Cancel Student Loan Debt; Bail Out Regular People

BY ROBERT ALVAREZ

COUNTERPUNCH

 MAY 27, 2022
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I borrowed money to pay for college. Like 45 million other Americans who did the same, I owe student loan debt.

My generation was sold a pipe dream about what a degree could mean for our future. I wanted so badly for this dream to come true that I leapt at the opportunity to take out loans.

What I didn’t know then was just how much the cost of higher education was soaring — and that colleges were hiking prices to take advantage of the federal government’s willingness to help poor and low-income students like me cover tuition.

I remember talking to my college counselor about how she paid $240 a year to attend one of the best universities in my home state. Since my counselor attended college, inflation has risen 645 percent. Meanwhile, tuition at the college she attended has risen 11,820 percent.

If you ask earlier generations how they paid for college, they say things like “I worked a part-time job after school.” Yeah, I did that, too. You know what that money went toward? Rent, gas, and bills. My McDonald’s job was barely enough to keep me afloat, let alone pay for my tuition and other expenses.

It was either take out student loans or drop out of college. I chose not to drop out.

I graduated and eventually got a job in my field. But with the rising cost of housing and everything else, that loan debt, which is already inflated by skyrocketing college costs, now feels suffocating. It prevents me from qualifying for a good mortgage loan and makes me second guess whether I can afford to have children.

My loan is just a tiny fraction of the national student loan debt. The $1.7 trillion student loan borrowers owe is a massive policy problem affecting everything from housing to the job market to retirement savings and so much more.

That’s why there’s a growing movement calling on the federal government to cancel some or all of this debt.

If the federal government canceled $50,000 worth of student loans, it would give 36 million borrowers a new lease on life. It could enable them to buy a house, start a family, or open a business.

I know it sounds like a radical idea to cancel up to $50,000 worth of student loan debt. It’s not.

If you’ll remember, former president Donald Trump and the Republican Party passed a $1.9 trillion, high-end tax cut in 2017 that’s been called “socialism for the rich.” It led to billionaires paying a lower average tax rate than the working class for the first time in U.S. history, and is directly responsible for corporate tax revenues plunging to near record lows.

That sounds a lot more radical to me than helping regular people. Even writing off every penny of student debt would cost less than Trump’s tax cuts for corporations and the rich.

President Biden has expressed interest in forgiving some student loan debt, although he’s indicated he may not cancel more than $10,000.

I’d welcome any amount being knocked off my loan. But I fear if Biden cancels only $10,000, he would fumble an enormous opportunity to improve millions of lives and give the economy a desperately needed shot in the arm.

The precedent is there. The U.S. has a long history of economic bailouts dating back to 1792.

The benefits are there. Studies show forgiving student loan debt would create jobs, grow the economy, and have the added benefits of helping to narrow the racial and gender wealth gaps.

And, importantly, student debt forgiveness has broad public support, including among people without a college degree and without student loan debt, as well as young people.

It’s time for the federal government to bail the people out. It’s time to cancel student loans.

He Fought For truth and the Freedom to Publish — Now We Must Fight to Save Him

BY KAREN SHARPEFacebook

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I’m speaking, of course, of Julian Assange, the founder and publisher of WikiLeaks, who is languishing in a high-security London prison awaiting a ruling to determine whether he will be extradited to the US to ultimately spend the rest of his days in a supermax prison, never to be heard from again.

Julian is a pioneering journalist, publisher, author. As a journalist he has received some of the highest awards in the field; as a publisher he devised an ingenious system whereby whistleblowers could anonymously submit information about war crimes, crimes against humanity, corruption, and much more, that WikiLeaks published for all to read and use; as an author he wrote books, blogs, essays that reveal his perspicacity and prescience, his polymathic interests, and his humanism. He is also an ardent crusader for peace and justice who has been nominated eight times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

If an Australian journalist who was never under US jurisdiction can be dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he had been granted asylum and locked up in a British prison awaiting a decision as to whether he will be extradited to the US to face charges under the specious Espionage Act, then can anyone whose words may displease the status quo be safe anywhere in the world?

Following three court hearings Julian’s fate is now in the hands of British Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is to decide within the next week if Julian will be extradited. His crime? To have practiced true journalism in uncovering and publishing meticulously documented evidence of war crimes, corruption, illegal government surveillance and hacking, among a multitude of malfeasances.

In the current case the charges under the Espionage Act relate to 2010 WikiLeaks releases found in the Afghan War Diary, which contains more than 90,000 precise and often gruesome reports of the US military’s deadly actions, and the Iraq War Logs, nearly 400,000 US Army field reports that reveal war crimes and the true number of civilians killed, a part of which is the much-viewed Collateral Murder video.

In all, WikiLeaks has published some 10 million documents and associated analyses, which also include Cablegate, which consists of more than 251,000 US diplomatic cables showing numerous consequential scandals around the world, and the Spy Files, showing the industrialization of global mass surveillance, and much more.

Despite the massive number and variety of WikiLeaks documents, nothing has ever been found to be inaccurate. What writers, journalists, publishers can say the same, and presumably for an infinitely smaller body of work?

A note of biting irony: the perpetrators of the crimes revealed by WikiLeaks have never been charged, while the person who published documentation about them is struggling to stay safe and sane in near-total isolation in Belmarsh Prison, notoriously referred to as Britain’s Guantanamo, the reference being the subject of thousands of WikiLeaks documents comprising the Guantanamo Files, which reveal the routine torture and abuse of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

Increasingly groups and individuals all over the world have been demanding that Julian’s extradition be dropped and that he be freed. From journalists’ groups to human rights organizations, from elected officials to a Nobel laureate, tens of thousands of people have written and signed petitions to Priti Patel calling on her to block the case.

While pressure can’t be put on judges to make the right decisions, Patel is a politician, and thus subject to voter confirmation or repudiation. As WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnnson told Joe Lauria of Consortium News: “For the first time [Julian’s case] is in the hands of a politician, and Priti Patel, if she wants to think about her legacy … should do the right thing.”

He added, “I’m hoping this is something that will be taken up in the Cabinet here [in London]. Let’s not forget that Boris Johnson was a journalist. He was part of the media community and should have better understanding of this case than many others.”

Dunja Mijatovic, the human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, also has grave concerns about the case against Julian, as enumerated in a letter to Patel. She said: “It is my view that the indictment by the United States against Mr. Assange raises important questions about the protection of those that publish classified information in the public interest, including information that exposes human rights violations. The broad and vague nature of the allegations against Mr. Assange, and of the offenses listed in the indictment, are troubling, as many of them concern activities at the core of investigative journalism in Europe and beyond.

“Consequently, allowing Mr. Assange’s extradition on this basis would have a chilling effect on media freedom, and could ultimately hamper the press in performing its task as purveyor of information and public watchdog in democratic societies.”

Amnesty International expressed similar concerns: “If the Home Secretary certifies the US request to extradite Julian Assange, it will violate the prohibition against torture and set an alarming precedent for publishers and journalists around the world. … If the UK government allows a foreign country to exercise extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction to prosecute a person publishing from the UK, other governments could use the same legal apparatus to imprison journalists and silence the press far beyond the borders of their own countries.”

Censorship in the US is at a frightening level, and incarcerating journalists in high-security prisons and even assassinating them (an act the CIA contemplated against Julian, per a Yahoo News investigative article, and a regular practice in many countries), is an eminently effective form of total censorship. The murdered or imprisoned person is forever silenced, and other journalists get the message.

But it’s not too late to do everything we can to try to free Julian, whose life has become even more precarious in Belmarsh as his health has steadily declined, even resulting in his having suffered a mini stroke.

While Julian’s voice has, for now, been silenced, ours can still be heard, so we must all speak out loudly and clearly wherever and however we can to denounce the illegal and inhumane treatment of the foremost champion of justice, accountability, freedom of expression, whose unceasing persecution reveals serious consequences for all who seek to speak and publish the truth. We must demand that the extradition be dropped and that Julian be freed.

As Julian has said, “I am unbroken, literally surrounded by murderers, but the days when I could read and speak and organize to defend myself, my ideals, and my people are over until I am free. Everyone else must take my place.”

Karen Sharpe is the editor of Julian Assange in His Own Words, OR Books 2021, which has been translated into French (Julian Assange Parle, Investig’Action), and into Spanish (Julian Assange Habla, El Viejo Topo).

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Should Be Fully

Investigated, Not Congratulated

BY YOKO LIRIANO, MARY OCHS AND JOHN WITECKFacebook

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It is truly disappointing that President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken congratulated Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as the winner of the presidential election of the Philippines. Really? Despite the fact the election remains in question due to massive reports of violence, cheating, fraud, disinformation, massive vote-buying and disenfranchisement, these congratulatory messages are not only premature, but inappropriate.

They are dismissive of widespread concerns about irregularities and voter disenfranchisement. As just one of the many serious, documented, troubling examples, election observers have documented that more than 1,800 voting machines malfunctioned or failed affecting at least 1.1 million voters.

The U.S. government’s acceptance of these fraudulent Philippine election results is a slap in the face of the many victims of the numerous human rights violations, murders and massive corruption under the prior Marcos dictatorship and the current Rodrigo Duterte regime. Rather than acknowledge the impacts of such an election on the many who have suffered human rights abuses in the Philippines, the Biden administration rushed to congratulate Marcos Jr.

The first congratulatory calls to Marcos Jr. came from the U.S. and China. The U.S. is vying to position itself to maintain military and economic influence in the Philippines over China. This is another instance in which foreign powers place the Philippines in the crosshairs of a new cold war.

The Biden administration’s response to this election aligns with its previous responses to the Duterte regime. While Biden has said he would make human rights the center of his foreign policy, he has unabashedly continued substantial military support to the Duterte government and has not reacted against or even commented about the numerous well-documented human rights atrocities in the Philippines.

While the U.S. State Department created a report on the Philippines with damning evidence of the crimes of Duterte, the U.S. government’s congratulatory message to Marcos Jr. and vice president candidate Sara Duterte shows the administration is kow-towing to the protests of the Philippine government against the U.S. State Department report.

We should not forget that Marcos Jr. is being held in contempt of court in the United States for “contumacious conduct causing direct harm to [a class of human rights victims].” Marcos Jr. has so far evaded paying the amount, more than $353 million, ordered by the U.S. federal court.

As in the case of Duterte, the U.S. is overlooking legality and justice for human rights violations in order to position itself militarily and economically in the Asia Pacific region. While Marcos Jr. may seek immunity as a sitting head of state, his case from 1992 should not be ignored or dismissed.

The members of the Hawaii Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines say “NO” to the Marcos- Duterte administration and “never again to martial law.” We call on our congressional representatives to co-sponsor the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA). This act would prohibit our U.S. tax dollars from being used to support the operations and equipment of the Philippine military and police until the deplorable human rights violations and killings in the Philippines cease.

We call on Hawaii’s people to support the call for an independent investigation of the recent Philippine elections and to urge our Hawaii congressional representatives to sponsor and vote for the PHRA.

This oped originally appeared in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Yoko Liriano and Mary Ochs co-chair the Hawaii Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (HICHRP);  John Witeck is an HICHRP member.

Indonesian daredevil ‘Princess of the Wall of Death’ defies gravity and stereotypes

Karmila Purba is among a handful of women that perform a motorbike stunt zipping around horizontally inside a wooden cylinder called Satan’s Barrel

The 23-year-old says she ‘wanted to be something different’ as, with a smile on her face, she delights onlookers at the carnival attraction

Agence France-Presse
Published: 27 May, 2022

Daredevil Karmila Purba rides the Wall of Death at a night carnival in Bogor, Indonesia. Photo: AFP

Karmila Purba revs her motorbike under the lights of an Indonesian night carnival and rides up horizontally inside a wooden cylinder called Satan’s Barrel, drawing gasps from spectators looking down into the drum.

With a smile on her face, Purba delights onlookers as she fearlessly pings around the bowl in Bogor, West Java, spreading her arms to collect tips waved by those above.

The gravity-defying daredevil is among a handful of women that perform the stunt in Indonesia, zipping around a structure more commonly known as the “Wall of Death”.

Women becoming “Wall of Death” riders is “extremely rare”, the 23-year-old said before the show. “When I started there was no one else … so I wanted to be something different, doing something that no one else was doing.”

For decades, the Satan’s Barrel – or Tong Setan – has been the main attraction at travelling funfairs in Indonesia, particularly in rural areas where there are few options for affordable entertainment.

Indonesian stuntwoman rolls over stereotypes in 'Wall of Death' motorbike show

Using centrifugal force, riders sling their bikes around the motordrome at high speeds without protective gear as the smell of rubber fills the air.

Purba came from humble beginnings, earning a meagre living as a street busker on the island of Sumatra in Western Indonesia before switching jobs eight years ago for a better income of around 6 million rupiah (US$410) a month. She can also earn up to 400,000 rupiah (US$27) in tips on a good day.

At the beginning of her daredevil journey, she faced questions about her career choice. “People were saying to me, ‘you are a woman, why do you do something like that? It’s not for females’,” she said. “There was a lot of criticism.”

Fans eventually began to praise Purba, giving her the nickname “the Princess of the Wall of Death”. Now she is one of the star acts in the carnival.

“(A) female wall of death rider is very interesting and has become the main attraction in this night market because people are curious,” spectator Sumarno said while watching the show.

“They didn’t believe a woman could do something extreme like that.”

WHEN I WOULD GO TO THE EDMONTON EXHIBITION I ALWAYS TRIED TO TAKE IN THIS SHOW WHEN IT TRAVELED WITH THE FAIR

UK
New £400 and £650 payments unveiled as Chancellor Rishi Sunak U-turns on windfall tax

The Government has U-turned on a windfall tax


By Lizzy Buchan
Joseph Locker

Digital News Correspondent

26 MAY 2022
NEWS

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced every UK household is to get a £400 discount on their energy bills this autumn. Benefit claimants will also get an additional £650 to help with the cost of living as the chancellor U-turns on a windfall tax on oil and gas firms.

The Conservative chancellor unveiled the new plans amid serious concern millions will be plunged into financial hardship as inflation soars, with the Labour opposition repeatedly calling for a windfall tax on energy giants which have been raking in record profits. Energy regulator Ofgem announced the price cap for bills would rise again to £2,800 by October this year, up from £1,277 the same month a year ago.

New measures from the chancellor come in response to this recent news and are set to be very costly for the treasury, even with the cash raised through the 25% windfall tax on oil and gas firms' profits. Local Labour MPs and councillors across Nottinghamshire, as well as those nationally, had been calling for such a tax for weeks, but the Conservative Government had so far refused.

The Mirror reports Mr Sunak announced the loan of £200 would increase to £400 for all households, and would no longer be repayable, as part of a package to help with the spiralling cost of living crisis. In a statement to MPs on May 26 Mr Sunak also said over eight million households on means-tested benefits will receive a one-off £650 payment, made in two lump sums, with one in July and one in the autumn.

Pensioner households who receive the winter fuel allowance will also get an additional £300 one-off payment and people who receive non-means tested disability payments will get an extra £150. Speaking of energy firms' profits he said he was "sympathetic to the argument to tax those profits fairly" and announced a "temporary targeted energy profits levy" which will be phased out when oil and gas prices return to normal levels.

He describes the windfall tax as a “new investment allowance” to incentivise the reinvestment of profits by fossil fuel giants. Mr Sunak told MPs: "This government will never sit idly by whilst there is a risk that some people in our country might be set so far back they might never recover.

"This is simply unacceptable. And we will never allow it to happen."

Most vulnerable households in UK to receive £1,200 to cope with rising costs

Households will receive a £400 discount on their energy bills from October said Chancellor Rishi Sunak

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak attends a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street on May 24, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Daniel Leal – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

By: Pramod Thomas
26 May, 2022

MOST vulnerable households in UK will receive at least £1,200 this year, including a new one-off £650 cost of living payment, as part of targeted government support to help with the rising cost of living crisis, it was announced on Thursday (26).

British chancellor Rishi Sunak also announced a 25 per cent windfall tax on oil and gas producers’ profits, alongside a £15 billion package for households struggling to meet soaring energy bills.

According to the statement, more than 8 million low-income households will get the benefit of the new funding including the £150 council tax rebate that many families received last month. Besides, separate one-off payments of £300 to pensioner households and £150 to individuals receiving disability benefits were also announced.

Sunak also announced that households will receive a £400 discount on their energy bills from October as the discount will be doubled from £200 to £400.

The chancellor also announced a £500 million increase for the Household Support Fund, delivered by Local Authorities, extending it from October until March 2023.

Customers queue to enter a Stone Island shop in London on May 12, 2022. 

(Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

“We know that people are facing challenges with the cost of living and that is why today I’m stepping in with further support to help with rising energy bills. We have a collective responsibility to help those who are paying the highest price for the high inflation we face. That is why I’m targeting this significant support to millions of the most vulnerable people in our society. I said we would stand by people and that is what this support does today,” Sunak said.

“It is also right that those companies making extraordinary profits on the back of record global oil and gas prices contribute towards this. That is why I’m introducing a temporary Energy Profits Levy to help pay for this unprecedented support in a way that promotes investment.”

The statement added that the windfall tax is expected to raise around £5bn in its first 12 months. This temporary tax will be phased out once gas prices return to normal levels. The levy does not apply to the electricity generation sector, the government said.

The new investment allowance incentivises companies to invest through saving them 91p for every £1 they invest.

The government expects the combination of the Levy and the new investment allowance to lead to an overall increase in investment, and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will take account of this policy in their next forecast, the statement added.

The government is consulting with the power generation sector and investors to drive forward energy market reforms and ensure that the price paid for electricity is more reflective of the costs of production.

Sunak also set out the government’s strategy to control inflation through independent monetary policy, fiscal responsibility, and supply side activism.

Rishi Sunak says wealthy who could get up to £1,200 in energy payments ‘can give it to charity’

The Chancellor defended the Treasury’s plan to ease the cost of living crisis, which would see rich households benefit from a £400 discount from their energy bills

By Joe Duggan

May 27, 2022 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said rich households that receive a £400 energy bill discount from the Government can give the money to charity.

Mr Sunak and his wife have a combined wealth of around £730 million, but are among those who would be eligible for the funds to help with soaring energy bills.

Following yesterday’s announcement of the Treasury’s £15bn package to ease the cost of living crisis, around 772,000 second-home owners are in line for an £800 discount on their energy bills, with wealthy people who have three properties set to receive £1,200.

In the Commons yesterday, Mr Sunak announced that a £200 rebate being applied to every household’s energy bill this autumn would be doubled to £400, and there would no longer be any obligation to pay it back in future.

Mr Sunak, who himself owns three homes, told Sky News he had “wanted to make sure that this was as universal as possible” while “costing the plan”, adding that he will be giving any money he received through the Government’s cost of living schemes to charity.

The Chancellor said: “There are lots of cases of people who will say, ‘Hang on, I happen to live in this, you know, expensive looking house or at a high council tax ban house, but I need help too’.

“So actually, this being universal means that we avoid all of those problems and really do get help to everyone who needs it and you like me, I’m sure, like me, you can also give that money to charity if you don’t need that which which is great.”

He insisted the package was aimed at helping people on middle incomes who were struggling with huge energy bills.

“If there’s another way to help those people whilst figuring out the small minority of very wealthy people who don’t need it I would be very open to it,” he said.

“But actually we are trying to deliver support in my job practically to tens of millions of people, you got to just figure out how best to do that.”

Other measures unveiled by the Government to help ease the cost-of-living crisis included a one-off £650 payment to any household where someone is paid means-tested benefits.

All households with a pensioner will receive £300, and £150 will be paid to any individual who is on disability benefit.

Mr Sunak was adamant that the Government’s package would only have a “minimal” impact on inflation which would amount to “much less” than one per cent.

The Chancellor unveiled the Treasury’s £15bn cost of living package in the Commons yesterday (Photo: House of Commons Provider: PA Source: PA)

Inflation hit a 40-year high of nine per cent last week, and is predicted to climb even higher.

But Mr Sunak said pensions and benefits would rise “well in excess” of what inflation is predicted to be next year.

He also hinted that electricity generators could also be included in a windfall tax after placing a 25 per cent levy on oil and gas companies’ profits.

Mr Sunak said there were “extraordinary profits” being made by power giants and said the Government had “plans in place to reform that market”.

He also claimed that Boris Johnson had made “significant changes” to how Downing Street runs in the light of the Partygate scandal.

“These matters have all been now fully looked at by both Sue Gray independently and also by the police,” Mr Sunak said.

“They reached all their conclusions. The Prime Minister’s apologised and made a statement and importantly now made changes in how Downing Street runs.

“I do think that’s the right approach and he has my full support and carrying on now and delivering for the British people.”

Apple to hike starting pay for retail workers as they push to unionize

BY MEGAN CERULLO
MAY 26, 2022 / 5:01 PM / MONEYWATCH

Apple is raising wages for its retail workers as the technology giant faces a unionization push at the company's stores.

Starting pay for Apple's hourly workers in the U.S. will rise $22 an hour, the Wall Street Journal first reported. The iPhone maker announced the new pay changes in an email announcing an increase in its compensation budget to employees Wednesday. Starting salaries for employees, meanwhile, are also expected to rise.

"Supporting and retaining the best team members in the world enables us to deliver the best, most innovative, products and services for our customers," an Apple spokesman said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. "This year as part of our annual performance review process, we're increasing our overall compensation budget."

Apple did not immediately reply to CBS MoneyWatch's request for comment.

The pay increases come as more Apple workers push to form a union and gain a seat at the negotiating table. For one, workers have revolted against Apple's return-to-office policy, calling it "inflexible" in an open letter to executives.

"The Hybrid Working Pilot is one of the most inefficient ways to enable everyone to be in one room, should the need arise every now and then," workers said of the plan laid out by their employer.

"Stop treating us like school kids who need to be told when to be where and what homework to do," the letter also stated.

Apple CEO Tim Cook's pay package this year was valued at $98.7 million, including a $3 million salary.

Borrower is relocating from Rochester, NY to Ewing, NJ. Please obtain documentation from CBS, confirming that borrower does not have a new job location and there will be no impact on his position or salary level.

As more stores unionize, Starbucks vows to boost worker pay


MAY 3, 2022 / CBS/AP

Starbucks' sales climbed to record levels in the coffee chain's second quarter, but its profits took a hit from climbing labor and ingredient costs and as additional stores unionize.

The Seattle coffee company — which welcomed back former CEO Howard Schultz last month as its interim leader — said revenue rose 15% to a record $7.6 billion in its 13-week quarter, which ended April 3. That was in line with Wall Street's estimates, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

But net earnings rose just 2% to $674 million. Starbucks' adjusted earnings of 59 cents per share fell short of analysts' forecast of 60 cents.

On Tuesday, after a series of meetings with workers around the country, Schultz unveiled $200 million in additional investments in worker pay and training. That includes pay raises for employees who have been at the company for at least two years as well as a doubling in training time for new baristas and shift supervisors.

Starbucks is also reintroducing a coffee mastery program for employees and considering other benefits like increased sick time.

But there's a catch: Workers who have voted to unionize or stores that have petitioned to hold a union election won't be eligible for those benefits. Instead, U.S. labor law requires stores to negotiate their own contracts with Starbucks.

As of Tuesday, workers at more than 250 U.S. stores had filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board to hold union elections, labor organizers said. Fifty of those stores had voted to unionize with Workers United, a branch of the Service Employees International Union.

While union membership has been dropping for decades, interest in organized labor has increased during the pandemic. Starbucks isn't alone in facing an increase in unionization efforts among its workers, with Amazon workers at a Staten Island facility voting in favor of unionizing.

These efforts come amid nationwide labor shortages and as a record number of Americans quit their jobs, providing more leverage to workers who want to unionize.

$15 an hour by this summer

Starbucks announced a $1 billion investment in employee wages and benefits last fall, with a plan to lift U.S. workers' pay to at least $15 per hour by this summer. Schultz said Tuesday those increases will give the stores the workers they need to handle customer demand.

Schultz opposes the unionization effort, insisting the company functions better when it works directly to its employees. But he noted that employees are under "tremendous strain" due to strong customer demand and pandemic-related changes in the business, including a surge in mobile and drive-thru orders. New investments will improve employee recruiting and retention, he said.

"We must reintroduce joy in the customer and emotional connection back into the partner experience," Schultz said Tuesday in a conference call with investors.

Starbucks said its same-store sales — or sales at stores open at least a year — rose 7% globally in the second quarter, surpassing Wall Street's estimate of 6.5%. That was largely on the strength of the business in North America; international same-store sales fell 8% due to coronavirus restrictions in China.

Video of Brazilian man suffocated to death in police car sparks outrage

A video of a Brazilian man being asphyxiated with gas in the trunk of a police car went viral. Brazil's federal police said in a statement that they had opened an inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the death.

Reuters

Sao Paulo

May 27, 2022



The images captured on phone camera showed police officers bundling the handcuffed man into the trunk of their SUV, releasing a gas cannister inside and leaning down on the trunk door until his screams abated and his dangling legs stopped kicking. (Screengrab: Twitter@PiensaPrensa)

Viral videos of a 38-year-old Brazilian man being asphyxiated with gas in the trunk of police car after getting stopped by highway patrol caused outrage across Brazil on Thursday.

The images captured on phone camera showed police officers bundling the handcuffed man into the trunk of their SUV, releasing a gas cannister inside and leaning down on the trunk door until his screams abated and his dangling legs stopped kicking.

Brazil's federal police said in a statement on Thursday they had opened an inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the death.

The brutal death of Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, described by his family as suffering from schizophrenia, were shared on social media by onlookers in the town of Umbaúba, in the northeastern state of Sergipe.

The shocking images, coming just days after another case involving police violence, sparked horror across social media and protests in the small town, with demonstrators closing the highway, setting tires on fire and waving signs calling for justice.

Earlier this week, at least 23 people died in a police raid of a slum in Rio de Janeiro.

According to the victim's family, Santos was approached by the officers while riding his motorcycle through the area. He became nervous when the officers found his schizophrenia medicine in his pocket, Wallyson de Jesus, a nephew of Santos', told news website G1.

"They threw some kind of gas inside the trunk and went to the police station, but my uncle was unconscious. They took him to the hospital, but it was already too late," said de Jesus.

In a statement, Brazil's Federal Highway Police (PRF) said Santos was arrested because he actively resisted an approach by police. It said that due to his "aggressiveness ... immobilization techniques and instruments of less offensive potential" were used to restrain him.

Santos became ill during the trip to the police station and was then taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the PRF statement.

The statement did not mention the two officers trapping him inside the back of their car as white gas was seen spewing out, but said the PRF had opened an inquiry to probe the officers' conduct.

An autopsy by the state forensic medical institute, seen by Reuters, found that Santos died from mechanical asphyxia.

"This obstruction can occur through several factors, and at this first moment it was not possible to establish the immediate cause of the asphyxia, nor how it occurred," said the report.

Asphyxiation death of Black man seen held in "gas chamber" police vehicle sparks outrage in Brazil


MAY 27, 2022  / CBS/AP

A screengrab from video shared widely on social media purportedly shows Brazilian Federal Police in Umbauba, in the northeast state of Sergipe, holding the trunk of their SUV closed on the legs of Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, 38, who was detained during a traffic stop, as smoke pours from the back of the vehicle. Police said de Jesus Santos died of asphyxiation.TWITTER

Rio de Janeiro — The asphyxiation death of a Black man shown in a video being held by two officers of Brazil's Federal Highway Police inside an SUV's smoke-filled trunk is sparking outrage among Brazilians. Images of the police stop Tuesday in Umbauba, in the northeastern state of Sergipe, show the officers forcibly keeping Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, 38, in the back of their police vehicle as a dense cloud of white smoke, which appears to be tear gas, emerges from the SUV.

The man can be heard screaming and his legs, which stick out of the SUV, kick for a time, until they eventually stop moving. The officers seem undisturbed by onlookers surrounding them.

Social media erupted over the images, and dozens of people gathered to protest Wednesday in Umbauba, where they blocked a road and burned tires.

"The population is outraged," a man can be heard saying in a video of the protest posted on Twitter. "They murdered the guy!" another told the crowd through a loudspeaker.

In a statement, the Federal Highway Police said the man had displayed aggressive behavior and was "actively resisting" the officers who pulled him over. The agents immobilized him, the statement said, then used "instruments of lesser offensive potential" to contain him.

The statements says Santos fell ill as he was being transported to a police precinct and was taken to a hospital, where his death was confirmed.

A preliminary autopsy concluded the man died of respiratory failure due to "mechanical asphyxia," George Fernandes, a spokesperson for Sergipe state's forensic institute, told The Associated Press.

Santos's nephew Alisson de Jesus told local news outlet FANF 1 that he saw police stop his uncle and that de Jesus Santos told the officers he had medication and a prescription in his pockets, indicating that he suffered mental health problems, before they began what the nephew described as "a torture session."

"They took my uncle, put him inside the vehicle and took a gas bomb and held the trunk closed with him inside," he said. De Jesus said his uncle was hit and shoved by the officers before they held him in the back of their SUV.

FANF 1 reported Thursday evening that five officers involved in the incident had been placed on leave pending an investigation.

The Guardian newspaper cited statistics from the Brazilian Forum of Public Security that show police killed 6,416 people in Brazil in 2020 — almost 80% of them Black. Many activists pointed out on social media that de Jesus Santos died in police custody exactly one day before the two-year anniversary of the killing of George Floyd by officers in Minnesota, which sparked global protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Police officers turned a car into a gas chamber and executed a mentally ill man," local politician and human rights activist Renata Souza said on Twitter. "There are no words in the face of such inhumanity. Brazil is an extermination camp!"

The incident "shocked Brazilian society due to the level of its brutality, exposing the institution's lack of preparedness to guarantee that its agents obey basic procedures," the Brazilian Public Security Forum, an independent group, said in a statement.

President Jair Bolsonaro said he would find out from the Federal Highway Police what happened. He also mentioned a separate incident two weeks ago when a man shot two on-duty highway officers.

The Federal Police opened an investigation. The forensic institute must submit its final, more in-depth report to the Federal Police within 10 days.

The incident comes just days after officers of the highway police participated in an operation in Rio de Janeiro that left more than 20 people dead. Police have said they had no choice but to use lethal force, but accounts from residents published in local media have raised doubts on that claim.

Shock Over Brazil Police 'Torture, Executions' In Drug Raid


By AFP News
05/27/22

Bodies from a Rio de Janeiro police raid that left more than 20 alleged drug traffickers dead show signs of torture and summary execution, a senior lawyer said on Thursday, the latest incident of suspected police brutality to shock the South American nation.

Police say they encountered heavy gunfire when they carried out a raid in the slum of Vila Cruzeiro on Tuesday, an operation aimed at tracking down gang leaders who were allegedly hiding out there.

Evidence from the scene has raised concerns that some of the dead were tortured and killed in cold blood, according to Rodrigo Mondego, the head of the human rights commission at Rio's Bar Association.

"We saw one body with a white powder that looked like cocaine covering its face," he told AFP. "Whoever killed this person smeared it all over his face and may have forced him to eat it. It's an act of torture."

Police say they encountered gunfire during the raid on Vila Cruzeiro, but senior rights lawyer Rodrigo Mondego said he suspects 'a large number of summary executions.' Photo: AFP / MAURO PIMENTEL

Mondego said there were suspicions of "a large number of summary executions."

"Witnesses have told us men who had surrendered to the police were then shot in the woods" above the hillside slum, he added.

The operation left at least 26 people dead, including a hairdresser hit by a stray bullet, according to the latest toll from health authorities.

The police operation left at least 26 people dead, including a hairdresser who was hit by a stray bullet, health authorities say

 Photo: AFP / MAURO PIMENTEL

Police put the death toll at 23.

Mondego said the number raised concerns about possible summary executions.

"If you look at statistics from around the world, you'll never see a firefight where more than 20 people are killed on one side and none on the other," he said.

Brazilian prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible human rights violations during the operation.

It was the second-deadliest such raid in Rio history, after another in May 2021 that left 28 people dead -- 27 alleged drug traffickers and one policeman -- in the slum of Jacarezinho.

At least 6,100 people were killed in police operations in Brazil in 2021, according to a violence monitoring group

 Photo: AFP / ANDRE BORGES

President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday the police involved in the latest operation were "warriors" who had "neutralized at least 20 delinquents."

Human Rights Watch released a statement expressing concern at the violence and at Bolsonaro's comments.

"His message to police was clear: You can continue killing with impunity," said the US-based rights group in a statement on Thursday.

In the northeastern town of Umbauba, a man suffocated to death on Wednesday after being placed inside a police car trunk from which thick smoke was billowing.

The Federal Highway Police (PRF) said in a statement Thursday that its agents had "used immobilization techniques and instruments of low-offensive potential" in dealing with 38-year-old Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, who they said became aggressive during a routine stop.

A witness video shows two helmeted PRF officers trying to close the trunk lid on a man whose legs were still sticking out of it.

Thick white smoke, which appears to be from a tear gas canister, billows out of the trunk as the man cries out in pain.

A witness can be heard exclaiming: "They will kill him!"

The man is seen moving his legs for about a minute, and then goes motionless. The officers bend his legs and close the trunk.

According to the PRF, de Jesus Santos was taken to the Umbauba police station, but "felt unwell" during the journey and was taken to hospital.

The statement did not specify whether he arrived dead at the hospital, but an autopsy confirmed his death was by "asphyxiation."

Brazil's police are among the world's deadliest law enforcement forces, killing more than 6,100 people in operations in 2021, with 183 officers murdered, according to figures from a violence monitoring organization.

MEET THE NEW BOSS SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

Military redeployment turns Chile's Mapuche areas into powder keg

AFP -
© MARIO QUILODRAN

With military troops once again patrolling their ancestral lands, members of the Mapuche indigenous community in Chile's south are angry.

Failure to resolve a conflict over the group's land claims has led to a surge in violence and arson over the last decade, with property owned by logging companies often the target.

Carolina Soto, a Mapuche woman who occupies state-owned land near the city of Temuco, said that "the violence came from outside, with the military."

In response to mounting unrest, troops returned last week to the southern La Araucania region and also to parts of neighboring Biobio, areas with the largest Mapuche populations in Chile.


© MARIO QUILODRAN

Mapuche community member Carolina Soto (C) was forced to leave Temuco when she could not make ends meet, and now lives off the state-owned land she occupies

The decision marked a shift in policy by newly elected leftist President Gabriel Boric, who initially said he would put dialogue first and withdraw troops from the area.

He bowed to pressure earlier this month, however, in the face of a 122 percent increase in arson attacks since troops withdrew in late March.

Nonetheless, the attacks continue. A 66-year-old forestry employee was killed and two others wounded on Tuesday when a minibus they were traveling in came under fire on a country road near the town of Lumaco.


© MARIO QUILODRANChilean President Gabriel Boric redeployed troops to the area after a 122 percent increase in arson attacks since they were withdrawn in March

"We will not tolerate violence being used as a way to resolve conflicts in the country," Boric said.


Soon after taking power, Boric doubled the budget to buy land to be handed over to the Mapuche, a practice that had been suspended under his conservative predecessor Sebastian Pinera.

He also called for dialogue, but many Mapuche are suspicious.

"As long as we are not recognized as the Mapuche people-nation, dialogue will not be possible," Soto said.

Soto was forced to leave her city of Temuco when she could no longer make ends meet, and now lives off the state-owned land that she occupies along with around 15 others.

Chile's new constitution, which will be put to a referendum in September, defines the country as a "plurinational state" and establishes greater indigenous autonomy, including a special judiciary.

One of the most radical indigenous organizations, Arauco-Malleco Coordination (CAM), has traditionally encouraged sabotaging logging companies while refraining from hurting any people.

But its long-time leader Hector Llaitul recently urged supporters "to prepare forces and to organize an armed resistance."

Despite the presence of such militant groups, a significant part of the population welcomes the military's presence, particularly to provide security on roads.

"We need more security here," said trucker Raul Jara, 55. "It has been many years and nothing has changed."

Incessant attacks on trucks and forestry machinery have made certain roads no-go areas, and many drivers say they are desperate to get home before nightfall.

"We hoped that they would tackle the problem differently under this government," said Juan Paillafil, the mayor of the small town of Puerto Saavedra, whose population is 80 percent Mapuche.

He said the military deployment "radicalizes" the conflicting sides.

Opposition legislator Mauricio Ojeda said the conflict "has become a business" in which people simply steal wood under the guise of social action.

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