known for corporate fraud and corruption than for social niceties. But half a million corporate emails became public as a result of lawsuits surrounding Enron's fraud scandal and subsequently have been used as a dataset for a variety of research projects.

But even with a dataset, the researchers were challenged simply to define politeness.

"It's not just about using words such as 'please' and 'thank you,'" Prabhumoye said. Sometimes, it means making language a bit less direct, so that instead of saying "you should do X," the sentence becomes something like "let us do X."

And politeness varies from one culture to the next. It's common for native North Americans to use "please" in requests to close friends, but in Arab culture it would be considered awkward, if not rude. For their study, the CMU researchers restricted their work to speakers of North American English in a formal setting.

The politeness dataset was analyzed to determine the frequency and distribution of words in the polite and nonpolite sentences. Then the team developed a "tag and generate" pipeline to perform politeness transfers. First, impolite or nonpolite words or phrases are tagged and then a text generator replaces each tagged item. The system takes care not to change the meaning of the sentence.

"It's not just about cleaning up swear words," Prabhumoye said of the process. Initially, the system had a tendency to simply add words to sentences, such as "please" or "sorry." If "Please help me" was considered polite, the system considered "Please please please help me" even more polite.

But over time the scoring system became more realistic and the changes became subtler. First person singular pronouns, such as I, me and mine, were replaced by first person plural pronouns, such as we, us and our. And rather than position "please" at the beginning of the sentence, the system learned to insert it within the sentence: "Could you please send me the file?"

Prabhumoye said the researchers have released their labeled dataset for use by other researchers, hoping to encourage them to further study politeness.

###

In addition to the students, the study's co-authors included several professors from the LTI and the Machine Learning Department -- Barnabas Poczos, Graham Neubig, Yiming Yang, Ruslan Salakhutdinov and Alan Black. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation, Apple and NVIDIA supported this research.

Is it time to replace one of the cornerstones of animal research?

By David GrimmJun. 25, 2020 , 2:10 PM

Last year marked the 60th anniversary of one of the most influential concepts in lab animal welfare—the three Rs. To promote the humane treatment of laboratory animals, these principles urge scientists to replace animals with new technologies, reduce the number of animals used in experiments, and refine lab protocols to minimize animal suffering. First outlined in the 1959 book, The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique, the three Rs have become a cornerstone of lab animal legislation and oversight throughout the world.

But as millions of animals continue to be used in biomedical research each year, and new legislation calls on federal agencies to reduce and justify their animal use, some have begun to argue that it’s time to replace the three Rs themselves. “It was an important advance in animal research ethics, but it’s no longer enough,” Tom Beauchamp told attendees last week at a lab animal conference.

Beauchamp, an emeritus professor of ethics at Georgetown University, has studied the ethics of animal research for decades. He also co-authored the influential Belmont Report of 1978, which has guided ethical principles for conducting research on human subjects. Beauchamp recently teamed up with David DeGrazia, a bioethicist at George Washington University and a senior research fellow in the Department of Bioethics at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), to lay out six principles for the ethical use of lab animals, which would replace the three Rs. The pair published both a scientific article and book on the topic late last year.

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Beauchamp and DeGrazia talked with Science about how their new approach works, why they think it’s better than the three Rs, and whether researchers will embrace it. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: What’s wrong with the three Rs?

David DeGrazia: The three Rs don’t take the costs and benefits of animal research into account. They don’t ask questions like, “Is the experiment worth pursuing in the first place? Is it too expensive? Is it important enough?” It just assumes the experiment is worth doing. We want scientists to be asking these essential questions first.

The three Rs also aren’t comprehensive. They don’t discuss the basic needs of animals, for example, or set limits on how much animals can be harmed.

Q: How do your new principles solve these problems?

D.D.: The first principle is that you can only use animals if they’re the most ethically acceptable way to address the question. It goes beyond the “replacement” part of the three Rs in that scientists must not just consider alternatives to using animals, they must prove that there are no viable alternatives. An IACUC [Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee], for example, might ask an investigator to detail the science showing that animal alternatives like organ on a chip or microdosing humans aren’t viable. It puts more teeth into replacement.

Another principle would ask scientists to detail how much humans and society are likely to benefit from the research, and contrast that with how much animals are likely to suffer. Even if the benefits of using animals outweigh the costs, we want researchers to think about how they can mitigate—and even eliminate—any harms caused to animals during their experiments. Are they drawing blood more than they need to? Are they handling rodents more often than necessary?

Scientists also should be thinking about how to give these creatures the best life possible in the lab. That could include making sure they have companions, exercise, and other stimulating activity.

Tom Beauchamp: Finally, there should be an upper limit to how much we can harm animals, regardless of the benefits of the science. No animal should be put in a position of experiencing severe suffering for a lengthy period of time.

D.D.: If we, hypothetically, addict mice to cocaine, and then see how much of an electric shock they’re willing to endure to get their fix, we’re forcing them to live between the misery of addiction and the suffering of shocks. That’s way too much harm to cause for whatever the purpose of the study is.

This is the only principle for which we say there might be some rare exceptions. For example, an exception might be if there’s a raging pandemic and the only way to test a vaccine is to have a control group that suffers for a week or more without treatment.

Q: What has been the response of scientists so far?

D.D.: I’d say the response from researchers was halfway between warm reception and polite skepticism. The feedback has been limited so far, but I’ve been encouraged by the positive tone.

At the same time, some people have expressed concern about how to quantify things like the benefit to people or the harm to animals. I’m sure we will get criticism about the principles imposing extra regulations and slowing down science. But it won’t slow down science if we’re stopping research that doesn’t provide real benefits.

Q: Do you think your principles will have as much impact as the three Rs?

D.D.: Our framework can’t change the scientific culture by itself. These things take time. But our hope is that, like the three Rs, our principles will become part of the mainstream vocabulary of scientists and ultimately change their behavior. If so, I think we’ll see much better science, because the models are so well-chosen, and all of the animal subjects will have decent lives.

Q: What are your next steps?

T.B.: The best way for us to push things forward is to give talks and hope that will lead to more people reaching out to us. [Their proposal came up at a recent NIH workshop on nonhuman primate research.]

Q: Have you thought about a catchy name, like “the three Rs”?

D.D.: Not yet. Maybe “The six principles”? [Laughs]. We’re still working on it.

*Correction, 25 June, 3 p.m.: This article originally mentioned an alternative to animal testing called “lab on a chip.” It should have been “organ on a chip.” The story has been

Pop-up protests to abolish police wind up outside Winnipeg police headquarter

Supporters gathered on 8th day in a row of rallies organized by Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg

CBC News · Posted: Jun 29, 2020

of Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg organized eight days of pop-up protests in the city. On the final day, supporters of the movement rallied outside the Winnipeg Police Service Headquarters. (CBC)

For the eighth consecutive day, supporters of the Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg movement gathered to listen to speeches and chant in the city's downtown.

About 200 people met on Monday afternoon outside the Winnipeg Police Service Headquarters, near the intersection of Graham Avenue and Smith Street, calling for more accountability and to defund the police.

"We do not want reform. We want the Winnipeg police gone," organizers wrote in an Instagram post before the rally.

The latest pop-up protest was the eighth event in a row organized by Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg.

It was dedicated to five people who were shot and killed by police and two people who died while in police custody: Machuar Madut, Jason Collins, Eishia Hudson, Stewart Kevin Andrews, Randy Cochrane, Sean Thompson and Chad Williams.

"These folks demand justice. They lost their lives too soon," reads the post.

All seven were Black, Indigenous and people of colour. Some of their family members are still demanding answers about their loved ones' death.

Family of man fatally shot by Winnipeg police says he overcame 'troubled past' to care for kids

Hearing to determine participants for inquest into death of South Sudanese man killed by Winnipeg police

People rallied Tuesday outside the Winnipeg Police Headquarters to draw attention to people who died while in police custody and who were killed by police. (CBC)

Many attendees at the rally were carrying signs with supportive slogans and wearing masks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

"These folks did not deserve to die. And the Winnipeg police need to be held accountable for their actions. We want to remind folks again that the police consistently show they are not capable of helping those in crisis," organizers posted on Instagram.

"We want to thank everyone who has shown up or watched the live streams every single day. We appreciate you and we see you."

Vehicles and buses passed by people huddled in front of the main entrance to the blue glass building that houses the officers in blue uniforms and other staff.

A car passes on the road outside the Winnipeg Police Service Headquarters as a Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg rally took place on Tuesday. (CBC)

In a tweet, Winnipeg Police Service said criminal record checks, fingerprinting and in-person crime reporting service will not be available on Monday afternoon.

In a statement, a police spokesperson said they had no additional comment on the closures or the rally just outside their main entrance.

Organizers had asked reporters not to attend and did not provide an interview.

Week of pop-up protests condemns anti-Black racism in Manitoba
CBC Asks: Black Lives Matter — where do we go from here?

Thousands of people descended on the Manitoba Legislature to demand justice for Black lives on June 5. That also marked the day organizers released their list of 10 demands for the city and the province to address anti-Black racism and police brutality.

With files from Peggy Lam
CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC NewsReport Typo or Error

China passes sweeping Hong Kong national security law: report
By Helen Regan, CNN Tue June 30, 20

(CNN)Beijing has reportedly passed a wide-reaching national security law for Hong Kong, which many fear could be used to override existing legal processes and further erode the city's civil and political freedoms.

Beijing's top lawmaking body, the National People's Congress (NPC), passed the law unanimously on Tuesday morning local time, bypassing Hong Kong's legislature, according to Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK, citing unnamed sources.

Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency previously reported the law would criminalize offenses such as secession, subversion against the central Chinese government, terrorism, and colluding with foreign forces.

A draft had not been made public ahead of its passage, meaning the majority of people in Hong Kong have not seen details of a law that will now govern their lives.


China is about to pass a controversial national security law in Hong Kong. Here's what you need to know

The passing of the legislation has not been officially confirmed and details remain unclear. But RTHK reports that possible maximum sentencing for crimes under the law will be "much higher" than 10 years imprisonment.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam refused to comment on the progress of the bill in her weekly press conference on Tuesday morning, saying it would be "inappropriate" to respond to questions while the NPC meeting is still in session.

The legislation was widely criticized by opposition lawmakers in Hong Kong, human rights groups and politicians worldwide, with many saying it will cement Beijing's direct control over the semi-autonomous city. Many worry it could be used to target political dissidents, activists, human rights lawyers and journalists -- a fear that stems from China's judicial track record and the central government's continuing crackdown on civil society under President Xi Jinping.

The passing of the law comes a day before July 1, the anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from British colonial rule to China in 1997. It has become an annual day of protests in the city, but for the first time since handover police have not given permission to protesters to hold peaceful demonstrations.

"One country, two systems"

The law's passing is expected to fuel further anger and protests in the city, which was rocked by over six months of increasingly violent anti-government unrest last year.

Opponents of the law say it marks the end of the "one country, two systems" -- a principle by which Hong Kong has retained limited democracy and civil liberties since coming under Chinese control.

Crucially, those freedoms include the right to assembly, a free press, and an independent judiciary, rights that are not enjoyed on the Chinese mainland.

Chinese Communist Party officials and state media have defended the law as vital to protecting national security in the wake of last year's protests and a 17-year failure by the Hong Kong government to pass similar legislation, since the last effort was met with mass protests in 2003.

Hong Kong protester voices fear over national security law 

In a blueprint of the legislation revealed by Chinese state media Xinhua on June 22, mainland Chinese officials will be allowed to operate in Hong Kong for the first time and give Beijing the power to override local laws.

In a statement last week, Lam said the law would ensure "the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong," and that it would "only target an extremely small minority of people." She said the proposed bill was "in line with the rule of law" and the "rights and freedoms which are applicable in Hong Kong under the Basic Law and relevant international covenants."

According to the blueprint, Beijing will establish a national security office, staffed by mainland security services to supervise local authorities in policing the law. A national security commission will also be set up, with a Beijing-appointed adviser and operating under "the supervision of the central government."

Additionally, Hong Kong's top official, the Chief Executive, will pick which judges hear national security cases, while mainland Chinese authorities will be able to "exercise jurisdiction" over cases in special circumstances -- a controversial clause that raises the prospect that certain crimes in Hong Kong could result in trials on the mainland.
Ultimately, the blueprint makes clear that national security law trumps local laws. If there is a conflict with existing Hong Kong law, the national security law will prevail.

Reaction from Hong Kong and around the world

Many in the city have decried the lack of transparency over the legislation. In a letter to the Hong Kong government, Philip Dykes, chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association said the secrecy of the law was "genuinely extraordinary" and called on the government to make clear how citizens' minimum rights will be guaranteed.

Joshua Wong, an activist who who helped lead massive pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2014 said on Twitter that it "marks the end of Hong Kong that the world knew before."

He said Hong Kong "will continue to fight for our freedoms and democracy for the city's next generations. When justice fails, our fight goes on."

Following news of the legislation passing, Wong announced he was standing down from democracy group Demosisto, which he formed in 2016, because of the threat posed by the law. He was joined by fellow activist leaders Nathan Law, who was removed from the local legislature in 2016, and activist Agnes Chow.

Wong and other activists have met with foreign diplomats and testified before the US Congress on Hong Kong's freedoms since the large-scale pro-democracy protests broke out last summer.

China to impose tit-for-tat visa restrictions on US officials over Hong Kong

Rights group Amnesty International said the legislation "represents the greatest threat to human rights in the city's recent history."

"From now on, China will have the power to impose its own laws on any criminal suspect it chooses," said the head of Amnesty International's China Team, Joshua Rosenzweig.

"The speed and secrecy with which China has pushed through this legislation intensifies the fear that Beijing has calculatingly created a weapon of repression to be used against government critics, including people who are merely expressing their views or protesting peacefully," he said.

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen said reports on China passing the security law "proves that 'one country, two systems' is not credible." Tsai said that Taiwan will start an office from July 1, which will "provide humanitarian aid for our friends in Hong Kong."

In Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga called the passing of the law "regrettable."

On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced an end to the exports of US-origin defense equipment to Hong Kong. Pompeo said the move was necessary to protect American national security as the tensions between the US and China continue to escalate.

"As Beijing moves forward with passing the national security law, the United States will today end exports of US-origin defense equipment and will take steps toward imposing the same restrictions on US defense and dual-use technologies to Hong Kong as it does for China," Pompeo said. "The United States is forced to take this action to protect US national security. We can no longer distinguish between the export of controlled items to Hong Kong or to mainland China."

This is the first action the US government has taken to upend the special status trade relationship between the US and Hong Kong, following the determination that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous from China due to Beijing imposing the national security law on the city.

It comes as Beijing on Monday said it would impose visa restrictions on certain Americans in response to Washington's move last week to place similar limits on Chinese officials over Hong Kong.

Google Doodle of Marsha P. Johnson, beloved trans-rights activist, will close out Pride month


By Christina Maxouris, CNN  Tue June 30, 2020

(CNN)Google is paying tribute to Marsha P. Johnson -- a pioneering figure in the country's LGBT rights movement -- on the last day of Pride month.
The company announced its June 30 Google Doodle will be dedicated to the late activist who was at the center of New York's gay liberation movement for more than 20 years.
The doodle depicts Johnson in all her colorful, flower-in-hair, bright-red-lipstick glory.

A petition wants to replace a New Jersey city's Christopher Columbus statue with Black trans activist Marsha P. Johnson
The company said it chose June 30th to honor Johnson as it will be the first anniversary since she was posthumously honored as a grand marshal during WorldPride in New York.

"Thank you, Marsha P. Johnson, for inspiring people everywhere to stand up for the freedom to be themselves," Google wrote.

Who is Marsha P. Johnson?
Google.org will also donate $500,000 to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, the company said. The institute, which launched last year, will continue the work Johnson started, advocating for and organizing on behalf of the transgender community, its founder has previously told CNN.

"For so long, Marsha's history has only been heralded by the LGBTQ community," Elle Hearns, the founder and executive director of the institute, said in a statement.
"Today's Doodle will help teach her story to many more around the world, and about the work that has been historically ignored and often purposely left out of history books. Today's Doodle of Marsha reminds people that Black and LGBTQ+ history is bigger than just a month; it is something to be honored every single day."


Google's June 30 Doodle

A movement in Johnson's hometown
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, there's another push to keep Johnson's memory alive.
A 19-year-old woman has created a petition -- which in less than two weeks has garnered more than 40,000 signatures -- to replace a statue of Christopher Columbus in the city with one of Johnson.
The creator, Celine Da Silva, told CNN she thinks an honor for the activist in her hometown is long overdue.
"Being that this is her hometown, I think that we should be celebrating her and honoring her here," Da Silva told CNN. "And I think that the LGBT and queer community should be able to learn more about historic figures from their own community."
Da Silva and her boyfriend have plans to bring up their demand to the city council next month. They say they hope a new monument for Johnson will be the first of many steps to create a more inclusive Elizabeth and one that celebrates minorities and LGBT figures like Johnson.

Marsha P. Johnson, a black transgender woman, was a central figure in the gay liberation movement
The late activist's family, who still live in the New Jersey city today, say the movement to honor Johnson in her hometown gives them hope.
"I've always said that Marsha was more recognized in New York City and around the world than she is in her own hometown," her nephew, Al Michaels, says. "You have a hero, one of the greatest persons who did something in history and in your own hometown, and you have nothing there to commemorate the experience."
An announcement for another statue of Johnson was made last year by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
De Blasio said the city would commemorate both the work of Johnson and her friend and activist Sylvia Rivera with statues in Greenwich Village. The two helped found the group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), which offered housing to homeless and transgender youth.
Their monument will be among the first in the world to honor transgender people, the mayor's office had said.

https://g.co/doodle/y9euyvr

https://www.google.com/search?q=Marsha+P.+Johnson&oi=ddle&ct=158961028&hl=en&kgmid=%2Fm%2F06dtn0&source=doodle-ntp&ved=0ahUKEwikt7DN6qjqAhUVo54KHcSVBnIQPQgB

Scores of children killed in Philippines' war on drugs: report

GENEVA(Reuters) - At least 129 children have been killed in the Philippines’ four-year war on drugs, most by police or allied assailants, but they may only represent a fraction of the toll, activist groups said on Monday.

FILE PHOTO: Protesters and residents hold lighted candles and placards at the wake of Kian delos Santos, a 17-year-old high school student, who was among the people shot dead in an escalation of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs in Caloocan city, Metro Manila, Philippines August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao/File Photo
Minors have been directly targeted, punished as proxies, or victims of mistaken identity or “collateral damage”, they said in a report, “How could they do this to my child?”.

The World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) and the Children’s Legal Rights and Development Centre, a Philippines- based group, urged the U.N. Human Rights Council to launch an independent commission of inquiry into extrajudicial killings and other crimes at its three-week session opening on Tuesday.

The figures, which include seven child murders this year, are “the tip of the iceberg because it is only those cases that we were able to document and verify, there may be many more in the country”, said Gerald Staberock, OMCT secretary-general.


“We are calling on the Human Rights Council to give a clear investigative mandate on the ground to collect the evidence and to ensure accountability,” he told a news conference.

A Philippine presidential palace spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokesman Harry Roque rejected as “rehashed claims” a separate U.N. report this month that found tens of thousands of people may have been killed in the war on drugs amid near impunity.

But the activists’ report said: “Far from being only ‘collateral damage’, as callously stated by President Rodrigo Duterte, these have often been deliberate killings.”

Their investigations found that 38.5% of the documented child killings were carried out by policemen while 61.5% were by unknown assailants, “some of them with direct links to the police”. The youngest victim was a 20-month-old girl.


Perpetrators enjoy impunity, with only one case, involving the killing of 17-year-old Manila student Kian delos Santos, recorded on video in 2017, leading to a conviction, the report said.

Children violating quarantines in the pandemic have been killed, Rose Trajano of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, said.

“We have documented at least 15 extrajudicial killings during the time of COVID and we know that is not all,” she said

Assange surprised by timing of new U.S. indictment

LONDON (Reuters) - Julian Assange’s lawyer said on Monday he was surprised U.S. authorities issued a new and wider indictment last week against the WikiLeaks founder whom they are seeking to extradite from Britain.

Assange is wanted by U.S. authorities to stand trial for 18 offences including conspiring to hack government computers and espionage. Last year, the United States began extradition proceedings after he was dragged from London’s Ecuadorean embassy where he had been holed up for almost seven years.

The U.S. Department for Justice issued a second, superseding indictment last week which, it said, contained no new charges but broadened “the scope of the conspiracy” and included accusations of recruiting hackers.

“We are to say the least surprised by the timing of this development,” Assange’s lawyer Mark Summers told a brief technical hearing at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday, adding it could derail the timing for the case.


Assange’s full extradition hearing began in February but was interrupted by Britain’s coronavirus lockdown and is now scheduled to resume on Sept. 7.

Judge Vanessa Baraister said the case would “almost certainly” be now held at London’s Old Bailey criminal court.

Assange himself was again absent from Monday’s hearing and unable to appear by videolink from prison because of medical reasons, Summers said.

Baraitser said the prison had said Assange was not unwell but was choosing not to attend. She said his legal team needed to provide up-to-date medical information for the next hearing.


Summers said the medical issues related to Assange attending the court via an unventilated video booth. His lawyers say he has had past respiratory illnesses making him susceptible to COVID-19.

Assange, 48, an Australian, fears decades in prison if convicted in the United States and calls the case against him a threat to free speech. Washington says he put the lives of informants in danger by publishing secret diplomatic cables.


Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne

Spanish village makes its own rainbow after council's gay pride flag ban

BARCELONA (Reuters) - When police ordered a local mayor in southern Spain to take down a rainbow flag put up to celebrate gay pride on Friday because it was illegal, more than 300 households in the village rallied to the cause and flew their own flags.
A woman walks past rainbow flags placed on a street during the International LGBT Pride Day, in Villanueva de Algaidas, southern Spain June 28, 2020. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
By the time gay pride celebrations took place in Spain on Sunday, the Andalusian village of Villanueva de Algaidas near Malaga was awash with flags hanging from balconies, windows and even a bar in solidarity.

Juan Civico, Socialist mayor of the village of 4,000 inhabitants, only found out it was illegal for authorities to fly the flag after three residents complained about the one he had put up.

Civico said the local government was bound by a recent ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court that only official flags, of Spain, its regions or the European Union, can be flown from council buildings.

“After the complaints, we studied what we had to do. We saw that under the law we had to remove the flag. But the people can put what they like on their balconies,” said Civico.

Hearing about the police action, Antonio Carlos Alcántara who runs a shop in the seaside resort of Torremolinos, 62 km away, had an idea.

He sells rainbow flags in his shop in the resort, which is popular with the LGBT community, but because of the coronavirus they were not selling and he had plenty in stock.


After he put out a message on the council’s Facebook page asking if anyone in Villanueva de Algaidas wanted to fly a rainbow flag, he received more than 100 requests for the flags, prompting him to drive over and hand out another 300.

“The village is full(of flags). It is incredible,” Alcántara said.

Piedad Queralta hung two flags from her house in the village.

“I think people should be free to love who they want to as long as it does not cause anybody any harm,” she said.

In 2005, Spain became the third country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage, after the Netherlands and Belgium.

A 2013 report for the U.S.-based Pew Research Center found 88% of Spaniards accepted homosexuality, making it one of the most accepting countries of the 39 polled.

Antonio Ferre, of the Federation of Andalusian LGTB+ Diversity, said the villagers’ initiative in Villanueva de Algaidas was “especially moving”.


Manolo Garcia, another resident, was just happy to support the cause.

“To me it is not good nor bad. Every person should be able to do what they like in their own home and in the public street if it does not offend others,” he said.