GOOD NEWS
Buffalo protester who was injured by police released from hospital

© Courtesy Bill Jacobson Martin Gugino attends a demonstration.

The 75-year-old protester who was pushed to the ground by police officers in Buffalo, New York, has been released from the hospital almost four weeks after being injured.

Martin Gugino was attending a protest outside City Hall on June 4 when he was pushed to the ground by a line of police officers clearing out the relatively empty area. He fell and hit the back of his head, fracturing his skull and putting him in the hospital for 26 days.

He was released Tuesday from the Erie County Medical Center, his attorney said. His lawyer, Kelly Zarcone, said he will be recovering at an "undisclosed location" to preserve his privacy.

"I was able to see Martin today and he looks great. He can walk with a little help and his condition will continue to improve with rest and time," Zarcone said in a statement. "I brought him the cards and letters sent to my office and he said he still felt overjoyed at the continued support and well wishes, 'like it was Christmas Day.'"MORE: Trump tweets conspiracy theory about Buffalo protester police officers knocked to ground

Gugino is an activist and regular at protests in New York state, his friends said, but has never been anything but peaceful and is a regular volunteer for Catholic charities.

"Martin said that he is pleased at the progress made so far to protect the safety of peaceful protesters, a topic near and dear to his heart," Zarcone said Tuesday. "He respects the burden of authority placed upon law enforcement but looks forward to the continued implementation of systemic changes to eliminate police brutality."© Courtesy Bill Jacobson Martin Gugino attends a demonstration.

Officers Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe were charged earlier this month with second-degree assault in the incident and released on their own recognizance. They both pleaded not guilty and are expected back in court July 20.

In a statement prior to the arrests, Buffalo police had said Gugino tripped and fell despite the video evidence.

MORE: Buffalo police officers arrested after shoving 75-year-old protester

The incident rose as high as the White House. President Donald Trump tweeted a conspiracy theory on June 9, writing Gugino may be an "ANTIFA provocateur" and that the whole incident could be part of a "set up."

At the time, Zarcone called the president's accusations "dark, dangerous, and untrue."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo mocked Trump's theory, asking, "What do you think, it was staged? You think that the blood coming out of his head was staged? Is that what you are saying?"

ABC News' Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

New Mexico tribe transforms old casino into movie studio

© Provided by The Canadian Press

TESUQUE PUEBLO, N.M. — A small northern New Mexico Native American tribe has opened a movie studio in a former casino that it hopes will lure big productions.

The Tesuque Pueblo recently converted the building near Santa Fe into a movie studio campus called Camel Rock Studios with more than 25,000 square feet (2,323 square meters) of filming space.

The tribe's lands feature stunning desert and the iconic Camel Rock formation in the red-brown foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and tribal officials said outdoor filming can take place on 27 square miles (70 square kilometres) of the reservation.

The tribe with about 800 members decided to open the studio after scenes from the Universal Pictures western movie “News of the World” starring Tom Hanks were filmed last year in the Camel Rock Casino, which closed in 2018.

Universal's use of the casino for filming helped convinced tribal officials decide to transform the empty building into studio space, said Timothy Brown, president and CEO of the Pueblo of Tesuque Development Corporation. Also influencing the decision were investments in New Mexico movie studios by Netflix and NBCUniversal in recent years, said Tunte Vigil, Tesuque Pueblo’s business development associate.

The tribe's governor, Robert Mora, Sr. "thinks this is a great opportunity for the pueblo to get into this industry,” Vigil said. “The market is really open right now, and the (tribal government) wants to bring different businesses to the pueblo.”

No productions are happening now and none are planned for the immediate future because the pueblo and most of New Mexico remain under strict COVID-19 business restrictions. But Brown said that that hasn’t stopped potential productions from contacting the pueblo and asking to reserve studio time.

Cheyenne and Arapaho filmmaker Chris Eyre, a Santa Fe resident and an advisor to Camel Rock Studio, said the studio’s unique aspect is that its former makeup as a casino provides the site with pre-made infrastructure that can be used for filming different types of movie scenes

“It’s a museum. It’s an opulent hotel lobby. It’s a capitol building,” said Eyer, who directed the 1998 film “Smoke Signals” about two Coeur d'Alene tribal members who travel from Idaho to Arizona to retrieve the remains of their father after he died alone. “There are sorts of interesting standing sets that can be creatively (crafted) for all sorts of scenes.”

The site also has a set workshop called a mill that can be used by crews to build sets for use inside the casino or on the tribe's land, Eyer said, adding that he could envision movies filmed there that are set in the Middle East or the U.S. Southwest.

Older movies filmed on the Tesuque Pueblo include the 1955 western “The Man from Laramie” starring James Stewart and the 1988 “Young Guns” with Emilio Estevez and Kiefer Sutherland.

But Eyer said previous productions had stereotypes about Indigenous people and limited Native American input and that tribal officials hope future productions don't follow in their footsteps.

The studio is being established at a time when Native American writers including Pulitzer Prize-winning Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange and Inupiaq American poet Joan Naviyuk Kane are transforming American Literature — and putting pressure on Hollywood to incorporate more Native American stories.

Tribal officials plan to create internships and movie training programs for Tesuque Pueblo members and hope that the studio will foster a new storytelling movement, Eyer said.

“Native Americans are natural storytellers,” he said. “What better place to do it?”

___

Associated Press writer Russell Contreras is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras

Russell Contreras, The Associated Press

New Orleans housing leader warns of ‘eviction’ avalanche as end of COVID-19 aid looms

© ABC News Lawyer Winfield, 53, says the rising number of eviction cases in Louisiana should be treated as a crisis because of their relation to the coronavirus pandemic.

As the coronavirus pandemic enters its fifth month, an increasing number of renters from across the country are facing a grim reality -- possible eviction.

In New Orleans, mothers like Shankya Phillips worry about their families and the roofs over their head.

"Where do you get help from, where do you turn when you can't turn to a shelter anymore, when the home you are living in, you can't afford," Phillips said. "It's scary."

The 28-year-old mother of two is about to get evicted.

"I just want people to know this is actually happening, that this is real life. Like, people are actually getting kicked down the street," she told ABC News correspondent Kayna Whitworth.

© ABC News Shanyka Phillips, a mother of two in New Orleans, has been unemployed for more than three months after the clothing store she worked in closed due to the pandemic. She fears eviction.

Phillips lives in an apartment that she describes as leaky, and has been unemployed since the clothing store she worked at shut down three months ago.

The extra federal unemployment benefits of up to $600 a week, provided as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, will end at the end of July, leaving millions of unemployed Americans like Phillips in limbo.

About 28 million Americans are at risk of eviction as a recession fueled by COVID-19 creates economic havoc across the country, according to new estimates from the real estate analytics firm Amherst Holdings.

© ABC News New Orleans is just one of an increasing number of places where protections for tenants are starting to phase out, even as coronavirus cases rise in some areas of the country.
The 120-day moratorium on evictions in federally assisted housing properties mandated by the CARES Act is also set to expire on July 25th. According to the Urban Institute, that moratorium covers roughly 12.3 million out of the 43.8 million rental units in the U.S. -- one in four units.


For the roughly three-quarters of American rental units that aren't federally subsidized, eviction moratoriums are dependent on state and local governments. In Louisiana, the moratorium ended June 15.

New Orleans is just one of an increasing number of places where protections for tenants are starting to phase out, even as cases rise in some areas.

The eviction rate in New Orleans before COVID-19 was already twice the national average. In some neighborhoods, however, it was up to four times higher.MORE: 'Mass evictions' on the horizon as US confronts coronavirus housing crisis: Advocates

Unemployment is now four times higher than before the pandemic. When coupled with the expiring federal benefits, Cashauna Hill, director of the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, is worried the city is on a collision course.

"Folks here know what's coming down the pike. We, unfortunately, have had more than our share of experience dealing with disasters and governmental failures," Hill told ABC News.

© ABC News Cashauna Hill is the director of the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center. She and her staff are working to keep people from getting evicted.

Hill and her staff are fighting to keep people like 53-year-old Lawyer Winfield in their homes.

"You know there's a certain comfort in having this little place... I can't imagine being without it," Winfield told ABC News. 

© ABC News Lawyer Winfield, 53, says the rising number of eviction cases in Louisiana should be treated as a crisis because of their relation to the coronavirus pandemic. He is trying to keep his home.

Southeast Louisiana Legal Services told ABC News it had seen a 100% increase in their eviction cases. Meanwhile, 41% of Louisiana renters said they were worried about being able to make June's rent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Winfield says the housing crisis that has been impacting New Orleans for years should be taken seriously now. "It must be treated as a crisis because of this pandemic," he said.

Without extended aid, housing rights advocates fear for what's to come.

"We're really concerned that we're going to see an avalanche of evictions as the courts open back up," Hill said.

But landlords are also feeling the strain.

© ABC News Kim Valene, a landlord for 20 years, says she's never had to evict someone until now.

Kym Valene has been a landlord in the big easy for nearly 20 years and says she never had to evict someone until now.

"I'm not a bad guy and I really like my tenants and take care of my property. But you've got to understand, you know, certain people are taking advantage of the situation," she said.

Valene is currently trying to remove a tenant who she says has not paid rent since the pandemic began and has a pit bull dog, which are illegal in the city.

© ABC News New Orleans is just one of an increasing number of places where protections for tenants are starting to phase out, even as coronavirus cases rise in some areas of the country

.MORE: Tenants behind on rent in pandemic face harassment, eviction

Valene says she wasn't able to take action until the moratorium on evictions expired. In the end, she anticipates losing $15,000 and she says she still has to pay her mortgage, property taxes and insurance.

Impending evictions have the city on edge and health leaders taking notice.

"Every economic impact has a public health impact, and so, certainly putting people out of their homes would be devastating," Dr. Jen Avengo, director of New Orleans' Health Department, told ABC News.

Avengo says she has been working on solutions to address New Orleans' housing crisis for years, and the pandemic has only exacerbated the problem.

"We need help and we need it soon," she said.

© ABC News Dr. Jen Avegno is the director of the City of New Orleans Department of Health. She says putting people out of their homes would have a devastating impact to economic as well as public health.

For mothers like Phillips, the dream is a simple one.

"I want to raise my kids with a nice little fence in the front yard, and where my dog can run around and not have to worry about them getting shot," Phillips said.

But right now, that dream is out of reach.

"It makes you want to leave New Orleans," she said. "But who wants to leave the place they love?"

Jenna Harrison contributed to this report

SocGen's Australian securities arm pleads guilty to client money offences

© Reuters/Benoit Tessier FILE PHOTO: The logo of Societe Generale is seen on the firm's headquarters in the financial and business district of La Defense near Paris(Reuters) - Australia's corporate regulator on Wednesday said the Australian securities unit of France's Societe Generale SA (SocGen) has pleaded guilty to charges of breaching client money provisions.
This comes after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) last month said the unit faces restrictions on new customers if it does not comply with new licensing conditions related to client money laws.

Societe Generale Securities Australia is the second company this year to face criminal prosecution on charges of breaching client money codes, which ensure that client money is kept in authorised accounts, the regulator said on Wednesday.

The French investment bank in an emailed statement said the unit's plea was in line with "its responsible and transparent position".

The securities unit on Tuesday pleaded guilty to the charges brought by ASIC in March which include two counts of making non-permitted payments out of a client money account and two counts of failing to pay money into separate bank accounts, over the period Dec. 8, 2014 to Feb. 8, 2017.

The regulator said each offence carries a maximum penalty of about A$45,000 ($31,086) with the matter being listed for sentence on Sept. 21.

($1 = 1.4476 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Shreya Mariam Job in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

MONOPOLY CAPITALISM
U.S. buys up worldwide stock of remdesivir, drug seen as potential COVID-19 treatment

© (Gilead Sciences via AP) FILE - In this March 2020 photo provided by Gilead Sciences, rubber stoppers are placed onto filled vials of the investigational drug remdesivir at a Gilead manufacturing site in the United States. Given through an IV, the medication is designed to interfere with an enzyme that reproduces viral genetic material.

The United States has secured nearly the entire worldwide supply of remdesivir, a drug that's proven effective for severely ill patients of the novel coronavirus — leaving hardly any for Canada and the rest of the world.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Monday it has secured more than 500,000 treatment courses of the drug from its sole manufacturer Gilead Sciences for American hospitals through September. Each treatment course uses an average of over six vials of the drug.

Read more: Coronavirus drug remdesivir to cost $2,340 per patient in the U.S.

According to a news release, the buyout represents 100 per cent of Gilead's projected production for July, 90 per cent of August's production, and 90 per cent of production through September. A further "allocation for clinical trials" has also been secured.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar called the move "an amazing deal" struck by U.S. President Donald Trump "to ensure Americans have access to the first authorized therapeutic for COVID-19."

“To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it," Azar added in a statement.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to Gilead on May 1 after a major study by the by the U.S. National Institutes of Health showed remdesivir can reduce recovery time for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

The 250,000 treatment courses that the company had donated to the U.S. and other countries will run out in about a week. After that, treatment courses will cost $2,340 each for people covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed countries, Gilead announced Monday.

Read more: Remdesivir, hailed as potential COVID-19 treatment, gets emergency U.S. FDA green light

Gilead has a patent on remdesivir, making it the only company able to manufacture the drug. That effectively means any other country that wants it may have to wait until at least September to procure it.

Global News has reached out to Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada for comment on the U.S. announcement.

Health Canada has approved two clinical trials of the drug for use against COVID-19, and is currently reviewing Gilead's application to authorize remdesivir for treatment of the disease. It has yet to be approved or given emergency authorization in Canada.

The U.S. move is the latest in a string of roadblocks set up by the Trump administration as it has moved to stock up on medical supplies during the coronavirus pandemic, some of which have affected Canada specifically.

In April, U.S.-based company 3M said that it had been asked by the Trump administration not to supply N95 respirators to Canada. The White House later struck a new deal with the company that allowed the masks into Canada again.

That same month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said around three to four million medical masks ordered from 3M were blocked at the U.S.-Canada border. Ford later clarified that 500,000 of those masks were released to Ontario.

—With files from the Associated Press

AP sources: White House aware of Russian bounties in 2019

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence.

The assessment was included in at least one of President Donald Trump’s written daily intelligence briefings at the time, according to the officials. Then-national security adviser John Bolton also told colleagues he briefed Trump on the intelligence assessment in March 2019.

The White House did not respond to questions about Trump or other officials’ awareness of Russia’s provocations in 2019. The White House has said Trump was not — and still has not been — briefed on the intelligence assessments because they have not been fully verified. However, it is rare for intelligence to be confirmed without a shadow of a doubt before it is presented to top officials.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Bolton declined to comment Monday when asked by the AP if he had briefed Trump about the matter in 2019. On Sunday, he suggested to NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump was claiming ignorance of Russia’s provocations to justify his administration’s lack of a response.

“He can disown everything if nobody ever told him about it,” Bolton said.

The revelations cast new doubt on the White House’s efforts to distance Trump from the Russian intelligence assessments. The AP reported Sunday that concerns about Russian bounties were also included in a second written presidential daily briefing earlier this year and that current national security adviser Robert O’Brien had discussed the matter with Trump. O’Brien denies he did so.

On Monday night, O'Brien said that while the intelligence assessments regarding Russian bounties "have not been verified,” the administration has “been preparing should the situation warrant action.”

The administration’s earlier awareness of the Russian efforts raises additional questions about why Trump did not take any punitive action against Moscow for efforts that put the lives of Americans servicemembers at risk. Trump has sought throughout his time in office to improve relations with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, moving earlier this year to try to reinstate Russia as part of a group of world leaders it had been kicked out of.

Officials said they did not consider the intelligence assessments in 2019 to be particularly urgent, given that Russian meddling in Afghanistan is not a new occurrence. The officials with knowledge of Bolton’s apparent briefing for Trump said it contained no “actionable intelligence,” meaning the intelligence community did not have enough information to form a strategic plan or response. However, the classified assessment of Russian bounties was the sole purpose of the meeting.

The officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the highly sensitive information.

The intelligence that surfaced in early 2019 indicated Russian operatives had become more aggressive in their desire to contract with the Taliban and members of the Haqqani Network, a militant group aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan and designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2012 during the Obama administration.

The National Security Council and the undersecretary of defence for intelligence did hold meetings regarding the intelligence. The Pentagon declined to comment and the NSC did not respond to questions about the meetings.

Concerns about Russian bounties flared anew this year after members of the elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known to the public as SEAL Team Six, raided a Taliban outpost and recovered roughly $500,000 in U.S. currency. The funds bolstered the suspicions of the American intelligence community that the Russians had offered money to Taliban militants and other linked associations.

The White House contends the president was unaware of this development as well.

The officials told the AP that career government officials developed potential options for the White House to respond to the Russian aggression in Afghanistan, which was first reported by The New York Times. However, the Trump administration has yet to authorize any action.

The intelligence in 2019 and 2020 surrounding Russian bounties was derived in part from debriefings of captured Taliban militants. Officials with knowledge of the matter told the AP that Taliban operatives from opposite ends of the country and from separate tribes offered similar accounts.

The officials would not name the specific groups or give specific locations in Afghanistan or time frames for when they were detained.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Putin, denied that Russian intelligence officers had offered payments to the Taliban in exchange for targeting U.S. and coalition forces.

The U.S. is investigating whether any Americans died as a result of the Russian bounties. Officials are focused in particular on an April 2019 attack on an American convoy. Three U.S. Marines were killed after a car rigged with explosives detonated near their armoured vehicles as they returned to Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. military installation in Afghanistan.

The Marines exchanged gunfire with the vehicle at some point; however, it’s not known if the gunfire occurred before or after the car exploded.

Abdul Raqib Kohistani, the Bagram district police chief, said at the time that at least five Afghan civilians were wounded after the attack on the convoy, according to previous reporting by the AP. It is not known if the civilians were injured by the car bomb or the gunfire from U.S. Marines.

The Defence Department identified Marine Staff Sgt. Christopher Slutman, 43, of Newark, Delaware; Sgt. Benjamin Hines, 31, of York, Pennsylvania; and Cpl. Robert Hendriks, 25, of Locust Valley, New York, as the Marines killed in April 2019. The three Marines were all infantrymen assigned to 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, a reserve infantry unit headquartered out of Garden City, New York.

Hendriks' father told the AP that even a rumour of Russian bounties should have been immediately addressed.

“If this was kind of swept under the carpet as to not make it a bigger issue with Russia, and one ounce of blood was spilled when they knew this, I lost all respect for this administration and everything,” Erik Hendriks said.

Marine Maj. Roger Hollenbeck said at the time that the reserve unit was a part of the Georgia Deployment Program-Resolute Support Mission, a recurring six-month rotation between U.S. Marines and Georgian Armed Forces. The unit first deployed to Afghanistan in October 2018.

Three other service members and an Afghan contractor were also wounded in the attack. As of April 2019, the attack was under a separate investigation, unrelated to the Russian bounties, to determine how it unfolded.

The officials who spoke to the AP also said they were looking closely at insider attacks — sometimes called “green-on-blue” incidents — from 2019 to determine if they are also linked to Russian bounties.

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Deb Riechmann in Washington, Deepti Hajela in New York and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

James Laporta, The Associated Press

Migrant workers face racism and rampant human rights violations across the Gulf

Migrant workers face COVID-19 with no medical care or unions

Posted 17 June 2020


Anti-kafala demonstration in Lebanon. The sign in Arabic reads “I'm a [female] human and I have a right to live.” Photo by International Domestic Workers Federation, licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0.This post was written by Khalid Ibrahim, executive director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in the MENA region.

Migrant workers in the Gulf region and neighboring countries have been subjected to fierce campaigns calling for their deportation that is riddled with racist speeches and hatred. They have been left alone to face the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic with no access to medical care or unions, according to research by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR).

Over the years, migrant workers in Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Bahrain have been subjected to massive human rights violations through the notorious kafala (sponsorship) system that strips them of their basic civil and human rights. They lack the right to move, travel or change work, the right to health care and the right to union representation or formation of organisations. In addition, migrant workers are denied the right to citizenship — even if they spend their whole lives working in these countries.

The kafala system, which enshrines discrimination and exploitation, contradicts the principles of human rights and modern work systems that are guaranteed under the International Convention on the Rights of Migrants and Members of their Families, signed in 1990. This convention entered into force on July 1, 2003, after being ratified by 20 states, but has not been signed by the Gulf states and Lebanon.
Lebanon

With the collapse of the Lebanese pound and the stress of COVID-19, migrant workers — especially domestic workers — face extremely harsh conditions. The Lebanese labour law does not protect domestic workers — who are usually women — because they are subject to a sponsorship system that links their legal status with a contractual relationship with employers. At the end of this contract, workers lose their legal status and face possible detention and deportation. Likewise, they can only change their place of work with employer consent, which exposes them to exploitation, forced labour and human trafficking.

The number of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon stands at 250,000, most of them women, who immigrate from different countries — notably Ethiopia. On June 5, Ethiopian domestic workers gathered in front of their country's consulate in Beirut, waiting to return home. Some left work after being paid in Lebanese pounds, which was inadequate to meet daily needs and made it impossible to send any money home to their families. Others left work who had not been paid in the past several months. Their status has become illegal and they need a speedy resolution from authorities.

The crisis in Lebanon has cast a shadow on all migrant workers, according to this BBC report. In 2012, Stop Violence and Exploitation, a civil society organisation, published a study on the sponsorship system, calling for the end of exploitation of women migrant workers and an alternative system that provides legal protection and freedom to choose their workplace.
Kuwait

On May 28, blogger Reem al-Shammari posted a video on Snapchat, verbally attacking Egyptians working in Kuwait. She said:


Kuwait is for Kuwaitis, not for Egyptians. … You are hired. Understand … Egyptians are not partners with Kuwaitis in the homeland.

The video met widespread opposition from Kuwaiti citizens, but hate speech is still a growing phenomenon on social media sites, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of this hate speech has illogically linked migrant workers to the spread of COVID-19. However, moderate voices have defended migrant workers and their achievements as a result of their hard work.

Due to COVID-19, a sharp decline in oil prices has led Gulf countries to reassess their policies regarding migrant worker numbers — many companies have laid off thousands and started deporting those who work illegally.

On June 3, in a press interview, Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khalid al-Hamad al-Sabah noted that 70 percent of the 4.8 million population was foreign, and said that this amount should be reduced to half in stages. He concluded that “we have a future challenge to address the demographic imbalance.”
Saudi Arabia

In May 2020, in an episode of “We Are All Responsible,” presented on the official Saudi TV channel, the host, Khaled al-Aqili, said:


Unfortunately, the control of expatriate workers over the economy has become a real threat to national security and not only on the economic side but beyond much of that.

He concluded:


We ​​must stop making the Saudi employee a scapegoat with every crisis, and make the expatriate workers, who replaced Saudi workers — who are more efficient than them, the first to be dispensed of, not the sons of the homeland.

This was preceded by a ministerial decision issued on May 3, to regulate labour contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Promoting discourse that directly targets foreign workers and portraying them as a national security threat definitely stirs up racist, hostile feelings. Justifying this sentiment only fans these flames.
United Arab Emirates

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, press reports have confirmed the prevalence of the disease among migrant workers, due to a lack of protection and lack of social distancing. Most migrant workers live in crowded common areas and in densely populated commercial neighborhoods.

On April 10, a letter sent by a coalition of 16 nongovernmental organisations and trade unions to UAE Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation Affairs Nasser bin Thani al-Hamli states:


Low-wage migrant workers remain acutely vulnerable to severe human rights violations, that increase their risk of infection from COVID-19.

On March 26, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation issued an arbitrary ministerial decree that allows private companies to amend migrant worker contracts, force them on unpaid leave, or to accept permanent or temporary salary reductions. This decision legally protects companies 100 percent — expatriate workers have no right to complain or resort to the courts.
Qatar

Migrant workers in Qatar are not allowed to form unions. Many are exploited doing heavy work for long hours with low paying salaries. COVID-19 has revealed another chronic problem — a lack of health care and adequate housing. The drop in oil prices has led to the layoff of thousands of migrant workers, forcing many onto the streets.

In an April 15 statement, Amnesty International said that Qatari authorities had arrested and expelled dozens of foreign workers after informing them that they would be tested for COVID-19.

On May 23, 100 foreign workers demonstrated in Doha, to protest non-payment of their wages by Qatari authorities.

Local sources confirmed that migrant workers who work for World Cup 2020 suffer from widespread human rights violations, including low pay and long work hours under the harsh sun. They can not terminate their contracts or return home. A recent report issued by Amnesty International UK on June 10 confirmed these conditions and mentioned workers who have not been paid for seven consecutive months.
Bahrain

Bahrain also targets migrant workers. On June 5, Member of Parliament Ghazi al-Rahma announced that he and a number of deputies would present a proposal to amend the labour law in the private sector, favoring Bahraini citizens in the private-sector recruitment process and prioritizing terminations for foreign workers.

Gulf states must abolish the kafala system, ratify the International Convention on the Rights of Migrants and Members of their Families and allow equal civic rights for all migrant workers.


Written by Gulf Center for Human Rights

Actually, anti-Blackness has everything to do with Sri Lanka

Posted 9 June 2020


“Colonial rule resulted in social stratification that privileged English speakers and those mixed with European ancestry. And it thrived off a fragmented nation, polarizing our ethnic groups to prevent a united front that would defy the colonial state.” Photo: The Governor of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) introducing Sinhalese chiefs to the Prince of Wales, 1876. Public domain.

This post by Shenali Pilapitiya originally appeared on Groundviews, an award-winning citizen journalism website in Sri Lanka. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices.

It is easy to feel disconnected from incidents of police brutality in the USA, and ongoing race wars across the world that continue to marginalize and disenfranchise Black communities, when we fail to recognize our own connection to the issue at hand. The truth is that regardless of where you are Sri Lankan in the world—be it a member of the diaspora, or a resident at home—Sri Lankans are complicit in systems of anti-Blackness. As long as colonial legacies continue to govern our sense of identity, politics, and society, and until we unearth internalized and systematic prejudices against Black communities and ourselves, we will continue to be complicit in anti-Blackness.
Why anti-Blackness is the essence of our racial struggle

In light of recent events of police brutality resulting in the murder of George Floyd—and the centuries’ worth of cases that we may never hear of—a global outcry against the prevalence of anti-Blackness has emerged.

At its core, anti-Blackness is the systemic and normalized marginalization, belittling, and undermining of Black folks and those in proximity to Blackness. Within our communities, it manifests itself through racism, colorism, and false logics of Asian superiority and exceptionalism. The concept emerges through colonialism, wherein anti-Blackness was used to dehumanize Black bodies and therefore justify a white supremacist sociopolitical order. Anti-Blackness and racism are inseparable schemes; it is the logic of anti-Blackness that enforces racial hegemonies worldwide.

Recognizing systems of anti-Blackness is a critical step towards solidarity against white supremacist institutions that continue to affect people of color. What is so distinct about racism is that it is heavily intertwined and inseparable from social organization, class relationships, and societal stratification processes. With the onset of modern capitalism, which is founded through the anti-Black and racist transatlantic slave trade, a world order based on the economic exploitation of the Global South emerges. There is no modern industry, no world trade, and no capitalism—the very foundations of the West as we conceive it today—without slavery and imperialism. And of course, slavery and imperialism are materialized through the injurious and devastating construct of racism, which has always relied on anti-Blackness.

The reach of imperialism and modern capitalism was soon extended from the African continent to our own shores with the arrival of colonization. It was the economic exploitation of Sri Lankan goods and labor that gave rise to a prosperous colonial state. Colonial rule resulted in social stratification that privileged English speakers and those mixed with European ancestry. And it thrived off a fragmented nation, polarizing our ethnic groups to prevent a united front that would defy the colonial state. Today, racial hierarchy is continually evidenced through the global monopoly on trade by Western countries, the exploitation of Asian and African economies through structural adjustment programs, and trade agreements that ultimately harm our nation and others in the Global South.

The anti-racist struggle is thus the collective struggle of the Global South, of which Sri Lanka is naturally a part. It is the rejection of a colonial logic that perpetuates Blackness as inferior, and denies humanity and dignity to people of color. By being complicit in systems of anti-Blackness, we are merely contributing to a sustained racial hierarchy that privileges white supremacy.
Forms of anti-Blackness among Sri Lankans

To propel systemic anti-Blackness, other minority groups have been co-opted to further a white supremacist agenda. The Model Minority Myth, as originating in relation to the Asian-American community, characterizes Asians as a monolith: polite, hard-working and law-abiding peoples who have achieved higher levels of success than other people of color and immigrants – specifically, Black people. The result is a false narrative of Asian exceptionalism. The myth fallaciously lauds Asians in service and in proximity to whiteness, while erasing narratives of Asian poverty, exploitation, and continued subordination to a white supremacist governing class.

For diaspora Sri Lankans, the Model Minority Myth is integral to the immigrant experience. It is the social conditioning that wires us to believe that hard work and compliance will reward us and ease our integration into white society. And it forces us to believe that we are somehow better than other minority groups, particularly, Black and Latinx communities, because we have abided by the status quo. The tragic Catch-22 of the myth is that we merely become pawns in a racial game designed to uphold white supremacy, and are complicit in the subjugation of other minorities.

At home, our colonial hangover crashes course with the Model Minority Myth at the intersection of white institutions and credibility. Its manifestations are numerous: the prestige and exclusivity of international schools, the prevalence of foreign advisors in our government institutions, the brain-drain of Sri Lankan intellectuals to the West, the major missionary schools that dictate much of our social conditioning long after the completion of final A-level examinations.

A common example of the Model Minority Myth at home is the presence of ‘foreign-only’ and ‘tourist-only’ businesses. Despite government threats to cancel the licenses of such institutions, these businesses have prevailed over the years due to economic dependency on white, foreign patronage. If you are a local Sri Lankan visiting popular tourist destinations such as Ella, or Mirissa, you are no stranger to the foreign-only service concept. And, even when restaurants and businesses do not explicitly state that they only serve foreigners, the foreigner-only mentality prevails and you are certain to feel unwelcome at these locations. Of course, the notion that it is favorable to serve a white customer reveals an insidious, internalized racism—to serve people from your own racial and ethnic background is belittling because they are somehow ‘lesser than’. In reality, it is simply contributing to the model minority myth, a fallacy spearheaded by white supremacist norms that applaud us as exceptional because we are hardworking in our service to them. We proudly champion our hospitality, but this quickly turns to indulgence when our businesses pander to serve foreign customers. We are complicit in systems that patronize and condescend to us, and we internalize a logic that we must uphold and cater to white supremacy.

The lesser-known minority of Sri Lanka are the Kaffirs: an ethnic group of Afro-Sri Lankans originating from the slave labor brought into Sri Lanka by the Portuguese. Today, the Kaffirs face cultural and linguistic extinction; there are only 500 or fewer Kaffirs living on the island. It is impossible to ignore the anti-Blackness that has contributed to a lack of cultural preservation and awareness of Kaffir peoples. Kaffirs have historically lacked property and have largely been relegated to work as daily paid laborers, which contributed to a lack of economic capital and mobility within Kaffir communities. They have faced discrimination and isolation on the basis of their distinct physical features. Their histories are not taught in schools, and their narratives are not incorporated into the vista of Sri Lankan identities. The result is a chronic neglect of Kaffir peoples, marginalizing and isolating their communities for generations. It is undoubtedly their Blackness that has relegated them to a status that is somehow “less” Sri Lankan, or deviant from whatever it means to be Sri Lankan in mainstream understanding.

Across Sri Lanka, colorism is hardly a foreign concept. A newspaper advertisement for a suitable bride will use fair skin as a bartering tool. The praise of lighter-skinned women is a recurring theme in Sri Lankan popular music—one of our favorite Baila anthems is literally titled “Sudu Menike”, meaning white or fair-skinned lady. Proximity to whiteness, via fairer skin tone, has conferred privilege in our societies resulting in practices such as skin bleaching which have vast physical and mental health consequences. It is the epitome of anti-Blackness, a Machiavellian notion that dark skin is inferior.

Anti-Blackness is relayed through covert, everyday forms of racism and appropriation. It is the use of the word “kalu” (black) as an insult, as opposed to “sudu” (white or fair) as a compliment. It is using the N-Word and undermining the severe historical and present-day ramifications of the slur. It is the selective participation in Black culture—to love reggae and rap, to mimic Black fashion and trends, and to then ignore the very real and damaging sociopolitical issues that plague Black communities worldwide.
Why we need to care

Assuming that we are untouched by anti-Blackness as Sri Lankans is a false and harmful premise. We have directly benefited from systemic anti-Blackness, and we have also internalized these racist systems in ways that are harmful to our own communities. We are implicated in anti-Blackness the minute we interact with Black culture and knowledge production without accounting for—and acknowledging—the ongoing oppression of Black folks. We fail to recognize that being complicit in anti-Blackness is contributing to our own socio-economic exploitation by Western capitalism.

Nevertheless, there are some simple steps we can take to rectify anti-Blackness. We can dismantle and reject the Model Minority Myth. We can take collective steps to preserve and celebrate our own Kaffir peoples. We can consciously work to correct colorism in our societies by calling out the people around you who reinforce colorist standards, reporting damaging media promoting whiteness as beauty. We can support local and small businesses, Black artists and musicians, and attempt to reclaim some economic leveraging that has been compromised by the economic monopoly of the West.

Eliminating racial oppression must come from confronting the implicit biases in our personal and structural wiring. Addressing anti-Blackness can hopefully resolve some of the long-lasting implications of colonization and white supremacy by promoting solidarity across communities of color.

Written by GroundViews

Students arrested for demanding internet facilities in Balochistan
3G/4G services are not available in many places in Pakistan

BALOCHISTAN IS OCCUPIED BY PAKISTAN

Posted 29 June 2020 13:08 GMT


Kids in Balochistan. Image via Flickr by Beluchistan. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Students across Pakistan have been protesting against the online classes organised by colleges and universities in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown. It's not that they don't want to learn, but that they lack access: many areas in Pakistan do not have reliable internet service and most students can't afford to buy devices that facilitate online learning.

Nationwide protests on June 23 featured slogans advocating for justice and free internet for all. However, in Quetta, Balochistan, a number of students — many of them female — were manhandled, baton-charged and arrested, with many being dragged into police vans:


Picture 1: Students from Balochistan climbing a mountain to get signals for attending a class

Picture 2: Students in Quetta being arrested for demanding termination of online classes and provision of internet
Welcome to Naya Pakistan!#ReleaseAllStudents#SayNoToOnlineClasses pic.twitter.com/OK6B4XIcbX

— Nazar Mohammad Domki (PSF) (@nazarbaloch07) June 24, 2020
Pandemic increases inequity

As a result of the spread of COVID-19, Pakistan's Higher Education Commission asked educational institutions to shift to online classes from June 1. The countrywide closure of schools forced students living in hostels back to their homes, many of which are located in remote areas where 3G/4G internet connection are not available.

The lack of access had students coming out in their numbers to protest in every province, roundly rejecting the introduction of online classes:


There was zero work done on anything called “Online Class” in Pakistan. AND all of the sudden all school wants to go online …. despite they know the internet system of the region….😏😏😏
.
.#Onlineclass

— Farah Jaffar (@FarahGojali) June 20, 2020


All students should have equal opportunities to get their money’s worth of education. Online classes cannot deliver that in the context of Pakistan. Poor students cannot afford Internet and facilities to take online class.
#wewant3G4G
#StopOnlineClass https://t.co/mvUm3t13fI

— Abdullah Gul (@WaxirAbdullah) June 21, 2020

Arrests, however, only took place in Balochistan where human rights violations have drawn concern in the international community. For years, several thousands of people were subjected to enforced disappearances and their fate is unknown. The news soon went viral on social media, with the hashtag #ReleaseAllStudents trending, resulting in widespread condemnation of these incidents:


BREAKING:
Around 70 students arrested in Quetta for protested against online classes. Convenor of Students Action Committee, Muzammil Khan, BSO’s @jiandbaloch5 and @MahrangBaloch5 among the arrested ones. Police also used brutal force against the studnets. pic.twitter.com/Qx1oquKTVS

— Haider Kaleem (@HaiderKaleemB) June 24, 2020

Mahrang Baloch, a medical student actively involved in student politics, posted videos of her being arrested by the police:


I am arrested along with other Peaceful students .we were protesting against online classes.police has beaten and arrested male and female students.This barbaric state doesn’t changed its behaviour towards oppressed nations .#SayNoToOnlineClasses pic.twitter.com/2VLfcQTG2E

— Mahrang Baloch (@MahrangBaloch5) June 24, 2020

According to police reports, the students were charged with organising a rally during a lockdown. Section 144 of Pakistan's Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) has allowed for a complete ban on gatherings as a result of COVID-19.

The spokesperson for the Government of Balochistan, Liaqat Shahwani, stated, “Students have temporarily been detained for their own safety against COVID-19 and will be released soon.” The Chief Minister of Balochistan, Jam Kamal Khan, however, tweeted that government did not order the police to arrest the students and that they should all be released immediately. All students were released subsequently.

Amnesty International South Asia also condemned the arrests.

Meanwhile, Akhtar Mengal of the Balochistan National Party raised the issue of online classes in Balochistan in the National Assembly, because there was no 3G or 4G service in the province.
No proper internet for online classes

Access to the internet is a fundamental right — but according to DataReportal, there were only 76.38 million internet users in Pakistan. The country's population, as of January 2020, was 212 million.

In fact, 3G/4G services are not available in many parts of Pakistan, including tribal areas, nor can everyone afford a laptop or smartphone. The divide is also gender-based: compared to men, fewer numbers of women have internet access.

Nighat Daad from Digital Rights Foundation tweeted about the importance of “internet for all”:


Would you scale a mountain to get access to Internet? Some students in former FATA do this every day in order to attend online classes. May be IT ministry should first focus on providing internet to all during pandemic instead of focusing on enacting new laws? #InternetForAll pic.twitter.com/soJqHwL5Nt

— Nighat Dad (@nighatdad) June 22, 2020

In the second week of June, students across Pakistan organised an online campaign under the hashtag #OnlineJaloos (online procession). Voicepk.net, an open platform dedicated to highlighting human rights concerns within Pakistan, created the hashtag in an effort to show the challenges students faced in attending online classes — including climbing mountains just to catch a signal.

Students living in the tribal areas of Pakistan also raised their voices to gain the government's attention on this issue:


Speaking at the #OnlineJaloos, Amir Ali from district Chiniot says he cannot benefit from online education because he does not have a laptop or any access to the internet at home. He demands a more inclusive education policy from @Shafqat_Mahmood.#RightToEducation pic.twitter.com/7C45M3UMNJ

— Voicepk.net (@voicepkdotnet) June 9, 2020


Haris Shinwari from Khyber district says internet services have not been restored in his area since June 2016 despite promises and announcements by @IMMahmoodKhan. They are still forced to take online classes which is impossible for them.#OnlineJaloos #RightToEducation pic.twitter.com/V4S9s7jA8S

— Voicepk.net (@voicepkdotnet) June 9, 2020

On June 16, students in Islamabad held a protest outside the Higher Education Commission (HEC) office to express their concerns about the closure of educational institutions and the resulting switch to online classes and exams.

HEC officials held a meeting with student representatives at its headquarters and assured them that the commission would look into their concerns. However, one of the meeting's attendees reported that even as an HEC official at the meeting assured the students that their issues would be resolved, he insisted that exams cannot be cancelled.


Written by R Umaima Ahmed

How Kazakhstan's youth are forging their own national identity

Beginning with a feud between an LGBT activist and a boxer

Posted 10 June 2020 13:49 GMT


A photo collage from the Kazakhstani LGBT magazine Kok.team. The Russian language text reads: “LGBT Versus Coward”. Image used with permission.

A row between a lesbian activist and a weight fighter has launched a fierce debate on Kazakhstan’s social media networks, revealing deep fractures about national identity among the youth of this Central Asian nation.

In mid May 2020, the Kazakh heavyweight fighter Kuvat Khamidov started uploading a series of tweets on his account calling for the killing and rape of members of the LGBTQ community, including posts such as:


почему есть отстрел бродячих собак, но нет отстрела педиков?

— Kuat Khamitov (@Kuat_Khamitov) May 22, 2020


Why are stray dogs shot, but not fags?

This caught the attention or Nurbibi Nurkadilova, an LGBTQI rights activist who responded to Khamitov on May 17, the International Day against Homo-, Trans- and Biphobia. She wrote a long letter addressed to the fighter on her Instagram account, which has so far received nearly 3,000 comments.

Part of her letter states:

Translation
Original Quote


I am a member of the LGBT+ community!

With your statements, you have insulted me, my friends and the person I love! What do you mean when you say that “those people are worse than dogs” [In reference to one of Khamitov's tweets, since deleted.] Are you comparing my human rights, my civic rights with those of dogs? Does that mean you consider me to have no rights? With your statements, you're taking this country backwards! You are an obstacle to progress!

Following her post, Nurkadilova says she has received threats from sportsmen and wrestling fans:

Translation
Original Quote


I had to urgently leave the place where I used to live, I was evacuated by human rights activists. I changed flats when unknown people started showing up at my door.

Clearly she has struck a nerve, which she mentions in her long post: the different – and conflicting directions young people in Kazakhstan would like their country to take.
The (re)invention of ‘traditional values’

In the ideological vacuum left after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a number of post-Soviet states had to build alternative nation-making narratives. It was a challenging task: many former Soviet republics had only a very short prior history as modern nation-states, their intellectual elites had been wiped out in the Stalin-era purges of the 1930s, and the ethnic balance of power had been established by Soviet policies of privileging ethnic Slavs and Russian speakers. Kazakhstan was no exception.

The relative ideological leniency of the perestroika period of the mid-1980s allowed for the emergence of new discourses which had been severely suppressed in previous decades. The strongest of these new discourses concerned religion and national identity.

So when Kazakhstan became independent in 1991, the groundwork for an ethno-nationalist awakening had been laid for decades. Citizens sought to rekindle religious and conservative social norms and models which they could define as both non-Soviet and non-western. They advocated a return to an imagined and invented “traditional” model of patriarchy, heteronormativity, and strictly defined gender roles. It was a trend observed across the former Soviet Union, from Central Asia to the Caucasus and Russia itself.

In this understanding of Kazakh society, LGBTQ people were outsiders. Although the country decriminalised same-sex activities in 1998, there is still no legal protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; according to Human Rights Watch hate crimes against LGBTQ people are frequent. Meanwhile, religious leaders of both the Islamic (about 70 percent of the population) and Orthodox Christian communities are known to support a strongly anti-LGBT discourse.

But there are some young Kazakhstanis who reject those values, such as Nurkadilova herself.

Global Voices asked the founders of Kok.team, a trilingual Kazakhstani LGBT online magazine founded by Daniyar Sabitov and Anatoly Chernoussov what the Nurkadilova versus Khamitov spat reveals about the worldview of Kazakhstan's youth:

Translation
Original Quote


This once again confirms to us that there are two groups of people in Kazakhstan who stand in radical opposition to each other when discussing the human rights of the LGBT community. Their fight is important, because it takes place before third group — people who remain undecided.

Nevertheless, Sabitov and Chernoussov believe that this scandal is particularly unique:

Translation
Original Quote


The fact that [Nurkadilova] has a stable and loyal audience that keeps growing is perhaps an indicator that part of Kazakhstan's youth is seeking new role models. She is the first LGBTQ person who cannot be simply dismissed as one of the “urban crazies who are influenced and bought by the US,” as we are often described. She is an activist who has her own significant social capital.

Music versus stereotypes

In recent years, music has become an important means for Kazakhstan's youth to raise issues of identity and gender inequality. One band which has played an important role in that discussion is the wildly popular K-pop style boys band Ninety One. The band sings almost exclusively in Kazakh and its public presentation shows its members’ interest in subverting gender stereotypes and identities. This video alone received five million views — not a trivial number given that Kazakhstan has a population of 18 million.

The fact that such a band could become cultural icons is highly significant in modern Kazakhstan. Yevgenia Plakhina, a Global Voices contributor and close observer of Kazakhstan's popular culture, co-produced a documentary about Ninety One which seeks to expand the debate about role models for Kazakhstan's youth. She shared her thoughts with Global Voices about the band's importance to discussions on gender identity in Kazakhstan:

Translation
Original Quote

The band Ninety One emerged when Kazakhstan was undergoing a “return to traditions”, or the reinvention of traditional values. Why did the band become the subject of so many debates? Firstly, because they have a large number of fans compared to others in Kazakhstan: around 600,000 subscribers on Youtube and 575,000 on Instagram. Secondly, they do not appear as traditional Kazakh men are supposed to: they wear earrings, dye their hair, and wear bright clothes. This is why many young girls and women love them;they are tired of the typical Kazakh macho man. Furthermore, one cannot use them to advance the narrative that all evil comes from western culture: K-pop [Korean pop] came from the East, and turned into Q-pop in our country [Kazakh is written Qazaq in Kazakh Latin script]. Finally, they sing in Kazakh and gather the audience that supporters of traditional values would like to influence the most.

Plakhina sees the roots of these alternative role models in the 1990s, when the winds of change inspired artists across the region to explore. She points out that there is real continuity among generations of artists who dare to own Kazakh culture:


Translation
Original Quote


Ninety One fans are open to new ideas and do want to build a society inspired by their ancestors 200 years ago. In the late 1990s, Kazakhstan experienced relative freedom. When I was a student, the female rapper MC Gul was popular. In Kazakh-speaking areas of the country, it was the band Orda, whose member Erbolat Bedelkhan became the producer of Ninety One.

It can even be argued that Ninety One has been more successful than Kazakhstan's government in promoting the use of the Kazakh language, by singing almost exclusively in Kazakh and promoting the new spelling of the language in the Latin alphabet. The following video, which already has over 200,000 views on YouTube, is a good example:


Perhaps the strongest message of Nurkadilova's letter was that Kazakh culture is not solely the property of nationalists and traditionalists —and that exploration and a thirst to explore new pastures is not a novelty for Central Asia's largest country.


Written by Filip Noubel