After cutting off federal aid, Florida

Republicans are betting more people will return to low wage jobs

“These expanded unemployment benefits have been a lifeline for so many,” said Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Marcus Dixon.

JIM TURNER

 MAY 26, 2021 

PHOTO VIA DESANTIS/TWITTERFlorida Republican leaders touted the state’s economy Wednesday and said they expect businesses to boost hiring as additional federal unemployment benefits end in the coming weeks.

“We have emerged from the pandemic. At least, I feel like we've emerged from the pandemic,” state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said while appearing at the Florida Chamber of Commerce “Prosperity & Economic Opportunity Solution Summit” in Sarasota.

Separately, Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed to expected hiring this summer after the state announced Monday it will stop providing $300 a week in additional federal unemployment benefits on June 26. The additional benefits have been aimed at helping out-of-work people during the COVID-19 pandemic, but business owners, particularly in the restaurant and tourism industries, have bemoaned an inability to find workers.

DeSantis said the state Department of Economic Opportunity has 460,000 online job openings, but that number might be low.

“I think in reality it may be even more than that because once they can start filling those, I think some of these businesses can expand because of all the good things that are going on in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said while at Baker County Middle School to promote teacher bonuses in the new state budget.

“So, we're in a much different situation than we were a year ago,” DeSantis continued. “Fortunately for us, I mean, look, you'd rather the problem be too many job openings than not people able to get jobs. But we are back, I think, to where the economy is performing very well. There's a lot of job openings. And so, we can transition back to a pre-pandemic construct on that.”

But Democrats have criticized the DeSantis administration for planning to cut off the additional benefits. They contend that other factors are involved in some people not returning to jobs, including low wages, poor working conditions, a lack of child care and some industries not fully running.

“These expanded unemployment benefits have been a lifeline for so many,” Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Marcus Dixon said in a statement Wednesday. “They are the difference between being able to put food on the table and not, being able to buy diapers and not."

After the Department of Economic Opportunity announced the decision Monday to stop the additional benefits, Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Lighthouse Point, called the decision “inhumane” and said Florida has some of the lowest state unemployment benefits in the country.

“While they’re not saying it, the real message from Gov. DeSantis is that Floridians have to make a choice between substandard wages and living conditions or starvation,” Farmer said. “This is cruel, misinformed and not an acceptable attitude for any government to have towards its people.”

The state on Tuesday also will start requiring new unemployment applicants to follow a “work search” rule that requires claimants to apply for five jobs a week. The state suspended the work-search requirement last year because of the pandemic.

“It's important that we get our workforce back in place, and we continue to do right by the businesses that created this incredible state,” said Patronis, whose family has long operated a restaurant in Bay County.

The state announced last Friday that Florida’ s unemployment rate in April was 4.8 percent, up from 4.7 percent in March and reflecting 487,000 Floridians unemployed from a workforce of 10.24 million. While the unemployment rate has largely held steady since the start of the year, the new numbers indicated people employed increased by 59,000 from March to April, while the workforce grew by 73,000 in the same time.

Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Dane Eagle, speaking at Wednesday’s Florida Chamber event, said the changes in benefits should make landing jobs a little harder in the coming weeks.

“That competition is slow right now, but it's about to become very competitive in the workforce,” Eagle said. “We want to make sure that people coming through the door, through their own way, have been able to find the training they need to be able to service that business. And that that business can look to someone and have confidence that they're going to help serve them in their community.”

Florida pays a maximum of $275 a week in state benefits to unemployed people. Eagle has said people are taking advantage of the combined state and federal assistance, which is competitive with weekly pay at many restaurants and tourism businesses.

While Patronis and Eagle spoke of people and businesses moving to Florida from states that have maintained lockdowns during the pandemic, Patronis acknowledged almost $100 billion in federal relief has flowed into Florida over the past year, helping families avoid “catastrophic debt.”

NUTTER

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refuses to let cruise ships require vaccines

"There is a larger point, and I am confident we will win the case.”

NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
MAY 31, 2021 

PHOTO VIA CARNIVALGov. Ron DeSantis isn’t wavering from his anti-vaccination “passport” stance as a cruise line has received federal approval to set sail from a Florida port next month, if passengers and crew members are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, the governor maintained that Florida won’t exempt cruise lines from a new law, which goes into effect July 1, that imposes a fine of $5,000 for each customer asked to provide proof of a coronavirus vaccination.

DeSantis said he also expects the state to win its lawsuit challenging federal restrictions that have idled the cruise-ship industry throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are going to enforce Florida law,” DeSantis told reporters Friday at the LifeScience Logistics Distribution Center in Lakeland. “I mean, we have Florida law. We have laws that protect the people and the privacy of our citizens, and we are going to enforce it. In fact, I have no choice but to enforce it.”

DeSantis, who signed the “passport” bill into law on May 3, also said “we provided vaccine for a lot of their workers,” referring to the cruise industry. “Nobody has fought harder, not just for cruises, but the entire leisure and hospitality sector in this state in its history than me,” the Republican governor, who is seeking re-election to his post next year, said Friday.

Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group, has drawn approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and could begin operating out of Port Everglades by the end of June. The approval requires 100 percent of crew members and 95 percent of passengers to be vaccinated.

Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday has given state and federal attorneys until Tuesday to settle Florida’s lawsuit challenging the cruise restrictions. According to court documents, lawyers from both sides held a settlement conference on Thursday and are scheduled to meet again Tuesday.

DeSantis, a Yale Law School graduate, noted Friday the mediation process is currently underway. “You know, maybe there will be a resolution,” he said. “My view is, ultimately, we wanted to vindicate the state’s immediate interest with this. But there is a larger point, and I am confident we will win the case.”

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, backed by DeSantis, filed the lawsuit last month challenging the CDC restrictions.

The state pointed, in part, to the economic impact on Florida and contended the CDC overstepped its legal authority with the restrictions. U.S. Department of Justice attorneys have argued the federal government has long had authority to regulate ships to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and that Florida lacks legal “standing” to pursue the case.

 CBC The Current

'We will not go back to the dark age': Why students are risking their safety to shed light on Myanmar coup

Social Sharing

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Pinterest

• Reddit

• Li

• Email

American-run legal website JURIST helping disseminate students’ eyewitness accounts

CBC Radio · Posted: May 31, 2021 8:09 AM ET | Last Updated: May 31

Demonstrators hold signs depicting Myanmar's detained leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on Feb. 14. (Reuters)

The Current23:04Students are risking their safety to shed light on Myanmar coup

Read Story Transcript

A Burmese law student who is helping funnel information to the outside world, about the violence happening in Myanmar, says she's speaking out so future generations will have a chance at living in a democracy.

"If we cannot end this coup right now, [then] in the future — like in more decades and decades — we will still have to be fearful towards [the ruling military]," said Vincenzo, whose real name The Current is withholding because she fears for her safety.

"We cannot let that happen," she told Matt Galloway. "We have to fix everything right now and we have to fight for this. We have to fight for our voice."

Myanmar's military seized power from the country's democratically-elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the beginning of February, setting off a wave of protests and a violent crackdown by security forces. Since then, hundreds of protesters and bystanders have reportedly been killed, along with dozens of police and security forces members. 

We have to speak out so that we can end the situation as soon as possible.- Vincenzo, law student

Vincenzo echoed those reports, saying her days living in Myanmar are plagued by fear. People are afraid to go out because they might be shot by the military, she explained. Meanwhile, security forces are checking people's phones, looking for dissidents who they kidnap, torture and kill, she said.

Soldiers ride in military armoured vehicles in Myitkyina, Kachin state, on Feb. 3, two days after Myanmar's ousted leader Suu Kyi was detained in a military coup. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

That's why Vincenzo and other law students in Myanmar are sharing reports of what's happening on the ground with JURIST, an American-owned, online legal news service run by students from 29 law schools around the world.

"We have to let the world know. We have to ask for help," she said. "We have to speak out so that we can end the situation as soon as possible."

Getting the word out

JURIST started working with Burmese law students in February, as students began broadcasting "SOS" messages about what was happening during the coup, said Bernard Hibbitts, a University of Pittsburgh law professor, and JURIST's publisher and editor in chief.

Relying on technologies like WhatsApp, students would send real-time updates about protests, or offer their comments and analysis of the situation, said Hibbitts. Then, JURIST will feature that information on the reports on its website, or post videos and photos shared by students in Myanmar.

Bernard Hibbitts is a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and the publisher and editor in chief of JURIST, an American-owned, online legal news service. (Submitted by Bernard Hibbitts)

The website's general goal is to give law students a voice, Hibbitts said. In Myanmar, that goal is even more critical right now, he added, because the military takeover means students are losing their futures.

"I would literally get messages from my students … [saying] that we are sitting here, hiding in-house, because the police and soldiers have cracked down on our protests.

"Or they're telling me that there's some sort of battle going on in the street down the block, and they're carrying a body past my house right now," Hibbitts told Galloway. 

• Young males being disappeared by Myanmar security forces

"We desperately wanted to get that out, and we are continuing to get that out as we can, as it happens."

Students march during a protest against the military coup at Dagon University in Yangon on Feb. 5. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

'We have to win this,' says student

It's dangerous work for law students in Myanmar — who Hibbitts said are mostly women — to be sharing such information.

In the process of doing so, they've shown incredible bravery and dedication to the protection of human rights, he said.

• Myanmar authorities arrest country's best-known comedian amid ongoing crackdown

It's part of the reason he believes they'll "outwit the powers that be" in the long run.

For Vincenzo, that's the only option.

A man holds a National League for Democracy political party flag during a protest in Yangon on March 27. (Reuters)

"Sometimes I feel very sad and very fearful about what I have faced … but I have never lost the faith that we will win, and we have to win this," she said. 

That's how most young people in Myanmar feel, she added, because they have already experienced democracy and what it means to have their human rights protected.

• 'I am afraid,' says Myanmar protester hiding from armed military police outside his home

• 'This is a reign of terror': UN special rapporteur calls out Security Council for 'inaction' on Myanmar

"We have seen the daylight," she said. "We will not go back to the dark age again."

---

Written by Kirsten Fenn. Produced by Ines Colabrese.

Hear full episodes of The Current on CBC Listen, our free audio streaming service.

US Freedom Riders remember summer of change 60 years later

From May to November of 1961 more than 400 young activists, Black and white, boarded interstate buses headed for cities.

An unidentified white man sitting in front of a Greyhound bus to prevent it from leaving the station with load of Freedom Riders testing bus station segregation in the South, on May 15, 1961, in Anniston, Alabama [File: AP Photo]

By Simon Tate

AL JAZEERA
31 May 2021

Sixty years ago, a group of idealistic young people set out to challenge segregation in the southern United States. Among them were Lewis Zuchman, 19, and Luvaghn Brown, 16, who became friends during the Freedom Rides campaign in the summer of 1961. Now in their 70s, neither is sure of the details.

“I was the youngest white freedom rider, and Luvaghn was the youngest Black freedom rider,” Zuchman told Al Jazeera. “We met somehow.”

Brown said the pair met in Jackson, Mississippi but how they got to talking – “we can’t figure that out,” he laughed.

Luvaghn Brown, now in his 70s, was at the age of 16 the youngest Black freedom rider in 1961 [Simon Tate/Al Jazeera]

From May to November of that year, more than 400 young activists – Black and white – boarded interstate buses headed for cities in the US South. Their mission: to challenge the segregation that was still being enforced in Southern transit stations despite the Supreme Court ruling the previous year that the practice was unconstitutional.

The reception they received was hostile. The Freedom Riders, as they became known, were often met with fury by Southern whites. There were numerous incidents of mob violence in Alabama and Mississippi, often aided by local police forces. Even if they were lucky enough to avoid a beating, many activists spent weeks in prison.

Zuchman remembers that hatred vividly after his arrest shortly after arriving in Jackson, Mississippi.

“I remember I was shackled, walking along with other prisoners, and the judge, who had sentenced me, saw me and spat on me. The judge!” Zuchman said. “So you began to realise how frightening it was down there. This was not any America that we thought of.”

He spent 40 days at the notorious Parchman State Penitentiary in Mississippi.

“I remember the guy who would give out the food in the morning, who was a big white trustee with tattoos. And one day he said, ‘If it was up to me, I’d poison every one of you MFs.’ And trust me, for the next few days, we were very uptight about eating,” Zuchman added.

He was a long way from his hometown of New York City. Zuchman had been inspired to join the movement by his longtime baseball hero, Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play Major League Baseball. He saw Robinson on a TV show discussing the Freedom Rides and whether the campaign should end because of the violence.

“At the end of the show, (Robinson) said, with a tear coming down his face, ‘Look, if these young people feel this is the time for them to stand up, who are we to tell them not to?’ So I decided to volunteer to be a Freedom Rider the next day.”

Many of those who participated in the Freedom Rides were arrested and spent time in jail

‘Determined to put their lives on the line’

The young people who volunteered for the Freedom Rides were incredibly brave, according to Raymond Arsenault, Emeritus Professor of Southern History at the University of South Florida and author of the book, Freedom Riders: 1961 And The Struggle for Racial Justice.


“Essentially, they were daring the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists in the South to stop them,” Arsenault told Al Jazeera, ”They were determined to put their lives on the line, to sit where they were not supposed to sit on the bus and go to the wrong restrooms, sit at the wrong lunch counters in the terminals and force a confrontation.”


The campaign also forced the administration of then-President John F Kennedy to examine racism in the US at a time when it was more concerned about Cold War missiles than Mississippi.

A Freedom Rider bus went up in flames in May 1961 when a firebomb was tossed through a window near Anniston, Alabama. The bus, which was testing bus station segregation in the south, had stopped because of a flat tyre. Passengers escaped without serious injury [File: AP Photo] 

When he first heard about the early Freedom Rides, 16-year-old Brown was not interested.

“A lot of them were talking about non-violence and all this stuff. That didn’t appeal to me, quite frankly,” Brown told Al Jazeera, “I felt that in order to change things, you had to hurt people. That’s who I was then.”

Growing up Black in Jackson had made Brown an angry young man. He remembers how Emmett Till’s 1955 murder just up the road in Money when he was 10 years old had sent fear through his community, along with the realisation that “whites could kill anybody they wanted to and get away with it.”

Till, 14 and Black, was beaten and murdered by white men who thought he had spoken inappropriately to a white woman.

But as more rides came into Jackson, Brown began to change his mind.

“I thought it was just marvellous that people would come from all over,” he said. “They explained what the freedom rides were. I said that was cool. We should be doing something.”

Although Brown didn’t ride on the buses, he became very much part of the campaign in Jackson; defying segregation, organising boycotts, spending time in jail and finding himself in what he called scary situations.

“The Klan came after us one night with the help of the local police. And so we escaped by jumping off the roof of a building next to us,” Brown remembers. “The Klan came up the stairs, they were at the front door. We almost got killed.”

A white police officer standing beside a “white waiting room” sign posted outside the Greyhound bus terminal in McComb, Mississippi on November 2, 1961 [File: AP Photo]

‘I never thought we should quit’

Zuchman and Brown hung out a lot in Jackson that summer. And despite the enormous intimidation and the initially indifferent American public opinion, the two were determined to carry on.

“Did I think we’d make a difference? I didn’t know one way or the other,” said Zuchman, “But this was in my blood. I wouldn’t let people treat me that way.”

“I always thought we were right. And I thought we could change things by appealing to the conscience of America,” Brown said. “I never thought we should quit.”

Despite the risks, the Freedom Rides kept coming and eventually, public opinion started to turn. And as news of their mistreatment spread, it forced the Kennedy administration’s hand, according to Arsenault.

“Kennedy was going to his first summit meeting in Vienna with Nikita Khrushchev and he was getting embarrassed all over the front pages of the newspapers about this,” Arsenault said. “People who can’t even sit at the front of the bus, in the so-called land of freedom.”

The US federal government finally acted to ban segregation on the interstate bus network in November 1961, and Kennedy’s adoption of civil rights causes moved beyond the realpolitik of the Cold War.

“There’s no way in the world that John Kennedy ever would have gotten to the point in June of 1963 that he did, advocating for a full-scale, civil rights bill without the Freedom Riders,” said Arsenault

.

Lewis Zuchman, 79, still works to improve the lives of communities of colour [Simon Tate/Al Jazeera]

‘Attitude has a lot to do with what changes’

As for Zuchman and Brown, they still share their experiences, appearing together at events in prisons and schools, and before a new generation grappling with its own civil rights issues. So what advice do they have for today’s activists?

Brown, 76, recognises the desire of some young activists to use some of the more radical methods from his own youth, but these days, he urges a gentler approach.

“It could be as simple as putting your arm around somebody. That can be a revolutionary act, depending on where you are, depending on what they’re doing to that person,” Brown said. “So we try to make young people understand that attitude has a lot to do with what changes.”

At 79, Zuchman still works to improve the lives of communities of colour, as the executive director of Scan Harbor, a non-profit that supports disadvantaged children in New York. But he is reluctant to overstate the success of the Freedom Rides.

Martin Luther King Jr shaking hands with Paul Dietrich just before a bus of Freedom Riders left Montgomery, Alabama on May 24, 1961 [File: AP Photo]

“At our 50th anniversary, people would say to me, ‘Aren’t you proud of what was achieved?’ And I said, ‘No.’ We had some cosmetic success. But I’ve worked in the inner city ever since and I’ve only seen things get worse and worse for African American and Latino young people,” he explained.

But he does concede one victory: “I think the one special thing is it brought together young people – white, African American, male, female – throughout America. It was a unique moment where we came together as a country.”

Arsenault, however, says the effect of the Freedom Rides was enormous.

“It not only revolutionised the civil rights movement, but it changed the whole tenor of citizen politics in the sixties,” he said, “The Freedom Rides really become the template for all the other rights movements.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

WHO's new naming system for coronavirus variants uses Greek alphabet
By Jacqueline Howard, CNN
Mon May 31, 2021

(CNN)The World Health Organization said on Monday that it has assigned new "labels" to key coronavirus variants so the public can refer to them by letters of the Greek alphabet instead of where the variant was first detected.

For instance, WHO calls the "UK variant" (B.1.1.7) "Alpha," and the "South African variant" (B.1.351) is "Beta."

"No country should be stigmatized for detecting and reporting variants," Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for Covid-19 response, wrote in a Twitter post Monday.

Rather, a WHO expert panel recommends using Greek alphabet letters to refer to variants, "which will be easier and more practical to discussed by non-scientific audiences," WHO says on a new webpage on its website.

The P.1 variant, first detected in Brazil and designated a variant of concern in January, has been labeled "Gamma." The B.1.617.2 variant, first found in India and recently reclassified from a variant of interest to variant of concern, is "Delta." Variants of interest have been given labels from "Epsilon" to "Kappa."

All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, can mutate or change over time. This is what leads to variants.

WHO noted in Monday's announcement that the new labels do not replace existing scientific names for coronavirus variants. Scientific names will "continue to be used in research," Van Kerkhove tweeted.

"While they have their advantages, these scientific names can be difficult to say and recall, and are prone to misreporting. As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory," according to WHO's announcement.

Here's what's known about the coronavirus variants

It may also be incorrect, as there's evidence the mutations that mark at least some of the variants have arisen independently in several different places.
"To avoid this and to simplify public communications, WHO encourages national authorities, media outlets and others to adopt these new labels," WHO said. 

There are some concerns that WHO's new Greek alphabet naming system has come a little too late -- and now the system might make describing the variants even more complicated as there will be three potential names: their scientific name, references based on where a variant was first identified and now, WHO's Greek alphabet labeling.
"It would have been good to have thought about this nomenclature early," Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told CNN on Monday. He added that he thinks it will be difficult to now persuade people to start using the Greek alphabet labels.

"There's definitely issues with stigmatization where the variants are being described and then labeling them based on that country. We know that there's already backlash in India, regarding the Indian variant and people mentioning it that way," Adalja said. "So, I understand why it's happening. I think it's just a lot for people to think about this far down the line."

Snowden’s back: Spying scandal clouds EU-US ties ahead of Biden visit

Media reports allege Danish intelligence helped the US spy on top European politicians.

The report thrust Europeans back to the dark days of 2013, when whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed massive U.S. surveillance programs that included tapping the mobile phones of allied heads of state | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

BY LAURENS CERULUS AND HANS VON DER BURCHARD

POLITICO EU
May 31, 2021 

Joe Biden must feel like he's having flashbacks.

Two weeks before the U.S. president makes his first visit to Europe since being elected, Danish media reported the country's secret services helped American counterparts to eavesdrop on European leaders.

The report thrust Europeans back to the dark days of 2013, when whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed massive U.S. surveillance programs that included tapping the mobile phones of allied heads of state — including that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

At the time, it was then-President Barack Obama who had to have the awkward conversations with EU leaders about spying on allies. Now it will be up to his former vice president to reassure the Europeans as he heads to Cornwall, in the U.K., on June 11 for a G7 gathering where matters of transatlantic trust, cooperation and digital trade will be high up on the agenda.

The timing of Danish public broadcaster's report, which was reprinted by multiple European news outlets, could hardly be trickier for Biden.

Washington and Brussels are in the midst of negotiating a new transatlantic data transfer deal to replace a previous one that was knocked down by the EU's top court over concerns about U.S. spying. Monday's report is bound to sharpen the EU's focus on U.S. spying powers, legal limits and guarantees for Europeans' data, all of which the court ruled are lacking.

“If these revelations [of spying] are correct, I want to say it is not acceptable among allies, very clearly," said French President Emmanuel Macron at a briefing on Monday. "It is even less acceptable among allies and European partners, so I am attached to having ties between Americans and Europeans that are based on trust,” Macron said. “There’s no space between us for suspicion.”

Macron said his government has asked Denmark and the U.S. "to share all the information tied to this spying, and so we are waiting for their answers."

Merkel, who joined Macron virtually for the briefing, said: “We have already discussed these things a long time ago in connection with the NSA. Our position in relation to the investigation of the issues at that time has not changed. We rely on trusting relations and what was right then is right now. I was reassured by the fact that Denmark, too — the Danish government, the minister of defense — have made it very clear what they think of these things, and in this respect, I see a good basis not only for clearing up the facts but also for really establishing relations based on trust.”

Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen told DR, the broadcaster that broke the story, that “systematic interception of close allies is unacceptable.”

The NSA has declined to comment on the report.

The report alleges that Danish intelligence services lent their U.S. counterparts at the National Security Agency access to spy on top German, French, Norwegian and Swedish politicians through internet cables in Denmark. Merkel was reportedly among the targets, as well as leading German politicians including Peer Steinbrück, a former finance minister, and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Other unnamed, high-level officials had been surveilled in France, Norway and Sweden.

It also brings Snowden back onto center stage.

While the episode may be seen as water under the bridge in Washington, it isn’t even close to that in Europe.

Snowden’s revelations have led to major arguments over the security and privacy of Europeans — including the collapse of the Privacy Shield data transfer agreement and its predecessor Safe Harbor — and continue to poison transatlantic ties. Many of the key characters who navigated the 2013 episode are now back in play, including Biden, who was vice president at the time, and Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s digital chief, who was then part of Denmark’s government.

“Biden is well-prepared to answer for this when he soon visits Europe since, of course, he was deeply involved in this scandal the first time around,” Snowden said on Twitter Monday. He called for “an explicit requirement for full public disclosure not only from Denmark, but their senior partner as well.”
Butting heads in Europe

Germany “is in contact with all relevant national and international bodies for clarification,” said government spokesperson Steffen Seibert, but he declined to comment on intelligence matters. “The chancellor learned of the subject matter of this current investigation through the journalists' inquiry,” he said.

The European Commission said Vestager did not oversee intelligence services in her former role as interior minister in the Danish government, but did not say whether she was aware of the spying activities detailed in the report.

“She’s here as executive vice president in charge of digital and also competition policy. These are the subjects on which we are here to comment on her behalf. Not events related to functions that she may have had when she was in the government in Denmark,” said a Commission spokesperson.

It’s not the first time European intelligence agencies were found spying on each other.

The Snowden files detailed similar spying activities by the U.K.’s intelligence agency, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), on Belgium’s state-owned telecoms operator Belgacom in 2013. Belgian investigators concluded in 2018 the Brits were behind the hack, according to a report seen by local press.


Despite mounting evidence that allied countries spy on each other, there's no international law against this kind of spying for intelligence purposes, some lawmakers pointed out.

"Political espionage isn't prohibited by international law. That's the reality. It's not nice, it's not always decent — but there's no problem with it when you consider international law,” said Bart Groothuis, a Dutch MEP in charge of shepherding the Commission's new cybersecurity bill through Parliament.

Calling it a "bomb" undermining European cooperation, Groothuis said he'd "favor a clause in national intelligence legislation saying that, in principle, we don't spy on partner countries inside the EU."

How to stop the US being the US

The scandal comes at a time when the European Union is reviewing its data sharing relationship with the United States.

The European Commission is currently negotiating a new agreement to allow companies to transfer data from the EU to the U.S., while protecting privacy standards. The EU has tried to put pressure on the U.S. to review domestic intelligence legislation, including key instruments at the heart of Washington's surveillance activities in Europe, but it is unclear what the U.S. will do to assuage European concerns, if anything at all.

The Commission said the discussions on a data transfer deal were “very important” and that the EU has “intensified the negotiations with our U.S. partners.”

It also comes as the EU is revamping rules to better protect its infrastructure, government IT and essential public services from cyberattacks and intrusion campaigns.

That bill is largely written to counteract state-backed hacking groups in Russia and China. But the media reports’ revelations again show the U.S. is engaged in snooping activities that go to the heart of EU politics too.

"This is also a lesson to politicians: 'This happens,'” said Groothuis, the MEP. “The best way to protect your communication is to use secure tools that secure calls with proper encryption and hardware and endpoint security.”

Nicholas Vinocur, Rym Momtaz and Mark Scott contributed reporting.

UK speeds up granting asylum to Afghan interpreters, families as insecurity rising

May 31, 2021 
AT News
Afghanistan Times

KABUL: The UK is speeding up granting asylums to the thousands of Afghans who worked for the British military-mostly interpreters as fears grow of possible dangerous outcomes of post-international force exit.

UK Secretary of Defense, Ben Wallace said that it was “only right” to accelerate such plans due to interpreters being “at risk of reprisals” from the Taliban.

More than 3,000 Afghan workers will relocate in UK in next months.

“This is allowing people a route to the United Kingdom for safety, the people who supported the British armed forces and the British government over many, many years in Afghanistan who feel they are in danger and it’s absolutely right that we stand by those people,” Wallace said. “It’s my duty as Defense Secretary, I believe, to do the right thing by these people, and when they come here they will be supported and I very much hope that the British population also supports them, because these people have taken great risks very often to protect the men and women of our armed forces.”

More than 1,400 Afghans and their families have already relocated to the UK, and hundreds more have received funding for education and training.

The procedure of the applicant’s role have been changed as the earlier scheme had not eligible a large number of interpreters, but currently any of former locally employed staff member deemed to be under serious threats will be offered priority relocation in the UK.

This will be regardless of their employment status, role, rank or length of service, and the scheme will be open for applications even after British troops have left Afghanistan.

The arriving Afghans in UK will be offered help with housing and other essential needs, Wallace added.

“Following the decision to begin the withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan, the prime minister has agreed with the Ministry of Defense, Home Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to rapidly accelerate applications through the policy,” the UK government said in a statement.

The UK has around 750 troops in Afghanistan. The withdrawal of British military become under action after the U.S. President Joe Biden announced that he will pull all American Service Members out of Afghanistan by September 11.

UK to relocate thousands of more Afghans as troops pull out

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the move is "a moral obligation"

THE WEEK Web Desk May 31, 2021 

File: British soldiers with NATO-led Resolute Support Mission arrive at the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan | Reuters

The UK has announced that thousands more Afghans who worked for the British troops would be able to settle in the UK as troops pull out and fears for the safety of the Afghans grow.

The programme allowing Afghans who worked as interpreters for the British troops—The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy was launched this year and over 1,400 Afghans and their families have been relocated to the UK. Hundreds of the families received financial aid for education and training.

About 3,000 more Afghans, including those who worked for the British military and the UK government, mostly as interpreters, and family members are expected to be relocated to the UK.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said it was "only right" to accelerate plans to relocate the Afghans or they might “be at risk of reprisals” from the Taliban.

Wallace said, "This is allowing people a route to the United Kingdom for safety, the people who supported the British armed forces and the British government over many, many years in Afghanistan who feel they are in danger and it's absolutely right that we stand by those people.”

Earlier versions of the scheme limited the number of people who could be relocated, as they were being considered based on their specific roles and length of their service.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the move is "a moral obligation". “I'm pleased that we are meeting this fully, by providing them and their families the opportunity to build a new life in this country," Patel added.

Concern over the safety of the interpreters has been in the spotlight since the British forces ended combat operations in Helmand in 2014.

Logistics on how the Afghans would be flown out of the country along with the British troops will need to be worked out. The government will also need to liaise with local authorities on where and how to resettle the Afghans.

Wait, WHAT? One-THIRD of Americans Aren’t Convinced We Should Have Sent Troops — To Fight World War II

By Tommy Christopher

MEDIATE

May 29th, 2021, 

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A new poll timed to Memorial Day shows that a surprising number of Americans say that the United States may have made a mistake in sending troops to fight in World War II.

An Economist/YouGov poll out this week asked respondents “Do you think the United States made a mistake sending troops to fight in the following wars?”

As expected, there were significant divisions over conflicts like the Vietnam War, with 48 percent responding that “yes” it was a mistake to send troops there, and narrower divisions for recent Middle East conflicts like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And the decision to send troops to fight i World War II received more support than any other in the poll, but it was far from unanimous. A third of respondents said it either was a mistake to send troops to fight the Nazi-led Axis powers, or they weren’t sure if it was a mistake to contribute troops to the prevention of Nazi world domination.

While 68 percent said it wasn’t a mistake, 14 percent said it was, and an additional 18 percent weren’t sure. Skepticism was highest among respondents between the ages of 30 and 44, of whom a majority were either opposed to or unsure of sending troops to fight in WWII — 26% said it was a mistake and 25% were not sure.

Trudeau admits mass grave containing 215 Indigenous children is ‘not an isolated issue’

Indigenous leaders have called for investigations into every residential school site in the country

Graig Graziosi

THE INDEPENDENT

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the discovery of more than 200 children buried at a former Indigenous residential school was not an isolated incident.

The prime minister's comments were made on Monday as Indigenous leaders called for an inquiry into every former residential school site across the nation, the Associated Press reports.

The schools were used to house and educate children taken from Indigenous families throughout Canada.

A ground-penetrating radar was used to inspect a site at the Kamloops Indian Resident School - the largest in the country - where investigators discovered the remains of 215 children, some as young as three.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation from British Columbia described the revelation as "an unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented."

Recommended

Canada: Bodies at Indigenous school not isolated incident

Canada lowers flags to honor residential school children

Mr Trudeau said he was "appalled by the shameful policy that stole Indigenous children from their communities."

"Sadly, this is not an exception or an isolated incident," he said. ''We're not going to hide from that. We have to acknowledge the truth. Residential schools were a reality - a tragedy that existed here, in our country, and we have to own up to it. Kids were taken from their families, returned damaged or not returned at all."

The residential school system operated from the 19th century into the 1970's, during which more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attended the state-funded Christian schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society.

As part o the schooling, the children were forced to convert to Christianity and were not allowed to speak their native languages.

Many of the children reported being beaten and verbally abused, and an estimated 6,000 are believed to have died while attending the schools.

In 2008, the Canadian government apologised for the programme and admitted that sexual and physical abuse was rampant at the schools. Many students reported losing touch with their parents and ethnic customs while away from their families.

Leaders from Indigenous groups say that the abuse experienced by the children at these schools is a major contributing factor to the epidemic levels of alcoholism and drug use experienced on reservations.

The Canadian government set flags at half-staff to mourn the children who died, and Mr Trudeau said he will be conferring with ministers to determine further action to support the survivors of the schools.

Further investigations are planned at the Kamloops site. Forensics experts will be called in to identify and return the remains of the children to their families.

Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the opposition New Democrat party, called for an immediate debate in parliament over the discovery.

He said the discovery was "not a surprise" and that it was the "reality of residential schools."

"215 Indigenous kids were found in an unmarked mass grave," he said. ''Anytime we think about unmarked mass graves, we think about a distant country where a genocide has happened. This is not a distant country."

The Kamloops school was in operation between 1890 and 1969, when Canada's federal government took control of the school from the Catholic Church and used it as a day school until its permanent closure in 1978.

Tributes laid out for children buried at indigenous school site in Canada

Canada PM Trudeau says more help coming for Indian school survivors


A handout photo made available by the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba shows a gathering at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, Canada, in 1937. Photo by EPA-EFE/National Center for Truth and Reconciliation

May 31 (UPI) -- Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said Monday the government is considering additional support for the survivors of children who died over a span of decades at Indian residential schools.

Trudeau said during a news conference that he and his Cabinet are discussing the "next and further" steps to take after last week's discovery of the remains of 215 children buried at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.

"People are hurting and we must be there for the survivors," Trudeau said in Ottawa.

"Sadly, this is not an exception or an isolated incident," he added. "We're not going to hide from that. We have to acknowledge the truth. Residential schools were a reality, a tragedy that existed here, in our country, and we have to own up to it."

RELATED Remains of 215 children found buried at former Canadian residential school

The Tk'emlupste Secwépemc First Nation announced Thursday the remains had been found on the grounds of the former school with the help of a ground-penetrating radar specialist.

The Kamloops Indian Residential School at one point was the largest of 130 schools in Canada's Indian Affairs residential school system. It was operated by the Roman Catholic Church between 1890 and 1969, when the federal government took it over and ran it as a day school until its permanent closure in 1978.

More than 150,000 children were placed in the schools nationwide between the 1870s and 1996.

RELATED 'Missing and murdered:' Indigenous women at risk in U.S., Canada

Trudeau on Sunday ordered that flags on all federal buildings and on the Peace Tower of the Canadian Parliament building be flown at half-mast to honor the child victims.

The Canadian leader did not specify what forms the additional government help will take, but his government has come under pressure to do more to help the indigenous victims of the residential school program.

The Indian Residential School Survivors Society demanded that the federal government and the Roman Catholic Church take action.

RELATED Canadian PM Trudeau apologizes for past LGBT discrimination

Both need to put any recommendations "into action, such as healing, education, and continued cultural support for all those families adversely affected," organization chairman Bryon Joseph said in an issued statement.

A class-action settlement, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, was implemented in 2007, establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to facilitate reconciliation among former students, their families and their communities.

That commission released 94 recommendations six years ago, including six dealing with missing children and burial grounds. It called for the establishment of an online registry of residential school cemeteries, "including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children."

The government allocated $34 million in its 2019 budget to develop such a registry of residential school cemeteries, the CBC reported.

Nurses in Manitoba consider strike vote while dealing with mounting COVID cases, strained hospitals
Ian Froese 2 hrs ago

© Walther Bernal/CBC Darlene Jackson of the Manitoba Nurses Union said the union feels it has no choice but to consider a strike vote.

In a distressingmoment where Manitoba's hospitals have run out of room for the sickest among us, the province's nurses are considering a strike vote.

A vote does not mean a strike is imminent — and nurses must still provide care since they're deemed essential service providers, even if they choose to strike.

But the Manitoba Nurses Union feels they have no choice but to consider a strike vote, after more than four years with stagnant wages under an expired collective bargaining agreement.


"Most, if not all, of the employer's offers are predicated on publicity crisis management to disguise the government's disastrous dismantling of health care," president Darlene Jackson wrote in an email to MNU leaders on Friday, which was obtained by CBC News.

"The real life and direct front-line experience, based on concerns and solutions offered by nurses, are being dismissed. Leaving nurses and patients to continue to deal with the tragic aftermath of decisions that ignore reality."

She alleged the province still wants to shift nurses to different locations on a whim, rather than addressing critical staffing shortages by bolstering recruitment and retaining efforts.

'Political expediency' at heart of province's offers: MNU

"They offer ill-conceived half-measures based on political expediency rather than a sincere desire to address the dire needs in the health care system," Jackson said by email.

For months, the union has argued that staffing shortages are getting worse. The NDP obtained data through a freedom of information request that found a nursing vacancy rate in Winnipeg's health region of 16.7 per cent as of January, which is double what a previous health minister said was "normal."

On Monday, acting health minister Kelvin Goertzen said he saw the province's proposal differently. He said Manitoba is extending a "significant, long-term, competitive monetary offers."

"I think that that speaks well of the fact that we understand and value the work that nurses are doing, and we hope that there'll be an agreement reached," he said.

Neither Goertzen nor Jackson would share specifics of either party's offer.

In other negotiations with public sector workers, the province has demanded a two-year wage freeze. Goertzen wouldn't say if the government was asking to freeze the wages of nurses, but said he explained the province's offers are "a recognition of the value of nurses and that's recognized in a monetary way as well."
Incentives on the table

Goertzen said the province is looking at an incentive for those nurses who were particularly impacted by COVID-19.

In an interview, Jackson said the province's offer may help in the short-term, but it doesn't address the long-standing issues of failing to hire enough nurses — and keeping them.

"We have gone over the past five years from a chronic nursing shortage through an acute nursing shortage to we're now in a critical nursing shortage. We have more vacancies than we've ever had," she said.

"I recognize that we do need some short-term strategies, but we need to start playing the long game."

Once the pandemic's third wave subsides, there will be thousands of overdue surgeries, said Jackson, who worries that nurses won't experience a respite from their workload any time soon.

She disagreed with Goertzen's assessment that the province is offering a significant and competitive offer.

"If the government and the employers believe what they've put on the table is adequate, then I will have to respectfully disagree with them."

Goertzen said he's optimistic a strike will be avoided and he encourages both sides to reach a fair agreement.

Earlier this month, MNU cancelled a negotiation session with management, after describing the latest employer proposals as "far too disturbing" to "even consider."

The union said it has offered binding arbitration to come to an agreement, but management has refused so far.