Pentagon memo effectively bans display of Confederate battle flag


A Pentagon memo on Friday lists appropriate flags to display on U.,S. bases, and specifically omits the Confederate battle flag. Photo by Shutterstock.com

July 17 (UPI) -- The Confederate battle flag was effectively banned from U.S. military property, a Pentagon memo released on Friday indicates.

The memo, obtained by UPI, does not specifically mention the flag, which was used by the Confederate States of America during the Civil War and later became symbolic, to some people, of white nationalism, Southern heritage or general anti-government dissent.

Distributed Friday by the Pentagon, the memo lists flags authorized by the Defense Department for display "that promote unity and esprit de corps." While the U.S. flag, flags of states or territories, Senate-confirmed civilian flags and flags of allied nations are on the list, among others, the Confederate battle flag is absent.

"The flags we fly must accord with the military imperatives of good order and dislike, treating all our people with dignity and respect, and rejecting divisive symbols," the memo, signed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, reads in part.

The Confederate battle flag regained popularity as a response to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

In June, NASCAR, the car racing organizing body with roots in the U.S. South, banned the flag, noting that the flag "runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry."

The Pentagon memo comes after several elements of the U.S. military announced a ban on the flag's presence. Marine Corps commandant David Berger directed the removal of Confederate paraphernalia from Marine Corps bases in February.

RELATED U.S. Air Force initiates review into racial disparity

On June 9, a Navy statement said that an order would be prepared to prohibit the flag from all Navy public spaces. The same day, the Army said it would begin considering name changes for bases honoring Confederate military leaders.

On June 15, U.S. Forces Korea announced a ban on display of the flag at U.S. bases in South Korea. U.S. Forces Japan joined the ban in July.

"While I acknowledge some might view it as a symbol of regional pride, many others in our force see it as a painful reminder of hate, bigotry, treason, and devaluation of humanity," Gen. Robert Abrams, U.S. Forces Korea commandant, wrote in a memo last month. "Regardless of perspective, one thing is clear: it has the power to inflame feelings of racial division. We cannot have that division among us."

RELATED Virginia NAACP sues over schools with Confederate names

Pension reform plans, which sparked France’s Yellow Vest protests, shelved until 2021

Negotiations between the French government and unions over a controversial pension reform will be postponed until 2021 to focus on economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Friday.

“The Prime Minister proposes to postpone consultations on this reform”, leader of the union for small and medium-sized enterprises CPME Francois Asselin said.

The reform, pushed by President Emmanuel Macron and the single greatest revamp of the pension system since World War Two, was halted in its tracks in February by the pandemic.

The proposal angered unions and brought thousands of people onto the streets at the turn of the year. The decision to push it back aims in part to ease those tensions as France grapples with the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

"The priority now is the battle against the crisis, for employment and to tackle unemployment," Castex told reporters after his first meeting with union representatives since becoming prime minister this month.

Castex said the reform, which includes raising the retirement age by two years to 64, would not be scrapped. A deferment until after the 2022 presidential elections might defuse union and voter concerns, but would undermine Macron's already-weakened credibility as a reformer.

The reform is central to Macron's ambition of creating a more flexible and competitive labour force. But trade unions who argue that it will erode hard-earned benefits and leave pensioners worse off.

Castex also said that the full implementation of unemployment insurance reform would be postponed to Jan. 1.

(REUTERS)

Two videos show brown bears being tortured by hunters in Turkey

Screengrab of a video filmed in the village of Agaçseven in Turkey’s Trabzon province

TURKEY / ANIMAL CRUELTY - 07/17/2020

In recent weeks, people across Turkey have expressed shock and anger after two videos emerged showing hunters killing or torturing bears. Animal rights organizations say that the laws meant to protect bears aren’t strict enough and that the small number of hunters in the country act in impunity.

The two videos were circulating on WhatsApp before someone alerted animal rights group Haytap (The Federation for animal rights - Turkey), which reposted the videos on their Facebook page on July 9 and 12.

The first video shows an injured bear who has blood all over his head and upper body. In the video, you can hear two men speaking. "Attack, attack!” one tells a dog. A dog runs at the bear and bites it. Another dog joins in. At one point, the footage shows a hunter with a rifle just a few meters away from the bear, but he doesn’t put the animal out of its misery.


Animal rights group Haytap says that the incident occurred in May in the village of Arhavi, which is located in the northeastern province of Artvin.

The second video shows two men holding up a dead bear. They laugh as they hit its head and call out insults.

+2 Toplumun içindeki ara ara haberlerde gördüğünüz şiddete sakın şaşırmayın.. Gözlerimizi kapattığınız için bu olaylar çoğumuz yabancı geliyor

Gelişmeleri bu sayfalardan bildireceğiz#haytap #av #avcılık #avspordeğildir #yaşamhakkı #yaşamellerinizde #cinayet #katliam pic.twitter.com/CxZPWeOMQw Haytap (@HaytapOfficial) July 12, 2020

According to Haytap, that video was also likely filmed about two months ago in the village of Agaçseven in the northeastern province of Trabzon. At the start of the video, one of the hunters references Ramadan, which went from April 23 to May 23 this year.

The two videos garnered hundreds of thousands of views on social media. Several news reports also broadcast the footage.

"These hunters enjoy torturing animals"

Haytap filed a complaint on the hunters and hopes that the authorities will set a precedent by handing them tough prison sentences. Ahmet Kemal Senpolat is a lawyer and the president of Haytap.
After people alerted us to these two videos, we ended up filing complaints against the two individuals. Bears are protected by law in Turkey. There are about 3,000 of them remaining, most of whom live in the area near the Black Sea in the north of the country, where both videos were filmed.

We hope that, this time, the laws will be upheld and that these individuals will be handed serious prison sentences, not just fines, which is common in cases where people abuse or torture domestic animals like cats and dogs.

The videos are terrible and really show, in our opinion, these hunters taking pleasure in torturing animals. People feel strongly about this issue in Turkey. It’s villagers from these regions who saw the videos circulating on WhatsApp and contacted us about them. They didn’t dare to speak out themselves because they were afraid of reprisals from the hunters. Even though they took precautions, they told us that they had received threats after the videos were released and broadcast on TV.

"These conflicts could be avoided if we preserved their natural habitat”

Documentary filmmaker Oÿkü Yagci is a member of another Turkish animal rights organization, Hakim (their name is an acronym that stands for Animal Rights Monitoring Committee), as well as the Turkish Vegan Association TVD.

In Turkey, we are lucky that we still have several thousand wild bears that live in the wild [Editor’s note: In comparison, only 52 bears were thought to be living in France in 2019] but, unfortunately, their habitat is being rapidly destroyed by human activity such as the construction of infrastructure like dams and roads.

When I was filming a documentary in Kars (in eastern Turkey), I often saw bears crossing the railroad tracks to go forage for food in a dump. Often, these bears got hit by trains and environmental activists told me they tried everything to save them, in vain.
Sometimes the hunters say that they kill bears because there is a conflict between humans and animals but we think these conflicts could be avoided if we preserved their natural habitat.

We regularly run anti-hunting campaigns. They are quite successful. Turkish people do care about animals and condemn any form of mistreatment, including hunting. But, unfortunately, the laws of the country don’t reflect this movement. Recently, parliament was supposed to vote on a bill that would increase the number of species that can be hunted and facilitate hunting tourism. They ended up postponing the vote.

Few hunters in Turkey

The Turkish government is subject to extreme pressure from hunting lobby groups, even though there are very many few hunters in the country. Only about 290,000 people have hunting licenses in Turkey [Editor’s note: Equivalent to just 0.35% of the Turkish population. In France, for comparison, hunters make up 1.75% of the population]. But, between hunting permits, hunting tourism and fines, they add a fair amount of money to the state coffers. According to official figures, the government made 74.9 million Turkish lira [Editor’s note: 9.5 million euros] in the 2018/2019 season. Banning hunting would result in a certain loss of revenue for the government.

Still,we’re convinced that Turkey could become an example by becoming one of the first countries in the world to abolish hunting.

Hunting is already banned in several countries, including India, several east African nations, and the canton of Geneva in Switzerland. The Berne Convention, signed by most European countries, designates the brown bear as a strictly protected species. Turkey is a signatory to the Convention but made an exception excluding the bear to manage its population.

BEFORE YOU GET ALL JUDGEMENTAL

STATE OF SIEGE
In Portland, US federal officers in unmarked vans respond to protests with tear gas

Videos of federal law enforcement officers using unmarked vans were posted online July 15. (Video posted on Twitter)

USA - 07/16/2020

Tactical officers from around the United States have been in Portland, Oregon since July 4 to control protests and protect public property. Since they arrived, videos circulated online have shown officers patrolling streets in unmarked vans and using force to disperse protesters in the city. Unrest in Portland has been ongoing since late May when outrage following the death of George Floyd inspired protests across the United States. The recent federal response has received criticism for escalating tensions.

The US Department of Homeland Security sent federal law enforcement officers, including those from tactical teams, to Portland following an executive order signed by President Trump aimed at protecting public monuments from vandalism during ongoing Black Lives Matter protests.

Videos have been spread on the Internet showing clashes between law enforcement and protesters, featuring federal officers deploying crowd-control tactics such as tear gas and flashbangs. The officers, who are dressed in tactical attire, are also seen getting in and out of unmarked minivans.

On Thursday, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported the story of a protester who was taken into custody by federal officers in an unmarked van, driven to a courthouse, put into a cell, and then released.

The video below shows two officers in helmets and tactical gear walking up to a protester and bringing them into an unmarked van. The officers do not identify themselves as law enforcement, give a reason for the arrest, or read the protester their rights. The witness filming the video repeatedly asks the officers what they are doing, but receives no response. In Oregon, federal law enforcement is authorised to make arrests, but the officer must inform the person of their federal authority, give the reason for the arrest, and take the person to an Oregon authority without unnecessary delay.

Another video shows similarly dressed officers getting into a van on Main St. in Downtown Portland and driving off.

“There was a lot of fear. When people get arrested by federal officers, they're held for days, maybe weeks.”

Garrison Davis has been following the protests in Portland since they began in late May. According to the Associated Press, federal law enforcement officers from at least six different departments were sent to Seattle, Portland, and Washington, D.C. to protect public property during protests in early July.

Davis said that violence during the protests escalated after the night of July 11, when a federal officer severely wounded a protester using a less-lethal crowd control device. The shot caused face and skull fractures in the protester, who required reconstructive surgery. The incident is currently under investigation by federal authorities.

The 11th is when federal officers responded by themselves, they did not initially have the Portland Police Bureau with them. At the start of the night, they gassed the park in front of the federal courthouse just to clear it out, the park was still open. At this point, a federal officer shot a young man in the head. He was bleeding all over the sidewalk, he had to go to the hospital. That was the beginning of the night. They teargassed the park three separate times afterwards. Finally, at 2am that’s when the Portland Police Bureau showed up and decided to close the park. So before that, it was just federal officers standing there with assault rifles and just throwing tons of gas at the crowd, arresting people.

Since then, federal agents have used tear gas in Portland nightly. Portland police are banned from using tear gas except in situations that police declare to be a riot, where public and police safety is threatened. Federal officers, however, are authorised to use the chemical agent and other tactics to control crowds.

On July 15, rumours of officers detaining protesters from unmarked vans began circulating among those demonstrating.

Two of the unmarked vans drive into a government building. #blacklivesmatter #pdx #portlandoregon #oregon #blm #acab #portland #justicecenter #riotribs #CLAT pic.twitter.com/E8pl5P9VCL Garrison Davis (Teargas Proof) (@hungrybowtie) July 15, 2020

This video shows two unmarked vans similar to those used by federal authorities in other videos. The vehicles are entering the Edith Green - Wendell Wyatt Federal Building.

None of these officers ever identified themselves – very few identifying patches. There were some people who never really got a good look at them, really. We thought, ‘Oh, what if these are actually officers that are militia kidnapping like what happened in the Midwest last month?’ But you could see that their equipment was too good to be just a random militia. They had all the bells and whistles. There was a lot of fear about them not actually being law enforcement.

There was a lot of fear. When people get arrested by federal officers, they're held for days, maybe weeks. Usually, when you're asked by the police at these protests, you're out by the next morning. The charges are much worse when you're arrested by a federal person, even if you're just doing the same thing, including just standing on the street. So the fear is related to not knowing who these people are, not knowing what’s going to happen to you if you’re arrested, when will you see your friend again?

I think a lot of people aren’t really prepared to see that actually happening in the States right now. People protesting the government then just getting grabbed off the street.
Oregon politicians have accused federal officers of escalating violence during the protests and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler called the tactics used by federal agents “life-threatening,” imploring officers to “stay inside their building, or leave Portland altogether".

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to our request for comments on the tactics their officers have used in Portland, or their use of unmarked vans. However, they released a statement on July 16 condemning the actions of “violent anarchists” in Portland.


Article by Pariesa Young FRANCE24/AFP

Oregon protesters are getting detained by federal agents in unmarked vehicles: report

Published July 16, 2020 By Matthew Chapman RAW STORY


On Thursday, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that federal law enforcement is using unmarked vehicles to catch and arrest protesters in Portland.

“Federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least July 14,” reported Jonathan Levinson and Conrad Wilson. “Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested, and driving off. The tactic appears to be another escalation in federal force deployed on Portland city streets, as federal officials and President Donald Trump have said they plan to ‘quell’ nightly protests outside the federal courthouse and Multnomah County Justice Center that have lasted for more than six weeks.”

“Federal officers have charged at least 13 people with crimes related to the protests so far, while others have been arrested and released,” continued the report. “They also left one demonstrator hospitalized with skull fractures after shooting him in the face with so-called ‘less lethal’ munitions July 11.”

These federal officers (?) just rushed up and arrested someone for no reason pic.twitter.com/xcFVuoMZmN
— Matcha chai (@matcha_chai) July 15, 2020

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use the federal government to keep order in the Black Lives Matter protests that sprung up nationwide in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He even threatened to send in the military.

Oregon governor accuses Trump of causing violence in the streets of Portland — as a 2020 reelection ploy

IT'S ALSO PRACTICE FOR POST ELECTION WHEN TRUMP LOSES AND DECLARES MARTIAL LAW AND BEGINS PREPARING FIRING SQUADS FOR DEMOCRATS SINCE HE, AND BARR HAVE BROUGHT BACK THE DEATH PENALTY 

Published on July 16, 2020 By Bob Brigham RAW STORY


As acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf arrived in Portland to oversee DHS agents accused of misconduct against protesters, the state’s governor blasted President Donald Trump.

“This political theater from President Trump has nothing to do with public safety. The President is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government,” Gov. Kate Brown (D-OR) posted on Twitter.

“I told Acting Secretary Wolf that the federal government should remove all federal officers from our streets. His response showed me he is on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes. He is putting both Oregonians and local law enforcement officers in harm’s way,” she warned.

“This, coming from the same President who used tear gas to clear out peaceful protesters in Washington, DC to engineer a photo opportunity. Trump is looking for a confrontation in Oregon in the hopes of winning political points in Ohio or Iowa,” she warned.

This political theater from President Trump has nothing to do with public safety. The President is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government. https://t.co/PdlZkmW0mQ
— Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) July 16, 2020

This, coming from the same President who used tear gas to clear out peaceful protesters in Washington, DC to engineer a photo opportunity.
Trump is looking for a confrontation in Oregon in the hopes of winning political points in Ohio or Iowa.
— Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) July 16, 2020

EVERY REVOLT NEEDS A SOUNDTRACK

AMERICAN ISOLATIONISM  

Hospitals are suddenly short of young doctors — because of Trump

CUT YOUR NOSE TO SPITE YOUR FACE

July 17, 2020

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. 

As hospitals across the United States brace for a difficult six months — with the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic still raging and concerns about a second wave in the fall — some are acutely short-staffed because of an ill-timed change to immigration policy and its inconsistent implementation.

A proclamation issued by President Donald Trump on June 22, barring the entry of most immigrants on work visas, came right as hospitals were expecting a new class of medical residents. Hundreds of young doctors were unable to start their residencies on time.

Trump’s order included the H1-B visa for highly skilled workers, which is used by some practicing doctors abroad who get U.S. residency slots. The proclamation stated that doctors “involved with the provision of medical care to individuals who have contracted COVID-19 and are currently hospitalized” should be exempt from the ban, but it delegated the issuing of guidance to the departments of State and Homeland Security. That guidance has been slow and inconsistent.

Many consulates started approving doctors’ visas on Thursday, after ProPublica asked the State Department about the delay. Others say they’re still awaiting guidance.

At hospitals where many incoming residents are visa holders, even a delay of a few weeks in arriving in the U.S. creates a staffing crisis. Doctors and administrators are afraid that the repercussions will last for the rest of the year — leaving them overworked and ill-prepared even before a second wave of the virus hits.

ProPublica has heard from 10 would-be medical residents stuck abroad because of H1-B visa issues. Six of them had gotten emergency consulate appointments for visa approval, but when they arrived for meetings they were told their visas could not be approved. Three were still waiting on DHS approval for their visas, a necessary step before a visa gets a consulate stamp. One resident had application approval but was denied an emergency consulate interview appointment because of the ban. All were destined for hospital positions treating COVID-19 patients.


The State Department told ProPublica on Tuesday that it, “in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security and interagency partners, is establishing and implementing procedures” for the visa ban, and that it “has communicated and will continue to communicate implementation procedures” to consulates abroad.

On Thursday, the State Department’s website posted guidance, spelling out that doctors treating COVID-19 patients were exempt from the ban. On that day, many of the residents ProPublica spoke to said they had suddenly received visa approvals. “A quite remarkable turnaround, given that I received a rejection email three days ago,” one said. In at least five countries, however, consulates were still not processing doctors’ visas.

The Committee of Interns and Residents, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, has heard from over 250 interns stuck abroad. Over 150 of them are on H-1B visas.. (The others are on visas that weren’t covered in Trump’s ban, but can’t get approval because their consulates are still closed due to the pandemic.) Union president Jessica Edwards pointed out to ProPublica that while that number may sound small, each intern is responsible for the care of thousands of patients.

As of 2017, there were 2,532 medical residents on H1-B visas, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association — though the Trump administration’s continued restrictions to legal immigration may have made it less appealing for hospitals to sponsor visas in the last few years. But the impact on hospitals is highly concentrated in the less-prestigious hospitals that tend to rely on residents from overseas.

At one New York City hospital serving low-income residents, nearly half the incoming class is still stuck abroad, multiple sources confirmed to ProPublica. One hospital in a large Midwestern city told ProPublica that “roughly half” of its first-year doctors started on time. In the Deep South, a region now overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases, a doctor who was set to start told ProPublica he was among 10 residents still awaiting visa approval as of early July. All hospitals and doctors spoke to ProPublica on the condition of anonymity because they worried about jeopardizing their visa applications.

ProPublica has also spoken to more-experienced doctors facing the same issue — including an infectious-disease specialist blocked from starting a job in an area of the Western U.S. where COVID-19 cases are rising.

When there aren’t enough incoming residents to replace departing third-year residents, staffing crunches result.

At the New York City hospital, a doctor told ProPublica that after only 10 days of short-staffing, one resident had called in sick from exhaustion. The doctor recounted a recent shift in which there had only been two junior residents on call, compared with the typical six. Even by having residents work individually instead of in teams of two, they couldn’t keep up with new patient admissions.

“The patients had to just stay there waiting in the (emergency department) for the residents to finish their first admission, in order to see them,” the doctor said. “When the shift was over, I logged into the computer and I would see notes written at 10 p.m., 11 p.m. And these residents are expected to go home and then come back again at 6:30 a.m.”

Even at hospitals with decreasing COVID-19 caseloads, short-staffing is a bigger problem than it was in pre-pandemic times. Some hospitals are seeing a “surge of non-COVID patients” who were unable to get care for chronic conditions like heart disease during lockdown and are now deteriorating, a doctor at a short-staffed hospital told ProPublica. And because protocols prevent doctors from switching back and forth between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients, the hospital needs to keep more doctors on-call to maintain staffing levels in both wards.

“If someone is getting acutely ill, who will see them?” a hospital administrator told ProPublica. “I’ve got my poor residents running around trying to make sure everyone is seen in a timely manner. And residents are great, but they can only be in one place at one time.”

Some of these problems will be fixed as residents receive delayed visa approvals and are able to come. But it will take weeks, if not months, to successfully onboard them. The Midwestern hospital anticipates that arriving residents may not be able to start until mid-August. In the meantime, they’re understaffing services and using fourth-year medical students in place of residents.

Hospitals are used to a summertime efficiency gap, as new interns learn the ropes. This year, it could persist into fall — when a second wave of coronavirus infections is expected.

“I’m really worried that in three months,” said the medical administrator, “we’re going to have a bunch of residents who are just exhausted and just getting into the worst part of the fall, flu and COVID season.”

These doctors already had to push themselves through the first wave of COVID-19 this spring. Furthermore, at hospitals hardest hit by the visa ban, the residents picking up the slack are often themselves H1-B visa holders whose futures are now uncertain. Trump’s ban didn’t revoke visas for anyone currently in the U.S., but if they leave the country — which they will have to do if they change jobs — their ability to return is unclear. Some of the doctors interviewed by ProPublica were living in the U.S. before the pandemic and returned home partly to get visa approval for their new jobs. One doctor ended up stuck in India while her husband was unable to travel there from the U.S.

Another doctor from India, now working in the U.S., told ProPublica: “My parents, they’re (in India) by themselves, and both of them are about 70. At some point, probably, they will catch the infection.” If that happens, the doctor plans to leave the U.S. to care for them — “and if I don’t come back, I don’t come back. At this point, I really don’t care.”

The feeling that the U.S. doesn’t value them is compounded among residents who’ve already lived through the first wave of COVID-19 and who are now facing overwork and visa uncertainty. Some said other countries are making it easier for doctors to immigrate, while the U.S. leaves them in limbo.

“We feel underappreciated for what we’re doing,” the New York City resident said. “And what else can you do, more than sacrificing your life?”

Tightly regimented residency schedules can be tricky for H1-B visa holders even in the best cases. Doctors find out in mid-March if they are “matched” with a U.S. hospital, where they’ll be expected to start at the beginning of July. DHS often takes longer than that to approve H1-B applications. Employers can pay for expedited processing to guarantee a decision within five days — but DHS shut down its expedited processing on March 22 because of COVID-19 and didn’t reopen it until June 8.

Shortly afterward, Trump issued his proclamation banning entries on many visa types, including the H1-B.

Most people coming to the U.S. for residencies arrive on a different kind of visa, the J-1, and aren’t covered by Trump’s ban, though some have had issues getting consulate appointments because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But doctors do identical work regardless of their visa types. If anything, doctors with H1-Bs are more qualified than those with J-1s, since they’re required to have completed all three phases of the taxing U.S. Medical Licensing Exam before starting residencies. Residents with H1-B visas were practicing doctors in their home countries, working alongside new medical-school grads from the U.S.

An earlier immigration ban targeting permanent immigrants, which passed in March, contained a broad medical worker exemption. When rumors of a work-visa ban started swirling in late spring, immigration lawyers and hospitals expected it would include the same language. Instead, the June proclamation mentioned only doctors working with hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Every resident who spoke with ProPublica had provided evidence to the U.S. government that they met that description. Some were told by consular officers that they were probably exempt. But until they received State Department guidance, they had to place their visas in “administrative processing” — an indefinite holding pattern.

ProPublica saw an image of a form given to one visa applicant informing them of a hold. The form is typically used to request more information from the applicant. In this case, though, a consular officer had modified the form to say that processing would not begin until “implementation procedures” for the visa-ban exemption had been provided.

Doctors in limbo have formed WhatsApp groups to share information and support, but the dialogue has shown inconsistencies in the ban’s implementation. Some consulates, such as those in Serbia, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, have approved doctors’ H1-B visas as exempt. Asked about the discrepancy, the State Department told ProPublica: “Applicants who believe they qualify for an exemption from Presidential Proclamation 10052 should check the website of the closest U.S. Embassy or Consulate regarding the current status of services. How appointment systems are managed can vary depending on the consular section.”

One applicant who reached out to the State Department for assistance received an email reply from an employee on July 10. The employee said that as far as they knew, the Office for Consular Affairs had given guidance to consulates and embassies to process visas that were exempt from the ban. (The agency declined to comment on that email.)

On Thursday, that applicant received a second email from the same employee. Guidance had been slow in coming, the employee admitted, but it had finally come through.

But some countries still haven’t changed their practices. One doctor stuck abroad told ProPublica they’d sent a follow-up email to the consulate on Thursday morning. “He gave me the same reply,” the doctor said, “that they are still waiting for guidance from Department of State.”

Google Said It Would Invest $10 Billion In India. Nearly Half Of It Is Going To The Country's Richest Man.

Google is the second large Silicon Valley tech company to buy a stake in Jio Platforms after Facebook.

Pranav Dixit BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on July 15, 2020

Google CEO Sundar Pichai poses as villagers take photographs in an Indian village in 2017.

On Monday, Google announced that it will invest $10 billion in India over the next few years. Two days later, the company revealed a key detail: Nearly half of the money will go to a top telecom operator owned by Asia’s richest man.

The internet giant will invest $4.5 billion into Jio Platforms as part of a plan to provide "increase access for the hundreds of millions in India who don't own a smartphone," Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted Wednesday. Mukesh Ambani, Jio's owner, has a net worth of more than $70 billion.

Google first unveiled the $10 billion Digitization Fund for India on Monday at an online event featuring key Google executives, including Pichai, and members of the Indian government. The company said that the money would go towards providing Indians with inexpensive internet access, digitizing the country’s small and medium businesses, and using artificial intelligence in areas like healthcare, agriculture, and education.

Over the last few years, India has become a key market for large American tech companies as they seek growth beyond the United States and Europe. More than 500 million Indians — just under half the country’s population — are now online, and nearly all of them use inexpensive smartphones that run Google’s Android operating system.

Most of that growth has been fueled by Jio. Ambani, an industrialist, founded Jio and pumped it with $35 billion to blanket the country with a high-speed 4G network, which brought the price of data down to pennies. The move launched a telecom pricing war in India and made Jio the country’s largest telecom carrier with over 388 million subscribers — more than the entire population of the United States. Jio plans to grow by rolling out internet-powered services such as e-commerce, streaming TV, music services, online gaming, and video conferencing apps.

As part of the Jio investment, Google and Jio will also work together to create an affordable, entry-level Android smartphone for more than 500 million Indians who still don't have access to the internet, bothompanies said.


Over the last three months, investors from around the world have poured in $20 billion into Jio Platforms. In April, Facebook announced that it would buy nearly 10% of the company for $5.7 billion. Facebook’s investment was followed by American private equity firms General Atlantic, Vista Equity Partners, and Silver Lake Partners, as well as chip giants Intel and Qualcomm.


MORE ON THIS
Facebook Just Invested $5.7 Billion In India's Largest Telecom CarrierPranav Dixit ·

 April 21, 2020

Pranav Dixit is a tech reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Delhi

Back To School: Teachers Are Ready To Quit Rather Than Put Their Lives At Risk

“Most parents have no idea how bad this is going to be.”

Caroline O'DonovanBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on July 16, 2020, at 6:01 p.m. ET

Lm Otero / AP



This spring, a teacher in Dallas was invited to the high school graduation of the first class of students she had taught when she became a teacher a little over a decade ago — but the ceremony was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, just a couple months later, facing an uncertain plan for reopening schools, she’s applying for jobs in the private sector and considering quitting teaching altogether.


“At this point, if anybody were to offer me something, I would rather do that than risk my health,” she said.

Typically, the Dallas-based teacher, who requested anonymity to protect her job, teaches 25 elementary-age students in a small classroom with windows that don’t open. She has major reservations about going back, but in Texas, where cases of the coronavirus are surging and some hospitals are running out of beds, it's illegal for teachers to strike, and those who break their contracts can lose their teaching certification altogether.


Earlier this week, the superintendent of her district said at a video staff meeting that the plan is still for students to attend school in person. At the end of the meeting, he acknowledged the unprecedented difficulties and risks teachers will face.

“We appreciate you, we care about you, we want to provide the best opportunity, the best climate we possibly can,” the superintendent said, according to an employee who attended the meeting. “So many people ask me each and every day how can we support and, I don’t know if you are religious or not, but we need your prayers. We need your prayers for our children and our families.”

But many staff members’ concerns were not assuaged by this.

“Everyone on the group text was like, What do you mean, pray? It’s not comforting by any means,” the teacher said.

“I love, love my job. But this? It’s not worth my life,” she continued. “I’m scared of getting sick and bringing it to my family. I’m scared of dying. I think we all are, you know?”

The Trump administration is eager to reopen schools in part because parents can’t return to work and be efficient economic engines without childcare. But in many states, it’s proving difficult if not impossible to send kids back to school safely because businesses reopened too early, and the health system is now once again dealing with a surge in infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.

The crisis over when and how to reopen schools underscores a central contradiction in American society: It can’t function without the public school system, which doesn’t have the funding and resources to follow the basic health and safety guidelines that would make reopening schools during a global pandemic feasible.


Teachers are quick to acknowledge that remote, online learning isn’t nearly as effective as being in the classroom, but with coronavirus cases rising all over the country, many don’t feel prepared to go back, either. A lack of national leadership on the schools issue has left states to give orders and school districts to make piecemeal plans that many teachers don’t understand or trust.

While some school staffers feel ready to go back, others are so frustrated and afraid that they’ve floated the idea of organizing a national walkout similar to the 2018 and 2019 teacher strikes over low pay. But as public employees, teachers in some states are legally barred from striking, and some are afraid that breaking their contract by resigning at the last minute or organizing “sick-outs” as a form of protest could lead to them losing not just their jobs, including insurance and salary, but their teaching certifications and therefore their ability to work at all.

Rather than face that decision, Michael McCann, who taught middle school English in Virginia for the last three years, decided to quit in June. The problem, he said, is that leaders are “expecting teachers to be the glue that holds society together.”

McCann was lucky to be hired as a technical writer, a job he can do from home, just a month before his wife is due to give birth to their son in August.


Quitting his teaching jobs wasn’t an easy decision for McCann, who said he’ll miss the students he worked with last year and those he would have taught this year in eighth grade. But he ultimately felt he couldn’t reconcile the lack of leadership, and the country’s failure to get the pandemic under control, with the safety of his family.

“If they were more straightforward with the employees as far as what to expect … They keep on sending out surveys, but we don’t know what decisions are being made based on those surveys,” he said. “I’m like, Are you guys going to make this decision the week we’re supposed to start back? If they could give us some sort of secure answer or give us some comfort as far as what we’re expecting, I probably wouldn’t have applied for that position.”

McCann said he worries for his former students’ safety and education, but also for the nurses, counselors, administrators, food handlers, and other adults at school who he feels don’t have the appropriate support to deal with the crisis.


Olivier Douliery / Getty Images
School buses parked at the Arlington County Bus Depot in Virginia.


School bus drivers, some of whom are left alone with dozens of students at a time, will also experience health risks when school reopens. Buses in districts that go back on a rotating schedule will have more room for distancing, but in other areas, drivers will have to make multiple trips per morning, sanitizing buses between runs and enforcing rules about masks while also driving. The school staff union in Houston has said 80% of bus drivers are declining to come back because of health issues and age concerns related to the virus, according to KHOU.


Vicki has been driving a school bus in a city in Indiana for almost 30 years. School this year is currently scheduled to start on Aug. 5. She drives a bus for children with disabilities, so there are fewer students and an aide is available to help keep everyone safe. But she has friends who drive buses that can carry as many as 54 students at a time, and she’s worried about their safety.

“I’d be a lot more nervous if I had to drive a big bus,” said Vicki, who asked to be identified only by her first name. “I am worried some about myself getting sick but more worried about possibly being a carrier and giving it to others in my family or one of my special needs kids.”

Jeffery Yarger has been driving a school bus for 21 years and is partially retired. He considered not going back this year because of the virus, but with plans put in place for him to drive fewer students and time to sanitize the bus between trips, he’s decided he’s up to the job.

“I have thought about it, but I love my job very much,” he said. “I am nervous about it. Anybody in their right mind would be nervous.”


Earlier this month, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that schools reopen for in-person learning, as long as reasonable safety measures are taken. But teachers in some districts are concerned that even basic protocols are simply not possible.

“They’re saying they will keep social distancing, but I don’t know if we have the physical space for that,” said a teacher in St. Paul, Minnesota, who requested anonymity to protect her job.

Some teachers are worried that students won’t wear masks, or bring them to school, or perhaps even be able to afford them. Teachers in Dallas were told students would wear masks, but one kindergarten teacher was skeptical of that promise. “They said we’d have masks and face shields and everyone is going to be covered, but it’s a school district — sometimes we don’t have soap,” he said.

He was also worried about having the room to distance kids and the staff to monitor them, especially given the number of teachers he’s heard are considering early retirement to avoid the health risks. The Minnesota-based teacher had similar concerns, saying masks are a manageable problem in her district compared to the issue of space.

“Kids will wear T-shirts over their faces. Volunteers will make masks if they need to — community fundraising and mask drives and sewing circles and all that stuff,” she said. “But plexiglass shields around kids? Or being able to put them 6 feet apart? That’s where the budgeting stuff would have to come in, and as far as school districts, we don’t have the money for that.”

The situation she describes stands in stark contrast to some schools in places like Indonesia, China, and Thailand where students are temperature screened, tested for COVID-19, and provided with plexiglass barriers and disinfection chambers.


In the US, many students don’t have regular access to the internet or a computer, which makes remote learning a nonstarter. Some teachers feel the time and energy currently being spent on how to reopen schools would be better put to use addressing how to make distance learning more equitable, more feasible for parents, and more effective for students.

The St. Paul–based teacher worries this is just one way the pandemic will widen inequality between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds. She’s also seen parents posting ads online for tutors to help their students get a better education from home, a resource lower-income families can’t afford.

“Our budgets,” the St. Paul–based teacher said, “are a reflection of our societal priorities.”

The eruption of protests over the police killing of George Floyd sparked a national debate over racist policing and, in turn, the size of police department budgets; in 2017, Minneapolis spent a higher percentage of its discretionary budget on policing than all but two other American cities. Funding for schools and other community needs has not grown apace with funding for law enforcement in US cities. The Minneapolis board of education canceled its $1.3 million contract with the Minnesota Police Department and promised to “redirect those funds into our schools and our community” according to the Nation. But elsewhere, school budgets are being slashed.

Some school staffers are worried that funding issues could even lead to furloughs or layoffs. Whether school is in person or online, teachers will be required to show up, but other school employees like cafeteria workers and bus drivers don’t know what will happen to their jobs if schools don’t physically reopen. Like millions of other workers, they’re caught between wanting a paycheck and wanting to stay healthy.


A security guard who works on contract at a high school in Turlock, California, said she’s more worried about losing her job than the health risks of going back to school. She’s confident that school staff will be able to get kids to wear masks and maintain social distancing.

“I hope it opens. My kids need their teacher and classroom setting and this is also my livelihood. I would be losing so much if I get laid off,” she said. “We can’t put our lives on hold otherwise we will be homeless.”

While states have struggled to figure out how to reopen schools, bars, restaurants, and even theme parks have reopened in communities around the country. Disney World reopened — complete with no-mask-required “relaxation zones” — in the same week that Florida set a record for new coronavirus cases, according to the New York Times.

Just 45 minutes north of Disney in Seminole County, Florida, one teacher who requested anonymity is wrestling with what to do when school starts. “We are going to open back up full scale Aug. 10, and many are terrified,” he said.


Frederic J. Brown / Getty Images
A crossing guard stops traffic outside Ramona Elementary School in Alhambra, California.


He worries about the health of his wife, who recently underwent heart surgery, and his daughter, who’s been in and out of the hospital for a lung condition. The district where he works, in which classrooms are typically crowded, hasn’t said it will mandate masks. “Most parents have no idea how bad this is going to be,” he said. “I am just sitting here looking around in bewilderment.”

The Florida teacher said he’s suggested a sick-out — a labor action in which employees coordinate to call in sick at the same time — but teachers in Florida are legally barred from going on strike. “They are afraid of [losing] their license and job and healthcare due to taking a stand,” he said.

Teachers in other states, including Texas, are also not legally allowed to strike, and some, including the teacher from Dallas, are even worried that turning in a last-minute resignation could be considered a breach of contract. “We’re scared of losing our license,” she said. “The state of Texas can take away your certification.”

As of now, schools in Texas are supposed to open next month. The Dallas-based teacher said she’s having trouble sleeping as more people in the area get sick. “Before it was like a friend of a friend. Now it’s people that you know that are sick. It’s getting closer,” she said.


She’s still not sure what she’ll do if the district decides to reopen in-person schooling at full capacity. While she may not have a choice about going back, she said if she had her own kids she’d sign them up for online learning, and she recommends that parents do the same.

The other day, she said a student’s mom called her and asked if she would speak to her son. “She was like, ‘Can you talk to him? Because he is crying that he doesn’t want to go to school and come back and kill us,’” she said.

“I can't lie to them,” the teacher said. “That’s what I told her. I wish I could tell him it’s going to be okay, but I’m scared, too.” ●

 Caroline O'Donovan is a senior technology reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco.

NFL vows action after 'disturbing' harassment claims

The NFL vowed Friday to act on findings from an owner-financed investigation of the Washington Redskins after 15 women said they had been sexually harassed while employed by the team.

© Drew Angerer The NFL said Friday it will act upon an investigation funded by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder regarding sexual harassment allegations detailed in a Washington Post report

The Washington Post reported the detailed allegations Thursday, prompting team owner Dan Snyder to hire Washington law firm Wilkinson Walsh to conduct a review of the team's culture and policies as well as workplace misconduct.

Rather than launching its own probe, the NFL said it will meet with the investigating attorneys paid for by Snyder, who was not among the executives accused of inappropriate behavior, and act upon their findings.

"These matters as reported are serious, disturbing and contrary to the NFL's values. Everyone in the NFL has the right to work in an environment free from any and all forms of harassment," the league said in a statement on its website.

"Washington has engaged outside counsel to conduct a thorough investigation into these allegations. The club has pledged that it will give its full cooperation to the investigator and we expect the club and all employees to do so.

"We will meet with the attorneys upon the conclusion of their investigation and take any action based on the findings."

The newspaper report said the harassment took place from 2006 through 2019 and led to the departure of three team employees in the past week.

Emily Applegate, the only woman among the 15 identified by the Post, said the club was indifferent when a female employee alleged she had been groped by a wealthy stadium suite holder.

She also said she was verbally abused by a former senior executive while being ordered to wear tight-fitting clothes during meetings with clients.

Applegate told the Post her time with the Redskins was "the most miserable experience of my life" and added, "we all tolerated it, because we knew if we complained -- and they reminded us of this -- there were 1,000 people out there who would take our job in a heartbeat."

New Washington coach Ron Rivera released a statement saying everyone needed to understand the team's policy against harassment moving forward, noting he had a personal stake in the matter.

"Biggest thing is that we have to move forward from this and make sure everybody understands we have policies that we will follow and that we have an open door policy with no retribution," Rivera said.

"Plus, my daughter works for the team and I sure as hell am not going to allow any of this."

The Redskins, who announced Monday they were dropping the controversial name following pressure from sponsors, said the review would "help the team set new employee standards for the future."


NFL calls allegations against Redskins officials ‘serious, disturbing and contrary’ to league’s values

The NFL said Friday that the allegations of sexual harassment and verbal abuse made by women against former officials of Washington’s team are “serious, disturbing and contrary to the NFL’s values.” The league indicated that it will consider potential disciplinary action after reviewing the findings of the outside investigation that was initiated Thursday by the team.

© John McDonnell/The Washington Post Daniel Snyder before a preseason game last August. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

The NFL’s response came in a written statement issued Friday morning after 15 former Redskins employees told The Washington Post in a report Thursday that they were sexually harassed during their time with the team.

“These matters as reported are serious, disturbing and contrary to the NFL’s values,” the league’s statement said. “Everyone in the NFL has the right to work in an environment free from any and all forms of harassment. Washington has engaged outside counsel to conduct a thorough investigation into these allegations. The club has pledged that it will give its full cooperation to the investigator and we expect the club and all employees to do so. We will meet with the attorneys upon the conclusion of their investigation and take any action based on the findings.”

The team said Thursday that it had hired D.C. attorney Beth Wilkinson and her firm, Wilkinson Walsh, “to conduct a thorough independent review of this entire matter and help the team set new employee standards for the future.”

The women’s allegations spanned from 2006 to 2019 and were made against Larry Michael, the team’s former senior vice president of content and its play-by-play announcer on its radio broadcasts; Alex Santos, the team’s former director of pro personnel; Richard Mann II, the team’s former assistant director of pro personnel; Dennis Greene, former president of business operations; and Mitch Gershman, former chief operating officer.

No women accused team owner Daniel Snyder or former team president Bruce Allen of inappropriate behavior. But some expressed skepticism that Snyder and Allen were unaware of the behavior. The women blamed the team for having an understaffed human resources department and said they viewed an environment of verbal abuse by top executives as contributing to the team’s inappropriate treatment of employees.

Santos and Mann were fired by the Redskins last weekend. Michael announced his retirement this week.

The individuals accused of misconduct also could be subject to potential discipline under the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

The NFL fined former Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson $2.75 million in 2018 after investigating claims of workplace misconduct against him. Richardson sold his team to David Tepper.

The team has announced plans to change its controversial name, long considered by some observers to be offensive to Native Americans. The allegations also come with Snyder’s minority ownership partners — Fred Smith, Dwight Schar and Robert Rothman — having hired an investment banking firm to attempt to sell their ownership shares. They own an estimated 40 percent of the team.

Beethoven Graphic Novel in the Works

Graeme McMillan 

© David Mack/Z2 Comics

Z2 Comics is continuing its line of music-themed graphic novel releases with a brand new project spotlighting one of the most acclaimed musicians and composers of all time, The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively reveal. Following books showcasing artists as diverse as Poppy, The Grateful Dead, and Charlie Parker, this November will see the release of Final Symphony: A Beethoven Anthology.

Produced in association with Universal Music Group, the graphic novel will retell Ludwig van Beethoven’s life story with a number of “world class artists” celebrating the main events with all-new illustrations, as per the publisher. The book will be released with an accompanying compilation of Beethoven’s music by Z2 and Deutsche Grammophon a month ahead of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in December.

“As one of the longest-standing record labels, Deutsche Grammophon has been celebrating Beethoven’s 250th anniversary this year with a number of projects, including the most comprehensive New Complete Edition of Beethoven’s Works ever issued and wonderful new releases with stars like Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma and Rudolf Buchbinder,” said Deutsche Grammophon VP of marketing Kleopatra Sofrioniou in a statement. “We are delighted to be encouraging the dialogue between the visual arts and classical music and hope that this exciting new project will open doors for comic book fans to discover the magic of Beethoven’s music.”

“Beethoven wrote some of the most universally recognizable pieces of music in the history of the planet,” added Z2 publisher Josh Frankel. “It is of course, incredibly exciting to publish the work of some of today’s well-known artists, but to have this chance to tell comic book stories from and inspired by the life of one of the most legendary artists of all time is humbling. We have done our very best to honor this by putting together what we believe will be an essential read for music lovers of all ages.”

Final Symphony: A Beethoven Anthology will be written by Brandon Montclare (Marvel’s Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Image Comics’ Rocket Girl), with David Mack (Cover, Daredevil) providing painted cover artwork, as seen above. The line-up of artists illustrating the book will be revealed at a later date.

FISHY TRIGGER STORY

Real or fake? This fish caught in Malaysia apparently has human teeth (Twitter/ @raff_nasir)

 If social media is to be believed, a fisherman in Malaysia recently made a catch with a surprisingly human-like set of chompers. 

A photo was posted to Twitter by user @raff_nasir on July 2 and it swiftly picked up viral fame as more and more people commented on the lips and teeth of this particular specimen.

 The beast has been identified as as a triggerfish by local media, of which there are 40 different types. Triggerfish are supposedly territorial and aggressive, charging at intruders and using those impressive teeth to battle with crabs and sea urchins, according to National Geographic.

'bibir dia lagi seksi dari aku 😭 pic.twitter.com/zzq8IPWzvD — RaffNasir• (@raff_nasir) July 2, 2020 Local reports identify the fish as a triggerfish (Twitter/ @raff_nasir)

 Locally, the odd-looking creature is known as ayam laut or ikan jebong, reports the Rakyat Post. 

It goes on to say the species is highly sought for the aquarium trade which leads to fishermen gathering the threatened species from the wild.

 We spoke to marine experts at the World Wildlife Fund which conformed the fish as a Blackpatch triggerfish (Rhinecathus verrucosus) because of its distinctive orange side-stripe. 

‘It’s a well-known species with a wide distribution from the Seyshelles to the Great Barrier Reef, which would include Malaysia,’ a spokesperson for the WWF told Metro.co.uk.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/07/16/no-fish-human-teeth-photo-isnt-real-12997585/?ito=cbshare