'American exceptionalism': EU travel bans show US is abdicating global leadership, former CDC head says

The European Union is set to reopen its borders starting July 1. Right now, the bloc is still deciding who it wants to let in, and it does not look like people from the US will be among them. 

June 26, 2020 · By The World staff Producer Christopher Woolf

As countries around the globe start to reopen, the big question is how to do it safely. 

The European Union is set to reopen its borders starting July 1. Visitors from the US and Russia are among those that are restricted from entering Europe, The New York Times reported on Friday.

Earlier reporting this week from The New York Times that alluded to that prompted Dr. Tom Frieden, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to tweet, "This is not what American exceptionalism is supposed to mean." 

This is not what American exceptionalism is supposed to mean. Until the US gets control of this virus, we will face barriers to travel and economic recovery. https://t.co/et7Dn7tdcC

— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) June 23, 2020

Frieden headed the CDC from 2009 to 2017. He's now president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, which focuses on preventing deaths from cardiovascular disease in low- and middle-income countries. Frieden joined The World's host Marco Werman from New York to talk about the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic. 

Related: Nicholas Burns: US' 'unusual absence' from world stage is bad for Americans

Marco Werman: Dr. Frieden, an interesting way to frame American exceptionalism. What did you mean in your tweet when you said that this is not what that's supposed to mean? 

Tom Frieden: Well, there's debate about what American exceptionalism is and different visions of it. But it was never supposed to mean that we continue to have tens of thousands of cases of COVID-19 disease every single day while Europe has essentially beaten the curve, and countries around the world are doing much better than we are. The key point here is that it's not a question of health versus economics. The only way we're going to get our economy back is to be guided by and fully support public health, so we can keep COVID-19 in its place and we can have more space in society. 

What do you make of the fact that this list puts the US in the same company as Russia and Brazil? Does that mean the US, Brazil and Russia, we're all at the bottom of the barrel? 

There are a lot of countries that aren't doing a good job, and there are a fair number of countries that are doing a really good job. I think the key is for us to continuously improve our response. We have great health departments around the country. We have very committed public health professionals. Congress has provided substantial resources. Now, we need to scale up our programs and show that we, too, can turn the tide and make huge progress against this pandemic. 

In parts of this country, we've done it. If you look at New York, New Jersey, many other places in the US, we have seen a huge decrease in cases. Now, we have to keep that up so we don't have large spikes. We know there are going to be clusters. That's inevitable. That's why we need really good public health systems to find those clusters early and stop them before they become outbreaks. That's what has to happen for us to be safer and for us to get our economy back. 

When you speak with colleagues overseas dealing with the pandemic, what do they say about how the US has handled the crisis? 

I get emails and text messages from all over the world just kind of shaking their head. What is happening? Why has the US response been so ineffective? Why isn't contact tracing scaled up? Why in the world has mask-wearing become a political statement in some places and for some people? I would say there's a kind of sadness and disbelief when people look at what's happening in the US now.

The US has for decades been a leader in global health. And now it's seen — unfortunately, accurately — as a laggard. I point out the need for federal leadership. I point out that public health has not failed in this pandemic. What has failed is the politicians' willingness to listen to public health advice and be guided by and support public health, because everywhere in the world where that is done, their communities do better. Fewer deaths and less economic destruction and devastation. 

How do you think the US handling of the pandemic is changing the way this country is seen around the world?

Well, I think it's done a lot of damage to our reputation as a leader, to our reputation as a country that could not only handle things here, but be relied on globally. When I think back to Ebola, the US led the global charge to protect the countries of West Africa and stop the epidemic there successfully. Now, the US is really not in that role.

Saying that we're going to leave WHO in the middle of a pandemic is not a sensible thing to do. Certainly, WHO needs to be better, but they're essential. And turning our backs on them is not going to help at this time. The US has a wonderful history of pragmatic, effective public health and political leadership. And if we get back to that, we can control this pandemic and the next one that comes along as well. 

I mean, you look at China, they recently had a cluster of more than 150 new COVID cases in Beijing. Officials sealed off neighborhoods, they launched a mass testing campaign, imposed travel restrictions. In the meantime, here in the US, we're getting reports that President Donald Trump wants to close 13 federally run testing centers just as infections are spiking in several states. Again, maybe the answer is obvious, but how does the US emerge from this and get on the list of responsible countries?

If we do the right thing, we'll get on the right list. I got an email this morning from a colleague in Australia. Incredibly impressive. They've got a cluster. They're ramping up testing. They're doing very intensive work. And really, the tale of two countries is the United States and South Korea. We've both had our first cases on Jan. 20.

If you had moved from the US to South Korea on that date, you would have been 70 times less likely to get killed by COVID-19. And these days, Korea is having 30 cases a day and they're really concerned about it. They're ramping up their efforts to clamp down on the virus. We have 30,000 cases, and there's still debate about whether people should wear masks. It's a little mind-boggling. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

SCOTUS rules some rejected asylum-seekers can't challenge decisions


The ruling says immigrants denied asylum under streamlined proceedings, cannot contest that decision in court.


June 25, 2020 · By The World staff Producer Amulya Shankar

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that immigrants denied asylum under streamlined proceedings cannot contest those decisions in court.

The case involved a Sri Lankan farmer named Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, a member of the Tamil ethnic minority, who said he feared persecution. The justices ruled in favor of the Trump administration in its appeal of a lower court ruling that Thuraissigiam had a right to have a judge review the government's handling of his asylum bid.

The ruling, written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, found that limiting judicial scrutiny in this rapid deportation case, known as expedited removal, did not violate key safeguards of individual liberty in the US Constitution. It is likely to impact thousands of potential asylum-seekers, who already face long odds in gaining asylum.

Related: Trump proposes harsh asylum rules disqualifying many applicants

Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, spoke with The World's host Marco Werman about the implications of the ruling.

Marco Werman: Explain what the Supreme Court actually upheld today and start, if you would, with these expedited hearings for asylum-seekers. What do they look like and how are they being used?


Sarah Pierce: When asylum-seekers come to the United States, whether that be to a port of entry or crossing the border illegally, as the Sri Lankan national did here, they're subject expedited removal proceedings, under which they're deported from the country without seeing a judge within at most a few weeks. While they're in those proceedings, they can claim a fear of returning to their home countries. And that triggers a preliminary asylum interview, also called a credible fear interview. The Sri Lankan national here had that credible fear interview and was denied. And he seeks to have a federal court review that denial. But there's a statute, a law, in place saying that federal courts could not review these decisions. And so he was contesting the constitutionality of that law, which the Supreme Court then upheld today.

To contest the constitutionality, he was basically bringing in a habeas corpus petition. How unusual is that at asylum proceedings?


It is unusual. A lot of these asylum-seekers don't yet have attorneys. They have not been in the United States a long time and they don't have the resources to go through with this full federal court review. But it definitely happens whether they're trying to get the facts of their case reviewed or if they think that they were denied on a legal error.

Related: US and Mexico are blocking kids from asking for asylum because of coronavirus

What was the rationale for this decision, then, at the Supreme Court today?


The Supreme Court ultimately found that foreign nationals like this one, who are detained shortly after entering the country illegally, they don't enjoy as many constitutional protections as other individuals in the United States. This is a pretty big hit for foreign nationals. They're saying that Congress and the executive, the political branches of our government, have the power to determine the rights that these individuals enjoy and they can't depend on the Constitution. So the fear is that this opinion could be expanded to take away other rights for this group of individuals.

Generally, how hard is it to be granted asylum in the US right now? Has it gotten more difficult because of the pandemic?


During the pandemic, it's essentially impossible if you're talking about asylum at the southern border because of the order that came down from the CDC. Anyone approaching the southern border is being expelled from the country rather quickly. The only individuals who are able to seek refuge in the United States during this kind of black hole period of the pandemic are those who proactively state to US Border Patrol agents that they have a fear of torture in their home country if they fear persecution or anything else, they still will be expelled as quickly as possible.

This interview has been condensed and edited. Reuters contributed reporting.

Centuries ago, Spanish writers challenged gender norms and barriers


Portrait of Sor Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695), a nun of New Spain (Mexico) and contributor to the Spanish Golden Age. Credit:Miguel Cabrera/Wikimedia Common

Think "Spanish literature" and you might come up with "Don Quixote," by Miguel de Cervantes. But there's so much more to classic Spanish lit than "Man of La Mancha."

That’s the focus of "Both Wise and Valiant," an exhibition at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid, which looks at some of the most important — but largely ignored — women writers of Spain's 16th and 17th centuries. The exhibit opened in March but closed due to COVID-19. Now the exhibit has reopened and will be on display through September.

“What is surprising is that we haven't known many of these female writers until very recently."Ana Rodríguez-Rodríguez, curator

“What is surprising is that we haven't known many of these female writers until very recently. They are better known now, in the academic world, but not so much for the greater public. I think that’s something we have to keep working on, and that’s the idea of this exhibition,” said curator Ana Rodríguez-Rodríguez, who is also a professor at the University of Iowa.

Related: In a new MoMA audio guide, security guards are the art experts





Catalina de Erauso, a writer known as "The Lieutenant Nun."
Credit:

Attributed to Juan van der Hamen/Wikimedia Commons

Rodríguez-Rodríguez explained that many of the women writers of the 16th and 17th centuries in Spain were nuns.

“In the convent, which you usually see as a space of confinement and lack of freedom — which it was, in many occasions for many of these women — at the same time, it opened up the opportunity to be in touch with books, in touch with time,” she said.

Life in a convent could provide surprising privileges often not accessible to other women.

“If you’re a woman who has to get married and is a mother or a wife, it’s not proper that you spend a lot of time writing, on reading and thinking about culture...” Rodríguez-Rodríguez explained.

Related: Barcelona opera reopens to full house — of plants

Some of the featured figures in the exhibit challenged norms around gender expression. Rodríguez-Rodríguez points to a writer known as ”The Lieutenant Nun,” Catalina de Erauso. De Erauso was born a woman in Spain and was confined at a young age to a convent, but escaped to the American colonies to live as a man — and as a soldier.

“Catalina de Erauso is one of these fascinating characters that we still need to keep thinking about and discussing because I think this person teaches us many different lessons, that they are good for our understanding of gender, even nowadays,” Rodríguez-Rodríguez said.





María de Zayas, novelist of the Spanish Golden Age
Credit:

Wikimedia Commons

Also featured in the exhibit is the friendship between novelist María de Zayas and playwright Ana Caro. Both were successful writers of the Spanish Golden Age who, nevertheless, faced many barriers because of their gender. To overcome those limitations, they promoted each other’s work in their own writing.

“I think that that’s a wonderful example of female solidarity in the middle of oppression — which is what they really had to go through,” Rodríguez-Rodríguez said.

Rodríguez-Rodríguez hopes the exhibit will help people rediscover these writers outside of academia.

Related: Art, poetry and ... zombies? The surprising cultural contributions of the 1918 influenza pandemic

“The canon has been very male-oriented for forever … or until very recently. It’s really time to make these women known — not only because they are women, but because they offer us wonderful texts, high-quality texts we have been missing since we have studied this time period,” said Rodríguez-Rodríguez. “This is a way we can make some change and give them the fair treatment they have been missing for centuries.”

As Lebanon’s financial crisis worsens, migrant workers are being dumped on the streets like ‘trash’


Human rights advocates say the migrants have little to no recourse, and that the situation is bound to deteriorate further as more people in the country cannot afford to pay domestic workers. The coronavirus restrictions also complicate matters.

June 26, 2020 · By Rebecca Collard

Ethiopian domestic workers wearing masks sit together with their belongings in front of the Ethiopian consulate in Hazmiyeh, Lebanon, June 8, 2020.  Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters

Outside the Ethiopian Embassy in Beirut, a dozen women gather under a small overhang to shelter from the sun. Their suitcases and bags are stacked against the wall. On the ground sits a piece of cardboard with “we want to go home” written in their native Amharic.

Until a few weeks ago, most of the women were living and working inside Lebanese homes as cleaners or caretakers of children and the elderly. But in recent weeks, as Lebanon’s economic crisis worsens, around 100 Ethiopian women have been dumped at the Ethiopian Embassy by their Lebanese employers.

Human rights advocates say these women have little to no recourse, and that the situation is bound to deteriorate further as more people in the country cannot afford to pay domestic workers. The coronavirus restrictions also complicate matters.

For the past two years, Masaret Shefara, who is from Ethiopia, has been working in the home of a family in Beirut. She made just $150 per month before the crisis. A few months ago, the family said they could no longer pay her and dropped her off at the embassy with no money and no way home.

Related: Lebanon's 'two crises': coronavirus and financial collapse

“I just want to go to Ethiopia,” she said, washing her feet and a pair of white socks with a bottle of water while other women rifled through their luggage nearby.

Most of the women have little or no cash. Some don’t even have their passports: Under a sponsorship system for migrant workers, which is known in the Middle East as kafala, employers in Lebanon often take the women’s passports away. Many have been sleeping outside the embassy.

There are around 250,000 domestic workers in Lebanon, which has a population of 6.8 million. Foreign workers from Africa and Asia have long traveled to Lebanon to do domestic jobs, lured by the promise of US dollars — hard and valuable currency that most workers send home to their families. The artificial peg of the Lebanese pound to the US dollar allowed even middle-class Lebanese with relatively low salaries to afford live-in, domestic help.

An Ethiopian woman looks through her bags outside the Ethiopian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Credit: Rebecca Collard/The World

But now, the Lebanese pound has lost three-quarters of its value against the US dollar.

That has sent the price of imported goods — which was already high — rising quickly. And it also means that employers like Shefara’s would now have to pay four times the amount in Lebanese pounds to get the US dollars they need to pay foreign staff. Lebanese pounds are useless in Ethiopia.

Employers say they simply can’t afford that.

Related: Foreign domestic workers stuck in Lebanon as economy spirals

Farah Salka, executive director of the Anti-Racism Movement in Lebanon, said the financial crisis has just brought attention to kafala, a racist system under which foreigners have been employed here for decades. Salka likens it to slavery.

“The sponsorship system allows you to employ a worker, they say, but basically it allows you to own a person in your house,” Salka said. “To make them work in whatever conditions you see fit.”

The kafala system ties a migrant worker’s immigration status to their employers as their sponsors.

Lebanese labor laws do not apply to foreigners hired under the kafala system, said Salka. That has left them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.


“Most of these sponsors are getting rid of their workers literally as though they are trash.”Farah Salka, Anti-Racism Movement in Lebanon

“Most of these sponsors are getting rid of their workers literally as though they are trash,” Salka said.

Many women are owed months of wages, and they have little recourse because they are in the country under the kafala system. Others have suffered forced confinement, physical and mental abuse — even rape. A 2008 Human Rights Watch report found that a domestic worker was dying every week in Lebanon — with suicide being the leading cause of death.

“Falling from high buildings,” a separate category, was the second.

“They need their money and they need to go back home,” Salka said.

But the Beirut airport is closed to regular traffic, due to COVID-19 measures. The women are stuck.

The World was not able to reach anyone at the embassy for a statement.

The Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on June 12 saying “making the recent surge in the number of COVID-19 patients in Ethiopia, attendees come to understand that Ethiopian migrants should be helped where they are to minimize the risk of infection,” but advocates say there has been little help.

Related: How Lebanon's 'WhatsApp tax' unleashed a flood of anger

Other women outside the embassy say they weren’t dropped here. Instead, they escaped from their employer’s house.

“I ran away here,” Asnagas Lelitho said. “I have my passport but no money.”

Lelitho hadn’t been paid in four months when she escaped and, like Shefara, she was only earning $150 per month. Minimum wage for Lebanese workers is around $450 per month.

Occasionally, people come by to try to lure the women to work in their homes, promising to pay in US dollars. No one is interested.

“I don’t want anything,” Lelitho said. “I just want to go to Ethiopia.”

Other Lebanese employers stop at the embassy to inquire about how they can send their domestic workers home. Some say they would never leave them outside the embassy.

“It’s terrible,” said one man stopping to inquire. “They're not animals.”



Former domestic workers from Ethiopia wait outside the Ethiopian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
Credit:

Rebecca Collard/The World

Under increasing pressure, Lebanon’s Ministry of Labor has promised to prosecute the employers who left women in front of the embassy. Employers “who left migrant workers stranded in front of the consulate will be punished by law and will be placed on a blacklist that prevents them from hiring foreign domestic workers again,” Labor Minister Lamia Yammine said in early June.

Ethiopian Airlines have organized repatriation flights, but most have simply no way to get the money. And the women would have to self-quarantine for two weeks once they reach Ethiopia, likely at a hotel — another monumental challenge.


“It’s a disaster. They can’t stay. They can’t leave. They can’t work. They can’t pay.”Farah Salka, Anti-Racism Movement in Lebanon

“It’s a disaster,” Salka said. “They can’t stay. They can’t leave. They can’t work. They can’t pay.”

Salka said it’s difficult to know how many women have been discarded by their employers with no way home, but it’s been hundreds this month alone. The majority are Ethiopian, but Lebanon also hosts tens of thousands more workers from Sri Lanka, the Philippines and other African and Asian countries.

As the financial crisis worsens, more and more workers will be abandoned.

“What we are seeing at the Ethiopian consulate is only the tip of the iceberg of what is to come,” Salka said. “We are just at the beginning of the crisis. We haven’t even gotten midway yet.”

Education
Black history is ‘integral part’ of British culture, says Black Curriculum founder

What do students learn in the classroom about race and history? 

In the UK, an organization called The Black Curriculum has been pushing for Black history to be taught nationwide. June 24, 2020 ·By Amanda McGowan


A teacher reads children a story on the grounds of St. Dunstan's College junior school as some schools reopen following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in London, Britain, June 1, 2020. Credit: Simon Dawson/Reuters

Last Friday, the US celebrated Juneteenth — the day in 1865 when the news that slavery had ended finally reached Texas, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

Many Americans probably did not learn the history of June 19 in school. But the protests that came together after George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis have brought attention to the way racism impacts every aspect of society — including what students learn in the classroom about race and history.

This reexamination isn’t just happening in the US. In the UK, an organization called The Black Curriculum has been pushing for Black history to be taught nationwide, as well as creating lesson plans and leading student workshops and teacher trainings.

Related: This African American in Ghana says making Juneteenth a federal holiday is a ‘small gesture.’ She urges police reform.

“In schools currently, the teaching of Black history is limited to Black History Month, which in the UK is in October,” said Lavinya Stennett, founder of The Black Curriculum.

theblackcurriculum

Our IGTV series, ‘Black British Women’ told the story of four inspirational women in Britain.
1. Olive Morris (top left) was a political activist, born in 1952 in Jamaica. Morris was an organisational and fighter against racism and sexism in the UK.
2. Lilian Bader (top right) was one of the first black women to join the British armed forces and was a Leading Aircraft-woman with the WAAF during WW2.
3. Mary Seacole (bottom left) was a nurse who greatly helped soldiers during the Crimean War.
4. Fanny Eaton (bottom right) is best known for her work as a model for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood between 1859-1867.
Did you enjoy our IGTV series? We now have a range of packages including podcasts, activities and animations available on our website! Visit www.theblackcurriculum.com/resources for more info

“What we see is a lack of narratives around Black people in Britain. That fundamentally is presenting a very false view of British history because we know Black people have been here since Roman times."Lavinya Stennett, founder, The Black Curriculum

“What we see is a lack of narratives around Black people in Britain. That fundamentally is presenting a very false view of British history because we know Black people have been here since Roman times,” she continued.

The Black Curriculum has created lessons around a number of topics in Black history, including arts and culture, migration, law and the environment.

Stennett says some of those were inspired by things she learned from her own culture but were never discussed in a school setting. She points to the Notting Hill Carnival, one of the largest street parties in Europe, which was created by a Black woman named Claudia Jones who was born in Trinidad and Tobago.

“I’m from a Jamaican background, and every year we have Notting Hill Carnival, and at home, we would play reggae music. So there were certain introductions in my personal life that I knew, in terms of my history and where it came from, but in terms of learning it at school there was no kind of introduction to that at all,” Stennett said. “That’s what our syllabus is about: It’s about bridging history with contemporary themes today.”

Related: Police reform requires culture change, not just diversity, advocates say

Stennett says learning this history in the classroom not only empowers students but also makes them excited to learn.

“When you’re confronted with new knowledge it can make you uncomfortable. But at the same time if you’re learning about your own identity and your own culture, it’s really powerful."Lavinya Stennett, founder, The Black Curriculum

“When you’re confronted with new knowledge it can make you uncomfortable. But at the same time if you’re learning about your own identity and your own culture, it’s really powerful,” she said.

Part of The Black Curriculum’s work recently has been to campaign for Black British history to be a nationwide requirement in schools. But Stennett says the organization received a response from the government Tuesday arguing that the national curriculum already provides teachers with the flexibility to teach Black history if they wish.

Stennett said the response was disappointing, but that The Black Curriculum’s work would continue.

“It just takes us back to why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Stennett said. “It’s really important that Black history’s not seen as an addition, but as an integral part of our culture. It’s British history. It’s not just for Black people and it’s not just about Black people. It’s about the nation and the future of Britain as well.”

Russia jails Pussy Riot manager for 15 days for petty hooliganism


June 22, 2020 ·
Producer Daniel Ofman
and The World staff

Anti-Kremlin activist Pyotr Verzilov poses for a photo before an interview with Reuters in Berlin, Sept. 28, 2018. Credit: Reinhard Krause/Reuters

A Moscow court jailed Pyotr Verzilov, an anti-Kremlin activist and associate of the Pussy Riot punk group, for 15 days on Monday after finding him guilty of petty hooliganism for swearing in public.

Verzilov, the publisher of the private MediaZona news outlet, was taken in for questioning by police on Sunday over a political rally last summer and held him for hours. He was attacked by an unknown male assailant after he was released.

Both men were later detained by police and Verzilov was charged with swearing in public, Verzilov's lawyer Leonid Solovyov was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying.

Writing on Twitter after his sentencing on Monday, Verzilov accused the police of staging the incident to provoke and jail him.

"The judge just sentenced me to 15 DAYS FOR SWEARING — but in actual fact, for a police provocation that included attacking me after being questioned for 13 hours in the Investigative Committee," Verzilov wrote in his Tweet.

TASS news agency cited a police source as saying Verzilov had planned to stage a prank on Wednesday when Russia marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II with a military parade on Red Square. Verzilov denied this in comments to the BBC's Russian Service.

Verzilov was one of four Pussy Riot activists who ran onto the pitch wearing police uniforms during the soccer World Cup final in Moscow in 2018, a stunt they said aimed to draw attention to human rights abuses.

Kirill Koroteev, a lawyer and the head of the International Practice of Agora, the group that has taken up Verzilov's case, spoke to The World's host Marco Werman about what happened.

Marco Werman: Kirill, before we get to the court case from earlier today, what is the timeline here? Just briefly explain what happened to Mr. Verzilov after he got arrested Sunday.


Kirill Koroteev: Police burst into his apartment. They broke the door. There he was arrested and taken to a police station where he was questioned for 13 hours approximately, without access to a lawyer, but then he was released. So he was walking away from the police station and noticed a person following him. And 10 minutes after his release, that person just attacked him, pushing him on the ground. That's when the police arrived and arrested him for the fight. Now, it turned out that the person who pushed Mr. Verzilov had no injuries, and only Mr. Verzilov had injuries. So, the police charged him with cursing in public instead.

So, let me get the straight. After 13 hours of interrogation, Verzilov was followed from the station. He was beaten up and then rearrested?

Exactly.

So, what was the verdict today in court?

The court sentenced him to 15 days in prison and decided not to hear the policeman who charged him and not to hear the person who attacked him. The court believed the police-written report saying that Verzilov cursed in public and the court did not believe Verzilov who said he didn't.

Why do you think this is happening right now to Pyotr Verzilov?

hat is happening is quite usual for the activists but the timing of his precise arrest is not very clear. It was rumored that he was going to stage some sort of interruption at the military parade on June 24, or at the voting on the constitution on July 1. But today in court, Pyotr Verzilov denied that and said he had no such intention.


What does this arrest and this whole ordeal tell you about the mindset of state authorities in Russia?

Well, during last year's Moscow protests and even previously, any major leaders would get arrested beforehand so that they spend the day of the protest in prison. It is quite a regular modus operandi for the Russian authorities. They just cannot operate otherwise than by breaching individual rights.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. Reuters contributed to this report

Amid global protests, Jamaicans confront their own problems with policing 

Jamaica shares the US’ history of colonialism and slavery, and now has one of the highest rates of fatal police shootings. Activists there are thinking about what the global moment of police accountability could mean for their country. 


June 22, 2020 ·By Rupa Shenoy

People hold posters as they take part in a demonstration against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, at the Emancipation Park in Kingston, Jamaica, June 6, 2020. Credit: Gilbert Bellamy/Reuters


Earlier this month, Black Lives Matter protesters gathered outside the US Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica, as part of the worldwide George Floyd protests.

The country’s historic newspaper, the Jamaica Gleaner, recorded the chants: “Say her name! Susan Bogle! Say her name! Susan Bogle!”

Bogle was a disabled woman in Jamaica who was allegedly accidentally killed by officers in her home two days after Floyd’s death in the US.

Related: This African American in Ghana says making Juneteenth a federal holiday is a ‘small gesture.’ She urges police reform.

“There is still a sense where people feel that they don’t get social justice,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in an address to the nation.

“The government will ensure that nothing in these matters will be hidden, nothing will be swept under the carpet. And that the social and economic status of the victim does not determine the outcome of justice.”Prime Minister Andrew Holness

“The government will ensure that nothing in these matters will be hidden, nothing will be swept under the carpet. And that the social and economic status of the victim does not determine the outcome of justice.”

Those reassurances were necessary because there are long-standing problems with policing in Jamaica. Human rights groups have found there’s a culture of fear, with officers carrying out extrajudicial killings, tampering with evidence and intimidating witnesses.

“To say that the Jamaican police is corrupt is not something that I have to say, and say, ‘Oh, don't say I said that,’ you know, that's openly acknowledged,” said Diana Thorburn, director of research at the Caribbean Policy Research Institute.

Related: ‘We need to talk about racism,’ these Middle Easterners say

She said that even though the police are widely seen as corrupt, many Jamaicans also believe the country needs law enforcement. Violent crime, pervasive in Jamaica, is fueled by, among other things, the country’s strategic location for smuggling drugs into the US. Just this month, two police officers were fatally shot by men with high-powered guns.

The incident horrified the public, Thorburn said, and reminded Jamaicans that in a society with one of the highest murder rates in the world, they need protection — even if it comes from a police force that’s had issues almost as long as it’s existed.


“Most analyses of the problem trace it back to the origins of the police force, which was as a colonial institution to keep down the formerly enslaved.”Diana Thorburn, Caribbean Policy Research Institute

“Most analyses of the problem trace it back to the origins of the police force, which was as a colonial institution to keep down the formerly enslaved,” she said.

The British used colonial Jamaica as a center for slave trading in the West Indies. Even after the country became an independent member of the British commonwealth in 1962, the historical disregard for Black life continued, said University of Pennsylvania professor Deborah Thomas, who has written books about human rights in Jamaica.

“It’s a hard sort of conceptual reality for Americans to understand, African Americans in particular, that you could have anti-Black violence in a majority-black country,” Thomas said. “But it doesn't go away because there's a Black person in power, because, in fact, the societies were built on this.”

Related: US protests highlight 'anti-black racism across the globe,' says South African political analyst

After Jamaica’s independence, the US stepped in, eager to make sure that a country in its backyard was secure during the Cold War. Then, during the war on drugs, Thomas said the US helped fund the militarization of Jamaica’s police. That drew international attention in May 2010, when the US pressured Jamaica to extradite the head of a gang who controlled a community called Tivoli Gardens, in Kingston.

Jamaica declared a state of emergency, and during the manhunt, police killed more than 70 people. Thomas directed a documentary about what happened at Tivoli and was surprised that the killings there weren’t a subject of conversation in Jamaica after Floyd’s death.


“The George Floyd stuff happens and people were going back and forth on social media about police violence in Jamaica, there wasn't really a robust conversation about Tivoli and/or a recognition that, in fact, this is what we're talking about — and this is the 10th anniversary exactly of this.”Deborah Thomas, University of Pennsylvania professor

“The George Floyd stuff happens and people were going back and forth on social media about police violence in Jamaica, there wasn't really a robust conversation about Tivoli and/or a recognition that, in fact, this is what we're talking about — and this is the 10th anniversary exactly of this,” Thomas said.

Instead, since Floyd’s and Bogle’s deaths, Holness has declared another state of emergency in response to violent crime, granting police powers to stop, search and detain residents without a warrant in certain areas.

Related: Video of police beating Indigenous chief fuels ongoing anti-racism protests in Canada

“These areas, if left unchecked, have shown historically that they can spiral to chaotic ends, even having national disruptive impact,” he said.

Meanwhile, there are fewer checks on police power. Jamaica’s Independent Commission of Investigations, which once arrested and prosecuted officers, no longer has that ability.

Rodje Malcolm, director of Jamaicans for Justice, said in the name of fighting crime, Jamaicans have given up on human rights for some people.

“But those people are viewed as expendable,” Malcolm said. “Those people are viewed as deserving it because they are from the communities where there is high crime.”

But in this global moment, sparked by Floyd’s death, Malcolm said Jamaicans might be able to consider other ways of policing that prioritize peace.

“It's possible a little bit more now because many Jamaicans can see in themselves as those Black people in the United States,” he said, “and it's simply about turning that gaze inwards to understand ... the ways that we perpetuate various similar systems and are OK with it.”

Paulinho Paiakan is remembered as a hero to Indigenous Brazilians

As Brazil tops 1 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the country’s Indigenous peoples mourn the death of a historic leader.


June 22, 2020 · By Michael Fox

Indigenous leader Paulinho Paiakan takes part in an Occupy Funai protest that will shut down Funai offices throughout Brazil in Brasilia, July 13, 2016.Credit:Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters


Kayapó Bepkororoti, better known as Paulinho Paiakan, was a hero to Indigenous Brazilians across the country, not just those of his own Kayapó people.

Paiakan was seen as one of the first Kayapó to recognize the power of the media and of learning Portuguese, the language of Brazil’s majority. He also understood the importance of unifying Brazil’s Indigenous people.

Related: Police beating of Indigenous chief fuels Canadian anti-racism protests

“The only thing, brothers and sisters, is unity,” he said in a recent interview from an Indigenous gathering, which was posted after his death. “We all must unite in order to fight. That is the only way we will overcome any government.”


Last week, he died from the coronavirus, and while his legacy lives on, some say his death is a sign of the times for Indigenous peoples across Brazil, as COVID-19 increasingly spreads into their territories.

“Paiakan will be missed,” said Adriano Jerozolimski from the Protected Forest Association, which represents roughly 30 Kayapó communities in southern Pará state.

“It’s difficult to predict the real impact that this new illness is going to have on the Kayapó and Indigenous peoples, in general. But it will be enormous. It’s already a catastrophe.”Adriano Jerozolimski, Protected Forest Association

“It’s difficult to predict the real impact that this new illness is going to have on the Kayapó and Indigenous peoples, in general. But it will be enormous. It’s already a catastrophe.”

So far, 332 Indigenous people have died from the coronavirus, and 7,208 people are infected across 110 tribes, according to the Association of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil (APIB), a leading Indigenous organization.

Amid the pandemic, Indigenous peoples across Brazil are also facing increasingly racist and hostile attitudes from local officials and businesses. The mayor of Pau D’Arco, in the Amazonian state of Pará, banned Kayapó tribal members from the city, saying they are high-risk for infection.

“This is prejudice, discrimination — or racism,” said local Indigenous leader Takwyry Kayapó.

Related: Black Lives Matter protests renew parallel debates in Brazil, Colombia

Far to the south, 40 Kaingang tribal members living on the Serrinha Indigenous Territory were fired from their jobs at a local meatpacking plant run by JBS, the world’s largest meat-processing company, on the grounds that they, too, were high-risk for infection. A local Kaingang lawyer is fighting the mass firing.

Meanwhile, deaths continue to climb, and the number of Indigenous people infected with COVID-19 has doubled in just a week.


“We are losing our leaders. We are losing our libraries. That’s the feeling that we have about losing many of these community elders. That the communities are losing their knowledge and history.”Sandro Luckmann, Missionary Council for Indigenous People, COMIN

“We are losing our leaders,” said Sandro Luckmann, the director of the Missionary Council for Indigenous People, COMIN.

“We are losing our libraries. That’s the feeling that we have about losing many of these community elders. That the communities are losing their knowledge and history.”

Paiakan, who was about 65 years old, is survived by his wife and their three girls. There’s been an outpouring all over social media in Brazil honoring the late Indigenous leader.

Related: Brazil's government hid coronavirus stats. That's a problem.

In one 36-second video, roughly a dozen members of the Kaingang tribe, in southern Brazil, dance in face masks and feathered headdresses.

pic.twitter.com/oeyLhQztS2— APIB oficial (@ApibOficial) June 18, 2020
“Today is a very sad day. A day of mourning for the Indigenous peoples of Brazil,” says a man in an accompanying video clip. “We are here to say that we will survive the pandemic and try to live life as Paiakan did, in defense of the environment and fighting for the Indigenous cause.”



O legado da luta de Bepkororoti, Paulinho Paiakan, está enraizado na vida dos povos indígenas de todas as regiões do Brasil. O povo Kaingang do Sul do país fez uma linda homenagem pela passagem de Paulinho. #luto pic.twitter.com/aV9Sj0YaZR— APIB oficial (@ApibOficial) June 18, 2020

Another, produced by the Indigenous filmmaker Kamikia Kisedje, features grainy news footage from 1989. Representatives of 24 different Brazilian Indigenous tribes and environmentalists march chanting into a stadium in the Amazon city of Altamira to fight government plans to build hydroelectric dams on their land.


Homenagem do fotógrafo e cineasta ambiental indígena @kamikiakisedje para Paulinho Paiakan, que junto com seu tio, Cacique Raoni, liderou a mobilização de enfrentamento da hidrelétrica de Kararaô (primeiro nome dado para o projeto da usina que hoje é Belo Monte), em 1989. #luto pic.twitter.com/Ira7s369ZW— APIB oficial (@ApibOficial) June 18, 2020

Paiakan, the organizer, tells a government representative that dams would destroy their people. The crowd cheers.

Paiakan, who began to defend Indigenous land under Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s, was instrumental in the demarcation of tribal territory and ensuring that Indigenous rights were enshrined in Brazil’s 1988 Constitution.


“Paiaka was one of the activists who was on the frontlines of making sure that clauses that guarantee Indigenous rights today are in the constitution.”Glenn Shepard, an anthropologist and filmmaker who has lived and worked in the Amazon for decades

“Paiaka was one of the activists who was on the frontlines of making sure that clauses that guarantee Indigenous rights today are in the constitution,” said Glenn Shepard, an anthropologist and filmmaker who has lived and worked in the Amazon for decades.

Related: Women leaders eschew 'macho-man' politics in COVID-19 response

“He was in the room during the creation and signing of the constitution and he was translating. There was this huge Kayapó commission.”

Historic alliance of forest peoples at Altamira in 1989 in opposition to the Belo Monte dam, with Paulino Payakan in a leading role via @felipedjeguaka @socioambiental https://t.co/G4dtftNDYU— Glenn H. Shepard (@TweetTropiques) June 19, 2020

Paiakan and his uncle, Chief Raoni Metuktire became the faces of the international movement to defend the Amazon against deforestation, mining and development. With the help of rock star Sting and an international campaign, they successfully blocked the development of the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River for years before a modified project was eventually built over the last decade.

But his international image was tarnished in 1992 when a student accused him of rape. The news broke on the cover of the conservative magazine Veja the very week that the world’s environmental leaders were amassed in Rio de Janeiro for the historic Earth Summit.

The allegations were thrown out of court two years later. But a retrial in 1998 led to the conviction of both Paiakan and his wife. They were sentenced to six, and four years in jail, respectively, which they partially served under house arrest on their Indigenous territory.

Paiakan never regained his previous international rock star status. For his allies, the case was a tool to silence Paiakan and his prominent environmental activism.

“In order to push back against the demarcation of Indigenous lands and in order to be able to deforest and extract the resources from the land, and everything that Paulinho was against, they politically shot him — the greatest environmental icon on the planet at that time,” said Felipe Milanez, a humanities professor at the Federal University of Bahia, who knew Paiakan and his family well, having worked at Brazil’s National Indian Foundation.

De toda a imprensa que massacrou Paiakan e os Kayapo, sempre ao lado dos fazendeiros e mineradoras, que inclui OGlobo, Estadão, JB, QuantoÉ, Veja, etc, a @folha foi a única que trouxe dois obituários RACISTAS por Fabiano Maisonnave e Sérgio Dávila requentando mentiras antigas.— Felipe Milanez (@felipedjeguaka) June 21, 2020

Duterte’s ‘weaponization of the law’ is a threat to democracy, says journalist Maria Ressa


June 18, 2020
By The World staff

Maria Ressa, executive editor of Philippine news website Rappler, walks out of Manila City Hall after being found guilty of cyber libel, in Manila, Philippines, June 15, 2020.
Credit: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters

Filipina journalist Maria Ressa, the founder of the online news outlet Rappler Media, has spent years staring down President Rodrigo Duterte, one of the world’s most ruthless dictators.

She hasn’t blinked yet.

But this week, a Manila court convicted Ressa and a former colleague at the news site she founded of the crime of cyber libel.

Related: Journalist Maria Ressa says democracies are fragile

Her alleged crime involved a 2012 article published on Rappler that linked a Filipino businessman to human trafficking and drug smuggling. She could face up to six years in prison.

"In 2014, someone in Rappler noticed a typographical error in this 2012 article, and they changed one letter of one word. Based on that, I could go to jail for six years because the judge then ruled that this is re-publication. Of course, we're going to challenge this. And I hope I do get justice at some point," Ressa told The World while out on bail waiting to appeal the verdict.

Related: Violence toward journalists is rising around the world

Ressa spoke with Marco Werman about her legal challenges and what it means to be a journalist in the Philippines under the Duterte administration. She says the legal acrobatics the Filipino government performed to get to a guilty verdict are a saga of their own.

Marco Werman: It sounds like a really Kafkaesque situation you find yourself in. Are you preparing yourself mentally for the possibility of going to jail?


Maria Ressa: It took me a month of really thinking about it. I talked to other journalist friends who had been imprisoned, and I realized that the path I was on that I would need to start thinking about this. I had to confront that.

President Duterte has called journalists "sons of bitches." He says journalists are not exempt from assassination. Do you think on some level you intimidate Duterte? Or are the attacks against you personal on some level for him?


I'm not sure. I know the last time I spoke with him directly was in December 2016. That was his first year in office. I was one of four journalists that he gave interviews to. I think that the Duterte administration makes examples of people. Among businessmen, he focused early on after he took office on a businessman whose ...company's stocks dropped, and they were forced to sell. And politicians — Senator Leila de Lima was head of the Commission on Human Rights and was running after [Duterte] for human rights violations when he was still mayor. She [was] imprisoned in February 2017, and she is still in prison until today. And then, for journalists, I'm a cautionary tale. And I think that there's some level of threat that if we can do this to her, imagine what we can do to you.

Related: Will Voice of America's new Trump pick protect agency independence?

Does his language frighten you?


It's something that we gradually accepted in Rappler. And then, when we were confronted bit by bit with decisions that we had to make, the choice was always very clear. And part of that probably was because the women who founded Rappler were older. I was in my 50s already at that point. I felt like I'd spent my entire career going to the gym to get ready for this moment. So — frightened? By the time I realized the path I was on, I just spent some time to wrap my head around it in the same way for the Monday verdict, I sat and accepted the worst-case scenario. And if I was okay with the worst-case scenario, then everything else will be all right.

I know a lot of Filipinos support President Duterte. What is it like for you, battling such a popular dictator, when he's got that support behind him?


He was one of five presidential candidates, and he didn't win substantially. In fact, he won only a small majority over the five. I think he's definitely a popular president. His authoritarian style of leadership was what Filipinos wanted during great times of uncertainty. The fact that he says what he thinks — he seems like "every man." But he's also aided by a propaganda machine on social media. And these disinformation networks seed these narratives that really take on a life of their own and float his reputation. One of the most familiar narratives is that "He's just like me. He is the best president this country will ever have." I have never — and I've gone around a lot in the Philippines — no one has ever come to my face to say or do the things that they do on social media. I've been a journalist for a long time. This next year will be my 35th year. And this is part of the reason I worry about the manipulation of the public sphere through social media.

You've been working as a journalist since 1986. What will stop you from reporting?


I hope nothing. I mean, I did conflict reporting in Southeast Asia for CNN. I've worked in war zones. And this time period, with the kind of hate and exponential attacks you get on social media — the weaponization of the law — this is tougher. This is a tougher environment to work in than a war zone because you don't know where the attacks are going to come from, right? There's a Damocles sword hanging over your head all the time. When I look at my colleagues in the Philippines, look, the largest newspaper was attacked first by the president. The largest television station was just shut down about a month ago. We were the third attack. And what I've learned is that we need to swat away the Damocles sword, because if you allow it to change the way you do your journalism, then they win.

I always wonder, why is our government attacking us so much? Why do they not want the questions in a time of COVID? It almost seems like right now they're codifying into law the abuses of our rights that have happened on an ad hoc basis. So, this is a precipice that we need to make sure we don't fall off the edge and lose our democracy.

Do you have an answer to why? Why is the government going after journalists?


It's the consolidation of power — the perfect storm of social media [and] President Duterte-style of leadership. In my last interview with him, I asked him, do you need to use violence? And he just categorically said yes. He feels that violence and fear are important aspects of leadership. I don't know where this will lead, but we certainly, because of technology, because of the weaponization of the law, we're in a new area. Look, the eight criminal charges I have, cumulatively, I could face almost 100 hundred years in jail. But I look away from that and look at where we are today and see that we have to actively push. It is a battle for truth, right? And in a battle for truth, journalists are advocates.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The Big Fix
Anti-poverty program in Indonesia also helps save forests, study shows

Where people received cash payments from the government, there was 30% less deforestation.

The World
June 18, 2020 · By Anna Kusmer
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Sumbanese villagers work on a field seeding peanuts in Hamba Praing village, Kanatang district, East Sumba Regency, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Feb. 23, 2020.
Credit: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters

Helping Indonesia’s poorest people could save the nation’s forests, too, a new study shows.

Indonesia is one of the most rapidly deforested places on Earth, and nearly 10% of the population lives below the poverty line.

These struggles are not separate, conflicting issues — but deeply intertwined — the study from Science Advances says.

The study shows that where people received services from a national anti-poverty program, 30% fewer trees were cleared — and about half of the saved forests were old-growth.


“These are the beautiful rainforests everybody thinks of when they think of rainforests that are ecologically and economically the most valuable.”Paul Ferraro, Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School

“These are the beautiful rainforests everybody thinks of when they think of rainforests that are ecologically and economically the most valuable,” said Paul Ferraro, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School and the study’s co-author.

“What's most surprising is the effect is roughly similar to the size of the effects that people have estimated for explicit conservation projects,” Ferraro said. “Like national parks or payments conditional on protecting the environment.”

The payments came from one of the biggest poverty alleviation programs in the world, called Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) — which means the Family Hopes Program. The program, which started in 2007, provides six years of quarterly payments to households on the condition that families will register with health clinics and send their kids to school.

Related: Can the pandemic encourage airlines to be greener?

“In the long term, the program wants to break the vicious cycle [of poverty], particularly for the next generation,” said Vivi Yulaswati, a senior adviser to the Ministry of Planning in Indonesia, specializing in poverty reduction. She helped roll out the program in Indonesia.

The cash payments came with no environmental conditions, but “exploring how this program works for deforestation would be very useful because deforestation is a big problem,” said Yulaswati.

Indonesia is the third-most forested country in the world, and it’s losing its valuable rainforests at an alarming rate, said Rhita Simorangkir at the National University of Singapore, who is a co-author of the recent study.


“Indonesia [has] the highest forest loss in terms of primary forests in the world, and, of course, that is devastating. The consequences of forest loss are carbon emissions and loss of biodiversity.”Rhita Simorangkir, National University of Singapore

“Indonesia [has] the highest forest loss in terms of primary forests in the world, and, of course, that is devastating,” she said. “The consequences of forest loss are carbon emissions and loss of biodiversity.”

Forests are often cleared using fire, which can also be harmful to human health.

In another study, scientists estimated that in 2015, the smoke from forest fires in Indonesia (both intentionally set and resulting from weather conditions) may have contributed to more than 100,000 deaths in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

The largest drivers of deforestation in Indonesia are forest fires and clearing for large-scale farming (such as oil palms) and mining. However, small-scale farming and clearing are a significant driver of deforestation as well, potentially contributing to around 25% of deforestation in Indonesia.

Related: What history tells us about building climate coalitions

For many Indonesians facing poverty, cutting down trees is a form of insurance. They clear land to expand their farms when they fear the harvest won’t be enough. They also sell timber for extra income. With the federal cash payments, people are more secure and don’t need to cut the trees, Simorangkir said.


“When the government transfers cash to them, they make their budget more flexible. I think, this is like giving them options.”Rhita Simorangkir, National University of Singapore

“When the government transfers cash to them, they make their budget more flexible,” she said. “I think, this is like giving them options.”

Fighting poverty and protecting the environment are often seen as conflicting priorities, though. And there’s some evidence to support that. A 2013 study in Mexico found that cash transfers to alleviate poverty resulted in increased deforestation. The study’s authors believe it was likely because when given more cash, people could afford more beef, and they cleared more land for cattle.

Ferraro says many nongovernmental organizations and researchers are focused on one or the other and often debate their relative importance.

Related: Amsterdam’s coronavirus recovery plan embraces ‘doughnut economics’ for people and the planet

“These debates come from those different groups who believe that it's a zero-sum game, that if money goes to anti-poverty, that's at the expense of the environment or if money goes to the environment, that's at the expense of reducing poverty,” Ferraro said. “We hope that our study gives people some hope that these twin goals that we have globally don't necessarily need to be at odds.”

The idea that addressing poverty helps the environment is not surprising to Monica Nirmala, senior health adviser at Alam Sehat Lestari, which is partnered with Health In Harmony and trades health care for forest protection in communities near two national parks on the island of Borneo.

Nirmala said the study’s findings confirm her team’s experience over the span of 14 years there.

“What we have found, clearly over and over again, is that these people really want the forest for the future, she said. “They do not want to cut down these forests. They know it’s important for their children and future generations. And they want to protect them, but often they don’t have the choice to do so.”