Women send powerful message in Olympic track and field
By EDDIE PELLS

August 8, 2021

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The United States team of Allyson Felix, Athing Mu, Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney Mclaughlin, from left, celebrate winning the gold medal in the final of the women's 4 x 400-meter relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)


TOKYO (AP) — They set records everyone saw coming and others that surprised the experts.

They suffered, and battled, and spoke their truth in ways that hadn’t been heard before.

Over nine days at the near-empty Olympic Stadium, the women of track and field delivered a memorable show, both inside the lines and out.

These are some of the athletes who defined the meet in Tokyo: Allyson Felix, Sydney McLaughlin, Sifan Hassan, Raven Saunders, Elaine Thompson-Herah.

Theirs was a sport in need of a good boost, not only because of the year-long delay sparked by the virus, but because no matter when they returned, Usain Bolt would no longer draw eyes to the track simply by showing up.

The women delivered — not so much with the feel-good, dance-a-minute vibe that Bolt brought, but with a series of inspiring performances and messages that showed the heart of their sport was still beating strong.

Some highlights included:

Gold medalist Sifan Hassan, of Netherlands, kisses her medal during the medal ceremony for the women's 10,000-meters at the 2020 Olympics. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

— Hassan and her unrelenting journey toward three medals — two gold and one bronze

 — in three of the longest races held on the track.

She started with gold in the 5,000 meters, then came back with bronze in the 1,500. She closed the show Saturday with a gold-medal run in the 10,000 — one in which her vision was so clouded by exhaustion that she admitted she could not see the finish line.

“I’m so happy,” she said after the odyssey — six races over eight nights covering 65 laps and 24 kilometers — was finally complete “I’m relieved. I’m finished. I can sleep.”

Sydney McLaughlin, of the United States, wins the women's 400-meter hurdles final at the 2020 Summer Olympics. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

— McLaughlin, whose back-and-forth duals in the 400-meter hurdles with U.S. teammate Dalilah Muhammad reached a crescendo at the Olympics.

It was a race that had been much-anticipated and all but preordained to again reset the world record that one or the other had broken in three previous showdowns.

And they lived up to the hype. McLaughlin lowered her own mark to 51.46 seconds. Just as impressively, Muhammad’s silver-medal time of 51.58 would have been a world record, too.

“I think it’s two athletes wanting to be their best,” McLaughlin said, “and knowing there’s another great girl who’s going to help you get there.”

— The sprinters were fast through the leadup to the Olympics, so it wasn’t all that surprising to see that pace keep going in Tokyo.

Elaine Thompson-Herah, of Jamaica, wins the final of the women's 200-meters at the 2020 Summer Olympics. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

But while most of the pre-Games buzz went to Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (100) and American Gabby Thomas (200), each of whom briefly staked their claim as the second-fastest women in history at their respective distances, it was Thompson-Herah who wound up there in the end.

After a slow start to the season because of an Achilles injury, Thompson-Herah swept the 100 and 200 sprints for the second straight time. One more like that and she’ll match Bolt.

She ran the 200 in 21.53 and set the Olympic record in the 100: 10.61 seconds. Though that record might not be the most formidable of the marks Florence Griffith Joyner set a generation ago, in 1988, it had been around every bit as long.

Flo Jo’s world records of 10.49 and 21.34 still stand. But for how long?

“By the Olympic finish, I’ll probably see what I’ve done,” said Thompson-Herah, who at 29, assures us she is not done yet. “At this moment, I’m just a normal girl.”

Raven Saunders, of the United States, poses with her silver medal on women's shot put at the 2020 Summer Olympics. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

— The story of Raven Saunders was inspiration for anyone who has been overlooked or left behind. The Black, gay American shot putter started wearing “Incredible Hulk” masks to the field — a way of projecting her fierce competitive spirit, but also a lighter side underneath.

After she received her silver medal, Saunders crossed her arms and formed an “X” on the medals stand. “The intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet,” she explained.

It was the sort of message many believe should not only be tolerated, but embraced, when Olympic athletes get their all-too-short time in the spotlight. The IOC, which after much debate and discussion over the past two years still chose to ban such demonstrations, said it would look into it. Any probe was set aside when Saunders’ mother died unexpectedly only hours after she won the medal.

— And Felix closed the show.

For five Olympics spanning 16 — make that 17 — years, she was epitome of class and speed. At 35 years old, she called it a career, but not without doing what she does better than any runner alive: Winning medals.

Her bronze in the 400 and gold in the 4x400 relay gave her 11. She now has more than any track athlete in history, save a Finnish distance runner, Paavo Nurmi, who won 12 between 1920 and 1928.

Felix has more to do. Since having her baby, Cammy, in 2018 she has transformed herself into one of the most outspoken advocates for women in sports.

“I feel like it’s definitely been a journey for me to get to the point where I guess I had the courage to do so,” Felix said.

She earned the platform with two decades of racing in which she won some, and lost some, and kept on coming back for more.

Now, it’s time to see who takes her place.

Earlier in the meet, someone asked Muhammad, the hurdler, what she thought about all this women’s dominance at the track - of America’s seven gold medals in track and field, they won five.

“Women do it better,” she quipped.

After watching them conquer records, overcome obstacles and make their messages heard over nine days and nights at the Olympic track, it was hard to say she was wrong.

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Russian rhythmic dynasty topples, Bulgaria gets the gold

By CLAIRE GALOFARO

August 8, 2021

Russian Olympic Committee's rhythmic gymnastics' team performs during the rhythmic gymnastics group all-around final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

TOKYO (AP) — The Russian rhythmic gymnastics juggernaut collapsed at the Tokyo Olympics, with dramatic back-to-back losses that sparked furious allegations of injustice in a sport famous for twinkling costumes, techno remixes and hoops looping through the air.

Russia had won every gold medal in rhythmic gymnastics since 2000. But it’s total defeat this year began Saturday, when Linoy Ashram of Israel won gold in the individual competition, edging out of a pair of Russian identical twins who were the favorites heading into Tokyo. Dina Averina placed second and her sister, Arina, fell to fourth.

In Sunday’s group competition, Russia tumbled again into second place, losing the gold to Bulgaria. Italy took the bronze medal.

“It’s so unreal, we cannot believe it. I don’t know what to say,” Bulgarian gymnast Stefani Kiryakova said. “This is the happiest moment ever.”

The rhythmic gymnastics group finals are a two-part competition for groups of five women. Part ballet, part gymnastics, part circus, the event begins with the teams dancing with balls, then moves on to a set of hoops and clubs.

Bulgaria pulled ahead after the first routine, performed to a lively Bulgarian folk song called “Water Cosmos Earth.” Their orange-red balls looked like fire as they soared through the air. The Russians performed to traditional opera in pink, blue and gold costumes that made them look like spinning toy dolls.

The group performances, each a spectacle of 2 1/2 minutes, are so packed with flying objects and women twisting and cartwheeling across each other it’s difficult for the untrained eye to comprehend its acrobatic intricacies. The gymnasts often move as perfect mirrors of each other, like synchronized swimmers without water.

Italy’s bronze medal-winning team is known as “the butterflies,” and gymnast Alessia Maurelli said they spend years learning to move as one.

“We are only one thing, only one person, only one butterfly,” she said.

In the second round of the group competition, the teams throw and catch three hoops and two pairs of clubs. Bulgaria performed in dazzling red corset-like costumes to the soundtrack from the ballet Spartacus. The gymnasts spun over each other with hoops around their ankles, windmilling them across the competition floor to be caught by teammates dozens of feet away.

The Russians hoped to pull ahead with a performance to another opera composition, spinning and throwing the hoops and clubs in perfect synchronization. At one point, three gymnasts bent at the waist, and their teammate rolled across their backs.

But as the scores appeared on the arena’s screen, the Russian gymnasts wept, one dropped her head into hands as the Bulgarians jumped in shocked triumph.

“We have very mixed emotions, of course there is joy but there is also sadness,” Russian gymnast Anastasiia Maksimova said after the competition, tears still in her eyes. “We competed at our maximum and we were fighting for our country, we were fighting for our individual gymnasts, we were fighting for our team, and we were fighting for our coaches. We did what we could.”

The reaction back home in Russia has been brutal. The country is barred from using its name, flag or anthem at the Olympics because of a doping scandal. Its athletes compete under the banner of ROC, short for Russian Olympic Committee.

Social media discussions have been full of allegations of a conspiracy to hurt Russia’s medal count and some lawmakers have weighed in with their own theories. Head coach Irina Viner-Usmanova told the RIA Novosti state news agency Sunday that “everyone understood perfectly well that this was meant to happen, that Russia’s hegemony had to be stopped.”

The very night an Israeli won the individual competition, ROC president Stanislav Pozdnyakov called on the International Gymnastics Federation to do an inquiry into the judging.

“Our staff and lawyers have already drawn up a request and sent it to the leadership of the International Gymnastics Federation,” Pozdnyakov wrote on Instagram Saturday.

Dina Averina, the 22-year-old gymnast who won the silver medal, also said shortly after the competition that she believed the judges had not been fair to her from the very start of the competition, when Ashram quickly took the lead. The post-Olympic photo she chose to post on her Instagram captures her in the moment she learned she’d lost, still in a bedazzled red leotard and a tight bun atop her head, standing with her arms crossed and her brow furrowed.

She later gave an emotional interview with sports broadcaster Match TV: “It hurts and it’s painful that there was unfair judging today,” she said, and noted that Ashram dropped her ribbon near the end of the competition, a major mistake in the sport. “I got through all of the disciplines more or less cleanly, properly, and came second. I’m hurt by the injustice, I support honest sport.”

Russian teammate Anastasia Bliznyuk, who performed as part of the five-woman group, also said after Sunday’s competition that they executed their difficult routine without any major mistakes, and usually when they do so, they win.

But not this time.

The winners who took home gold instead of the Russians said they felt like they were in a dream.

“It means everything,” Kiryakova said. “We put so much into these five years, so much work. We always believed we would be here, but it’s still so unreal.”

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AP Sports Writer James Ellingworth contributed to this report.

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Michigan  Court extends intimidation crime to Transgender's victims

DETROIT (AP) — A Michigan law that prohibits intimidation based on gender covers people who are transgender, the state Court of Appeals said Thursday.

The court ruled in the case of a transgender woman who was shot in the shoulder after being confronted by a man at a Detroit gas station.

The man “engaged in harassment and intimidation of the complainant based on her gender. He showed her a loaded gun and threatened to kill her, causing her to fear for her life,” judges Michael Gadola and James Redford said.

Michigan law makes it a crime to maliciously harass another person because of race, color, religion, gender or national origin. Physical contact is another factor to consider.

The alleged acts by Deonton Rogers were “gender-based within the ‘traditional’ understanding of that term, and harassing someone on the basis of their male gender — whether perceived or actual — falls within the prohibitions of the statute,” the court said.

Judge Deborah Servitto wrote a separate concurring opinion. The court reinstated an ethnic intimidation charge against Rogers.

“This is a huge win for the protection of the transgender community,” Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said.

Defense attorney David Cripps said he was reviewing the decision and considering his next steps.

Rogers had won an earlier ruling from the appeals court. But the Michigan Supreme Court told the court to take another look at the case, after a 2020 opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court about employment protections for gay and transgender individuals.

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Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez

US Black Baptist group renews historic calls for civil rights
By PETER SMITH

August 6, 2021

The Progressive National Baptist Convention this week marked the 60th anniversary of its forging in the heat of the civil rights movement, citing its founders as inspiring new calls for racial justice, against voter suppression and in favor of critical race theory.

The historically Black denomination held a virtual annual convention with a series of worship services, panel discussions and votes on policy resolutions.

It denounced voting restrictions approved in multiple Republican-led statehouses, comparing these efforts in a resolution to past suppression of the Black vote.

“There is not a voter fraud problem in the United States,” the resolution said, rebutting the justification often used for restrictive voting laws. “There is a voter suppression problem in the United States.”

The denomination also voiced support for critical race theory, which has been a target of religious and political conservatives.

The resolution disputed claims that the theory is even being taught in elementary and secondary schools, saying it is primarily a graduate-level topic.

But the resolution said the theory is valuable for focusing on how “systemic, institutional racism has been at work in every aspect of American life since before the nation was even formed.”

Another resolution called for passage of a long-pending bill in Congress that would require studying the issue of reparations for African Americans due to the impact of slavery and discrimination.

And a resolution declared that gentrification — in which poorer residents often are priced out of their neighborhoods after wealthier people and businesses move in — to amount to a “state of emergency in Black America which requires a righteous action agenda,” including private and government funding to counteract its impacts.

The convention, with churches across the United States, the Caribbean and other lands, was founded in 1961 in a split from the larger National Baptist Convention USA.

Founders included the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his supporters, who wanted their denomination to put its full support behind the civil rights movement.

The Progressive National Baptist Convention “was born … as a freedom-fighting movement,” said the Rev. Frederick Haynes, co-chair of its social justice commission and senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas. “It was born seeking justice.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

ORBAN FINE WITH FOX & FRIENDS

Hungary adds new restrictions on sale of LGBT-themed books

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s government on Friday ordered booksellers to place children’s books that depict homosexuality in “closed packaging,” the latest move in an escalating campaign that rights groups have decried as an assault on the LGBT community.

The order also forbids the public display of products that depict or promote gender deviating from sex at birth, and bans the sale of all books or media content that depict homosexuality or gender change within 200 meters (650 feet) of a school or church.

The decree came after Hungary’s parliament passed a law in June forbidding the display of homosexual content to minors, a move that was seen by critics of the country’s government as an attempt to stigmatize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Hungary’s right-wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, says the measures - which were attached to a law that allows tougher penalties for pedophilia - seek only to protect children.

But critics of the legislation compare it to Russia’s gay propaganda law of 2013, and say it conflates homosexuality with pedophilia as part of a campaign ploy to mobilize conservative voters ahead of elections next spring.

Many politicians in the European Union, of which Hungary is a member, have slammed the legislation. The executive Commission of the 27-nation bloc launched two separate legal proceedings against Hungary’s government in July over what it called infringements on LGBT rights.

The measures have some writers and booksellers in Hungary on edge, unsure if they would face prosecution if minors end up with books that contain plots, characters or information discussing sexual orientation or gender identity.

In July, authorities fined the distributor of a children’s book that features families headed by same-sex parents, arguing it contained “content which deviates from the norm.”

#ABOLISHSECONDAMENDMENT

Police pushback doesn’t stop conservative gun law rollback
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST

FILE - In this May 22, 2021, file photo a handgun from a collection of illegal guns is reviewed during a gun buyback event in Brooklyn, N.Y. Gun violence is on the rise across the country and law enforcement agencies are struggling with how to manage the spikes, especially in cities. The federal government has stepped in with strike forces and other measures help to stop the sale of illegal weapons. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, FIle)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The latest push to loosen gun laws in states across the U.S. has put police officers at odds with Republican lawmakers who usually trumpet support for law enforcement.

In states like Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana, police opposed pushes to drop requirements for people to get background checks and training before carrying handguns in public, plans that came as gun sales continued to shatter records during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We feel it was just another opportunity to get our officers hurt,” said Fabian Blache Jr., executive director of the Louisiana Chiefs of Police Association. “It was a danger to law enforcement.”

There, a last-ditch public plea by dozens of Louisiana law enforcement officers helped narrowly avert a push to override the Democratic governor’s veto of legislation dropping concealed-carry permit requirements. But he expects the proposal to come back next year, and in several other conservative-leaning states police opposition didn’t stop laws dropping permit requirements.

Gun violence is on the rise across the country and law enforcement agencies are struggling with how to manage the spikes, especially in cities. The federal government has stepped in with strike forces and other measures help to stop the sale of illegal weapons. Cops are already working at a disadvantage in many cities over forces winnowed by retirements and difficulty attracting new officers following the massive police protests in 2020, and many see looser gun laws as one more challenge.

Not knowing who might be carrying a gun heightens the potential danger in any encounter, and less required training means more people who don’t know how to properly handle a weapon, Blanche said.

“Police officers are trained around the country, and they make mistakes,” he said. “So why are we going to give opportunity to people who are not trained to be able to carry a firearm and use it at will?”

In Tennessee this year, warnings from police chiefs and sheriffs didn’t stop a push to drop permit requirements in the GOP-controlled state Legislature. That law passed months after another measure cracking down on protesters camping out for police reform, a vote that was framed as a support for law enforcement.

Though several polls have found public support for gun permits, arguments that they undermine Second Amendment rights have gained favor in conservative-leaning state governments in recent years.

“There is something of a disjunction between repeating the political slogan of ‘back the blue’ versus supporting policies that rank-and-file police and leaders of police organizations actually support,” said Robert Spitzer, a professor at The State University of New York-Cortland and author of “The Politics of Gun Control.”

Police opposition hasn’t stopped a push to drop permitting requirements that’s passed in about 20 states, Spitzer said. While their positions carry authority, they don’t have the ad campaigns and lobbyists that overtly political interests often do.

“Their voices and opinions have been known, but they haven’t been a real megaphone in public political terms because that puts them in a real bad spot. They’re public servants and their job is to enforce the law, no matter what the law is,” he said.

And permitless carry has supporters in law enforcement, including sheriffs, many of whom are in elected positions and oversee more rural areas. In Utah and Iowa, police groups were more divided generally stayed out of the debate this year.

Discussions about police reform dominated the conversation in Iowa, as well as how to stem the rise in violent crime, said Sam Hargadine, the Iowa Police Chiefs Association executive director. He doesn’t see the permit question as a big piece of the violent-crime discussion, especially since chiefs already couldn’t deny people permits.

“I think there’s extremes on both sides. But there’s got to be some compromises made, because we’re having far too many shootings,” he said.

Not all police oppose the legislation, and gun-rights advocates don’t see a conflict between combating crime and making it easier for people to carry firearms. They argue that people generally don’t get permits for guns used in violent crimes, so the change will make it easier for those who do follow the law to get a gun and many measures also tougher penalties for some gun crimes.

For Texas Republican James White, his party’s differing with the chiefs of the state’s largest cities on permit-less carry was part of the give-and-take of the legislative process.

“There were some things this session ... where we were consistent with where law enforcement would want to be, and there were sometimes that we just had to tell them we have to look a different direction,” said White, an outgoing state lawmaker now running for agriculture commissioner.

He also touted the stronger penalties contained in the law for felons who carry guns illegally. “It was a very strong on crime, tough on crime deal,” he said.

White argued the new law didn’t represent a massive shift in a state where guns were allowed in cars without permits and licenses weren’t required for long guns. Texas became the largest state to drop handgun licensing requirements this year, a move applauded by the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates.

Alan Gottlieb with the Second Amendment Foundation argued that policing is already inherently dangerous and dropping permits won’t make a big dent but will enhance gun rights. “I shouldn’t need a permit to exercise my constitutional rights,” he said.

Police opposition had helped keep the idea from gaining traction even in firearm-friendly Texas, but with a change in legislative leadership support swelled over the span of a few weeks this year. It passed over objections from survivors of the mass shooting that killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart two years ago.

“One thing I’ve learned in my many years of working with police is, you can rely on them to tell you what’s going to put the public at danger,” said Everytown For Gun Safety President John Feinblatt. “I think that what police know is that crime is rising around the country and this is the worst possible moment to pass laws like this.”

To shake hands or not? An age-old human gesture now in limbo

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE SECRET HANDSHAKE 

OF THE FREEMASONS?!

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

August 8, 2021

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In this July 28, 2021 photo, Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley greets wide receiver Mike Williams during practice at the NFL football team's training camp in Costa Mesa, Calif. As workers return to the office, friends reunite and more church services shift from Zoom to in person, this exact question is befuddling growing numbers of people: to shake or not to shake. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

In this July 28, 2021 photo, Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley greets wide receiver Mike Williams during practice at the NFL football team's training camp in Costa Mesa, Calif. As workers return to the office, friends reunite and more church services shift from Zoom to in person, this exact question is befuddling growing numbers of people: to shake or not to shake. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

As the pandemic took hold, a Kansas City-area meeting and event planning business began hawking “I Shake Hands” stickers to help ease awkward social encounters.

“We didn’t want the sticker to say, ‘We Don’t Shake Hands’ because that is kind of off-putting,” said John DeLeon, vice president of operations and sales at MTI Events, adding that the idea was that anti-shakers could simply choose not to wear one of the stickers. “But if someone had the sticker on in that group, then that was the indication that it was OK.”

Now, as workers return to the office, friends reunite and more church services shift from Zoom to in person, this exact question is befuddling growing numbers of people: to shake or not to shake?

The handshake has been around for centuries. A widely held belief is that it originated to prove to someone that a person was offering peace and not holding a hidden weapon. But hands can be germy — coated with fecal matter and E. coli.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, cautioned last year, “I don’t think we should ever shake hands ever again, to be honest with you.”

On the other side is Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University. He thinks the whole shaking controversy is overblown. The solution, he says, is simple: “If you are worried about COVID, the best way to make handshakes safe is to be fully vaccinated. And for any other things that might be on people’s hands, just wash your hands before you touch your face. That is what hand sanitizer is for.”

The greeting is almost instinctual and hard to deny. But remote workers who have been holed up in makeshift kitchen and bedroom offices have been denied it for months. Meetings, birthdays, retirement parties and even funerals have been shifted onto Zoom. The loss of connections has been heartbreaking, and the resurgence of the delta variant is raising fresh questions about the return to something resembling normal.

DeLeon isn’t sure the handshake is ever coming back. The stickers his company sold were never hot sellers. Other companies hawked signs and stickers that more firmly discouraged handshaking — including one featuring a skeleton hand and another covered with COVID-19 germs.

“I played golf with a guy the other day, who I had never met and we got along really well. And on the 18th green it is traditional that you stick your hand out and you take your hat off and you shake hands with who you played with,” he said. “And we just kind of stared at each other and fist-bumped and walked off.”

Not so fast, say etiquette experts and businesspeople like Dave McClain, 52, of Overland Park, Kansas. McClain recalls coming across one of the “I Shake Hands” stickers at a networking event and slapping it onto his shirt.

“You can make phone calls all you want and you can meet with people online via Zoom call but it is just not the same as being able to reach out your hand and shake their hand, look them in the eye and really establish that rapport,” he said.

Diane Gottsman, a national etiquette expert and author of “Modern Etiquette for a Better Life,” also doesn’t think the handshake will be a casualty of the pandemic but said to take it slowly.

“Don’t be the first to extend your hand, even if you are comfortable,” instructed Gottsman, who lives in San Antonio, Texas. “Watch the other person and allow them to extend their greeting of choice.”

Former President Donald Trump, a self-described germaphobe who has said publicly that he dislikes the custom and even described it as “barbaric,” faced criticism in the early days of the pandemic when he continued shaking hands.

The administration of President Joe Biden initially took a much more socially distanced approach to the pandemic. But following the relaxation of federal guidance on masks and more widespread availability of vaccines, handshakes and even hugs have returned.

Lizzie Post, the great-great-granddaughter of the late etiquette maven Emily Post, said the country is entering an awkward time similar to the start of the pandemic, when people were trying to evaluate how much others were socially distancing before getting close to them.

Now the question is whether family, friends and business associates are vaccinated. Her approach is to announce up front that she is, then ask bluntly whether a hug or handshake is desired.

She doesn’t think the handshake is going away.

“It is a really hard greeting to deny because it has been so ingrained since we were kids or young adults,” said Post, who lives in Burlington, Vermont. “And I see that being more powerful than the past year of not practicing it because for many people that past year also was spent just so not in contact with anyone they would shake a hand. It is not like you and your roommate shake hands every time you walk in the door.”

But she said that also is getting questions about how to ditch the shake on the podcast she produces with her cousin, Daniel Post Senning, called “Awesome Etiquette.”

“Our advice to them is to get comfortable with letting people know, because I think the rude thing to do would be to stand there and act like you are ignoring an outstretched hand,” she said. “If the outstretched hand comes to you and you do not want to shake hands, you want to acknowledge that by saying, ‘I actually don’t shake hands’ or ‘I am sorry that I don’t shake hands, but I am so pleased to meet you.’”

Business Law Southwest, which advises businesses in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, offered at the beginning of the pandemic to help create new workplace guidelines — such as a no-handshake policy. But there wasn’t interest, said Kristy Donahue, a company spokeswoman.

“At the end of the day, people crave human interaction and human touch, and you know that psychology experiment where they have the monkeys and there were some monkeys they never petted and some that they did. And the monkeys that weren’t being handled kind of withered away,” she said. “We haven’t evolved that much from there.”

 

China Urges US to End Embargo on Cuba

 Asian Countries - New

 

China has called on the United States to immediately and fully lift its sanctions and decades-long embargo against Cuba, and to stop making excuses to interfere in and destabilize the small Caribbean island.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, whose name was not mentioned, made the remarks in a statement on Wednesday, after the administration of US President Joe Biden announced so-called human rights sanctions against Cuba, targeting the country’s police force and two of its senior officials.

“China firmly opposes any move to arbitrarily impose unilateral sanctions and interfere in other countries’ internal affairs under the pretext of so-called ‘freedom,’ ‘human rights,’ and ‘democracy,’” the statement said.

“The recent US sanctions against [a] Cuban institution and officials severely violate the basic norms governing international relations and once again demonstrate to the world the typical US-style double standards and bullyism,” it added.

The US Treasury Department announced the sanctions on July 30, claiming they were in response to what it called the suppression of recent protests in Cuba.

The US sanctions targeted two Cuban police force leaders as well as the Cuban national police force. During a meeting with Cuban-American leaders at the White House, Biden said that there would be more sanctions, “unless there’s some drastic change in Cuba.”

Reacting, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the sanctions “coupled with disinformation and aggression, are used to justify the inhumane blockade of Cuba.”

Last month, protests erupted against the government of Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel as the country experienced its worst economic crisis in 30 years, with shortages of electricity and food exacerbated by the US embargo. Cuban leaders have held the decades-long US embargo responsible for the economic difficulties of the people.

The Chinese statement stressed, too, that it was the US economic, commercial, and financial blockade that was seriously hindering Cuba’s efforts to improve its economy and the livelihood of its population, and was trampling on the Cuban people’s right to subsistence and development.

“Enough with sanctions! The right way is to support,” it said.

The Chinese statement said that recently, several countries and international organizations had extended a helping hand to Cuba, aiding its government and people to fight the coronavirus pandemic and improve the livelihoods of its population.

It said China would continue to deepen friendly relations with Cuba and firmly support the island’s efforts to overcome the impact of the pandemic, promote economic development, and maintain social stability.

The recent US sanctions come as Cuba is also experiencing its toughest phase yet of the coronavirus pandemic. The Cuban government has reiterated that the US embargo is impeding its ability to purchase equipment and other supplies to deal with COVID-19.

  August 5, 2021 Source: Agencies

STALINISM UNMASKED

Belarus sees a year of fierce repression after disputed vote

By YURAS KARMANAU

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FILE - In this file photo made from video on Monday, Aug. 10, 2020, Alexander Taraikovsky is shot during a rally after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus. Alexander Taraikovsky died as protests swelled, a day after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's re-election to a sixth term in the Aug. 9, 2020. Authorities first claimed that Taraikovsky was killed when an explosive device he intended to throw at police blew up in his hands, but Associated Press video showed that he had no explosives when he fell to the ground. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov, File)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarusian authorities long ago removed the makeshift memorial to a protester shot by police at the start of last year’s massive protests against the country’s autocratic president, replacing flowers and placards with a garbage can.

Alexander Taraikovsky died as protests swelled, a day after President Alexander Lukashenko’s reelection to a sixth term in the Aug. 9, 2020, presidential vote that the opposition denounced as rigged. Police dispersed the peaceful demonstrators with rubber bullets, stun grenades and clubs in a stunningly brutal crackdown.

Lukashenko earned the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his relentless repression of dissent since taking the helm in 1994. But when last year’s protests presented him with an unprecedented challenge, he responded with an unusual ferociousness. That turned out to be the opening salvo in a year of intense repression, the most shocking example of which was the arrest of a journalist after his flight was forced to divert to Belarus.

Authorities first claimed that Taraikovsky, 34, was killed when an explosive device he intended to throw at police blew up in his hands, but Associated Press video showed that he had no explosives when he fell to the ground. Officials later acknowledged that Taraikovsky might have been killed by a rubber bullet. But they never opened an inquiry.

“It was a premeditated murder, but they don’t want to recognize it,” Taraikovsky’s partner, Elena German, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Minsk, Belarus’ capital.

“There is no law. We haven’t yet received a formal refusal to open a criminal case, so we can’t even appeal,” she said. “They didn’t even return the clothes Sasha (Taraikovsky) was wearing when he left home on that day.”

FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2020, file photo, Belarusian opposition supporters rally at Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko earned the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his relentless repression of dissent since taking the helm in 1994. was once called “Europe’s last dictator” in the West and has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years. But when massive protests that began last August presented him with an unprecedented challenge, he responded with exceptional force. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020 file photo, Belarusian opposition supporters light phones lights and wave an old Belarusian national flags during a protest rally in front of the government building at Independent Square in Minsk, Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko earned the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his relentless repression of dissent since taking the helm in 1994. was once called “Europe’s last dictator” in the West and has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years. But when massive protests that began last August presented him with an unprecedented challenge, he responded with exceptional force. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

Even as Belarusian authorities responded with mass arrests and beatings, peaceful demonstrations, some of which drew up to 200,000 people, continued for months. Eventually, relentless repressions — and winter weather — took their toll, and the protests withered. Opposition leaders have been either jailed or forced to leave the country, and authorities have moved methodically to stamp out any sign of dissent.

People were regularly arrested simply for putting the opposition’s red-and-white flag in their windows or even for dressing in red-and-white colors. In December, two people were handed two-year prison sentences for writing, “We will not forget!” on the pavement where Taraikovsky was killed.

“I think our main mistake was that we underestimated the cruelty of the regime,” Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main challenger to Lukashenko in last year’s election, told The Associated Press in an interview in Vilnius, Lithuania, earlier this week. “We believed maybe that if there were hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, the regime would at least hear people.”

The West has refused to recognize the election and sanctioned Belarusian officials it accuses of involvement in vote-rigging and the crackdown.

Western powers further ramped up pressure on Belarus after it diverted a passenger plane in May that was flying from Greece to Lithuania and ordered it to land in Minsk, where authorities arrested dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich.

Lukashenko alleged there was a bomb threat against the flight and that is why it was diverted. But the European Union called it air piracy and barred Belarusian carriers from its skies and cut imports of the country’s top commodities, including petroleum products and potash, a common fertilizer ingredient.

A furious Lukashenko retaliated by tossing an agreement with the EU on countering illegal migration. Officials in neighboring Lithuania accused Belarusian authorities of encouraging thousands of migrants, most of them from Iraq, to cross into its territory as part of their “hybrid war” against the West.

FILE - In this file photo made from video provided by the State TV and Radio Company of Belarus on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko armed with a Kalashnikov-type rifle near the Palace of Independence in Minsk, Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko earned the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his relentless repression of dissent since taking the helm in 1994. was once called “Europe’s last dictator” in the West and has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years. But when massive protests that began last August presented him with an unprecedented challenge, he responded with exceptional force. (State TV and Radio Company of Belarus via AP, File)

In the latest drama to seize the world’s attention, Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya fled to Poland this week, saying she feared reprisals back home after a dispute with her coaches at the Tokyo Games.

After a year of relentless repressions, public protests are nearly impossible to organize, but opposition leaders remain confident that Lukashenko’s rule is doomed.

“The system is rotten,” said Tsikhanouskaya, who left for Lithuania under pressure a day after last year’s election. “It’s already impossible to make this system monolithic again because so many people ... really want changes.”

Tsikhanouskaya suggested that the country’s growing isolation could help raise pressure on the country’s elite — and even make them join the cause against Lukashenko.

But some analysts cautioned that Lukashenko could hold out for some time.

“Western sanctions inflict significant pain on the Belarusian regime by hitting its economic foundation,” said Artyom Shraybman, head of Sense Analytics, an independent analysis firm. “But such regimes can exist in international isolation because they are capable of distributing whatever scarce resources they have to the benefit of armed services.”

“The goal behind the latest wave of repressions is to show the West that sanctions don’t work, and repressions against civil society will only escalate in response to sanctions,” argued Shraybman, who was forced to leave Belarus fearing arrest.

 

FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020 file photo, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko smiles after voting at a polling station during the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus. Lukashenko earned the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his relentless repression of dissent since taking the helm in 1994. was once called “Europe’s last dictator” in the West and has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years. But when massive protests that began last August presented him with an unprecedented challenge, he responded with exceptional force. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 10, 2020 file photo, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, candidate for the presidential elections, reacts during a news conference after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus. Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition candidate in last year's election who left for Lithuania under official pressure after the vote, acknowledged that the opposition underestimated the cruelty of Belarusian authorities, who responded to peaceful protests against vote-rigging with a brutal crackdown that has seen more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020 file photo, protesters give aid to a man injured by shrapnel from a smoke grenade during clashes with police after the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko earned the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his relentless repression of dissent since taking the helm in 1994. was once called “Europe’s last dictator” in the West and has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years. But when massive protests that began last August presented him with an unprecedented challenge, he responded with exceptional force. (AP Photo, File)

Indeed, Belarusian authorities in recent weeks have escalated their crackdown on independent journalists, civil society activists and others whom they consider disloyal or suspicious. Lukashenko denounced the activists as “bandits and foreign agents” and vowed to continue what he called a “mopping-up operation” against them.

A total of 29 Belarusian journalists are currently in custody, serving their sentence or awaiting trial. More than 50 NGOs are facing closure, including the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the biggest and most respected media organization in the country, and the Belarusian PEN Center, an association of writers led by Svetlana Alexievich, the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature.

Andrey Dynko, a journalist from the Nasha Niva online newspaper that was shut by authorities, spent 13 days in prison in gruesome conditions.

“I feel like I came back from the abyss,” Dynko told the AP in a telephone interview from Minsk. “I have an item that I cherish most now — a plastic bottle that I drank from, used to wash myself and slept on instead of a pillow for 13 days.”

German, Taraikovsky’s partner, said that she has “learned to be strong” over the past year but acknowledged that she has little hope and energy left.

FILE - In this Aug. 10, 2020, file photo, police officers kick a demonstrator during a mass protest following presidential election in Minsk, Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko earned the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his relentless repression of dissent since taking the helm in 1994. was once called “Europe’s last dictator” in the West and has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years. But when massive protests that began last August presented him with an unprecedented challenge, he responded with exceptional force. (AP Photo, File)

FILE In this Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020 file photo, a woman gestures in front of a riot police blockade during a protest in Minsk, Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko earned the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his relentless repression of dissent since taking the helm in 1994. was once called “Europe’s last dictator” in the West and has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years. But when massive protests that began last August presented him with an unprecedented challenge, he responded with exceptional force. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020 file photo, Opposition activist Nina Baginskaya, 73, center, struggles with police during a Belarusian opposition supporters rally at Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko earned the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his relentless repression of dissent since taking the helm in 1994. was once called “Europe’s last dictator” in the West and has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years. But when massive protests that began last August presented him with an unprecedented challenge, he responded with exceptional force. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

“Many of my acquaintances have gone abroad, and, frankly speaking, I have a similar desire,” said German, who has two daughters. “I don’t see any future for my children here, and I don’t want them to be educated through propaganda.”

Amid the growing Western pressure, Lukashenko has relied on political and financial support from Russia, Belarus’ main sponsor and ally. The Kremlin has provided Belarus with a $1.5 billion loan to keep its Soviet-style economy afloat and strongly condemned Western sanctions.

Independent analyst Valery Karbalevich said that while the Russian money has buttressed Lukashenko’s rule for now, the broad discontent smolders and could spill over at any moment.

“It’s quite obvious that Lukashenko has lost the support of the majority of the country’s urban population, and the protest sentiments were stifled by repressions but didn’t disappear,” Karbalevich said.

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Vladimir Isachenkov and Tanya Titova in Moscow and Liutauras Strimaitis in Vilnius, Lithuania contributed to this report.

Biden taps major donors for Argentina and Switzerland envoys
By AAMER MADHANI and BRIAN SLODYSKO

August 6, 2021

President Joe Biden waves as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, Aug. 6, 2021, as he heads to Wilmington, Del., for the weekend. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden is nominating two major Democratic donors to serve as ambassadors to Argentina and Switzerland.

The White House announced Friday that Biden has picked LGBT rights activist and philanthropist Scott Miller to serve as his administration’s envoy to Bern and trial lawyer Marc Stanley to serve in Buenos Aires. The U.S. ambassador to Switzerland also serves as the chief envoy to Liechtenstein.

Miller, a former account vice president at UBS Wealth Management in Denver, and his husband, Tim Gill, are prominent philanthropists and generous backers of Democratic candidates and causes.

Stanley, a prominent Dallas attorney, was chairman for the Lawyers for Biden arm of the 2020 campaign, recruiting lawyers across the country to donate legal services to the president’s run for the White House.

Miller and his husband have donated at least $3.6 million to Democratic candidates and causes since 2010. That includes $365,000 given to Biden’s general election fundraising effort, according to federal fundraising disclosures. Though they donated at least $1.1 million to support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid, they also gave $50,000 that election to a group called “Draft Biden,” which sought to get Biden to run in that year’s primary, the records show.

Stanley has contributed nearly $1 million since 2010, records show. That includes a $35,000 contribution made in April 2020 to Biden’s general election fundraising effort, as well an additional $5,600 max-out donation he gave to Biden’s Democratic primary bid in 2019.

Presidents often dispense prime ambassadorships as rewards to political allies and top donors. Those appointments often come with an expectation that the appointees can foot the bill for entertaining on behalf of the United States in pricey, high-profile capitals.

About 44% of Donald Trump’s ambassadorial appointments were political appointees, compared with 31% for Barack Obama and 32% for George W. Bush, according to the American Foreign Service Association. Biden hopes to keep political appointments to about 30% of ambassador picks, according to an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about internal discussions.

To be certain, most political appointees from the donor class, a small population that’s made up of predominantly white men, have historically had little impact on foreign policy.

Occasionally, such political appointees have caused headaches.

Trump’s appointees included hotelier and $1 million inaugural contributor Gordon Sondland, who served as chief envoy to the European Union. Sondland provided unflattering testimony about Trump during his first impeachment, which centered on allegations Trump sought help from Ukrainian authorities to undermine Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Sondland was later fired by Trump.

Other major donors to receive ambassadorial nominations from Biden include Denise Bauer (France and Monaco), David Cohen (Canada) and Cynthia Telles (Costa Rica).

The White House also announced Biden is nominating career senior foreign service officer David Gilmour to serve as ambassador to Equatorial Guinea. Gilmour has held a series of high-ranking State Department positions and is a former ambassador to Togo.

—

Slodysko reported from Washington.

Devastated by wildfires, Turkey’s beekeepers see grim future

By ZEYNEP BILGINSOY

Beekeeper Guven Karagol shows his burnt beehives in Kalemler village of Manavgat, Antalya, Turkey, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021. Turkey's wildfires have left little behind, turning green forests into ashen, barren hills. The destruction is intensely felt by Turkey's beekeepers, who have lost thousands of hives, the pine trees and the bugs their bees depend on, in a major blow to Turkey's honey industry. (Akif Yilmaz/IHA via AP)

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s wildfires have left little behind, turning green forests into ashen, barren hills. The destruction is being intensely felt by Turkey’s beekeepers, who have lost thousands of hives as well as the pine trees and the insects their bees depend on.

Twelve days of deadly wildfires have dealt a major blow to Turkey’s honey industry and even its longer term prospects appear bleak.

Nearly all of the residents of Osmaniye, a neighborhood in Turkey’s southwestern Mediterranean resort of Marmaris, are beekeepers. Their beehives once looked out to the green hills of Mugla province where Marmaris is located and provided the main income for many families.

Ali Kaya, 33, is second-generation beekeeper. After his father’s death, he took over the honey business his father had set up in 1979. Yet this week Kaya lost 250 hives in Osmaniye to the wildfires, as well as the entire ecosystem upon which his bees depend, so just buying new hives will not solve his economic woes.

He says the entire region is in shock.

“There is nothing left here, no trees left. Animals burned. Some people’s homes and roofs burned,” he said. “I have no idea what we’ll do. Our heads are all messed up, our mental outlook destroyed. We can’t think clearly here in Osmaniye.”

 

Beekeeper Guven Karagol shows the remains of his beehives in Kalemler village of Manavgat, Antalya, Turkey, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021. Turkey's wildfires have left little behind, turning green forests into ashen, barren hills. The destruction is intensely felt by Turkey's beekeepers, who have lost thousands of hives, the pine trees and the bugs their bees depend on, in a major blow to Turkey's honey industry. (Akif Yilmaz/IHA via AP)

Aug. 3, 2021 photo taken from a helicopter shows burnt forest near tourist resort of Marmaris, Mugla, Turkey. Turkey's wildfires have left little behind, turning green forests into ashen, barren hills. The destruction is intensely felt by Turkey's beekeepers, who have lost thousands of hives, the pine trees and the bugs their bees depend on, in a major blow to Turkey's honey industry. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)

The red pine trees endemic to Anatolia span the Taurus mountain system. They can be seen along Turkey’s coast from the eastern Mediterranean all the way to the northern Aegean Sea, including a great number around Mugla. The pines provide a welcoming habitat for scores of shrubs and make an ideal environment for bees.

Bees in Mugla produce a special pine-based honey. Unlike most of the honey in the world, which is created from the nectars of flowers, bees in Mugla collect the secretions of Marchalina hellenica, a scale insect that lives on pine trees and feeds on their sap. What they leave behind, the bees take to make a nutritious honey.

Wildfires in Turkey started on July 28 amid a ferocious heat wave and raged on for days across more than half of Turkey’s provinces. As of Sunday, some wildfires were still burning in the provinces of Mugla, Aydin and Isparta. At least eight people and countless animals have been killed. Villages and resorts had to be evacuated, with some people fleeing to beaches to be rescued by sea. The wildfires also threatened two coal-burning power plants.

The Turkish government has promised to rebuild the many burned homes and compensate villagers for their animals, along with providing other aid. But it has also been criticized for its lack of firefighting planes, poor planning and overall inability to stop the fires.


A new fire rages the forest in Senyayla village near near tourist resort of Marmaris, Mugla, Turkey, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021. Turkey's wildfires have left little behind, turning green forests into ashen, barren hills. The destruction is intensely felt by Turkey's beekeepers, who have lost thousands of hives, the pine trees and the bugs their bees depend on, in a major blow to Turkey's honey industry. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)

Samil Tuncay Bestoy, who heads the Environmental and Bee Protection Association, said hundreds of thousands of hives were saved purely by an accident of timing. Many nomadic beekeepers, including some from Mugla, each year move their hives to Turkey’s inland upper plains in the spring and come to Mugla from mid-August on for the pine trees. Those beehives were spared from burning but their whole production cycle has been shattered.

“Now they don’t have anywhere to come back to, there are no forests left,” said Bestoy, a beekeeper himself. “The bees and the beekeepers are waiting at the plains with no idea of what to do.”

Since they cannot remain on the plains for long because of their feeding needs, the association was working to find healthy, temporary forest locations in Mugla, which is already highly populated with hives.

It’s a short-term solution to save the bees but points to the need for the close coordination between the government, bee-keeping associations and beekeepers to chart the way forward. Workers may have to find new beekeeping routes or even jobs in other industries.

Even before the wildfires, Turkey’s beekeepers were already suffering from climate change, with droughts and high temperatures reducing the pine trees’ sap and killing the bugs.

“Beekeeping is a fundamental culture of Anatolia and we were already warning that we may lose it to the climate crisis. These fires have added fuel to that fire,” Bestoy said.

Further to the east, forests in Antalya’s Manavgat district were also incinerated. Beekeeper Guven Karagol had to leave his hives behind once those flames grew near.

“The fires came quickly and my beehives were burning, I could only watch. Six years of my work, this year’s labor, burned,” he told Turkish IHA news agency.

When he returned at daybreak after the fires, he saw some bees emerging and realized that 20 out of 100 hives had somehow survived.

“I thought I can’t do this in a completely blackened nature, my hopes were shattered.” he said. “These 20 hives gave me hope.”

The Turkish government has said that the burned forests would be reforested and groups have launched campaigns for saplings but many experts say the forests need to be left alone to regenerate.

Medine Yilmaz, another second-generation beekeeper in Osmaniye, also lost her hives and had spoken to Turkish officials who visited the area. She wanted the remaining trees to be allowed to stay upright to see if they could regenerate but she said authorities were planning on tearing down everything.

“We rose up as younger people and stopped the bulldozers. If they come again, I will lay down in front of them and not let them cut the trees,” she said.

Her husband, Yusuf, was devastated.

“I don’t care about the houses that burned. Our only sadness is that nature has disappeared, our only livelihood were these pines,” he said. “Homes will be rebuilt, wounds bandaged but nature will not heal for 70-80 years.”

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