Israeli Forces Shoot Dead Mentally-Retarded Palestinian in Al-Quds

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian with mental disabilities in East Jerusalem (al-Quds), a report said.

• May, 31, 2020 -

Israeli troops opened fire on a man in Jerusalem’s Old City after they suspected he had a gun, Anadolu Agency.

The Israeli police alleged in a statement on Saturday that the 32-year-old man, identified as Iyad Halak, was “holding a suspicious object that appeared to be a gun.”

According to Israeli media, the man, who was found to be unarmed, was shot dead during the chase.

Palestinians said Halak, a resident of Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in East Jerusalem al-Quds, had been on his way to a special needs educational institute in the Old City where he studied.

The shooting came a day after Israeli forces killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank for allegedly attempting to ram them with his vehicle. No Israelis were wounded in either incident.

EU Urges Israel to Stop Demolition of Palestinian Homes in West Bank

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The European Union (EU) missions in Jerusalem (al-Quds) and Ramallah urged the Israeli regime to stop demolishing Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank.

• June, 01, 2020 -

In a recent statement, the EU missions noted that Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes, not only continued during the holy month of Ramadan but in fact increased three-fold compared to 2019.

It added, “In line with the EU’s long-standing position on Israel’s settlement policy – illegal under international law – and actions taken in that context, such as forced transfers, eviction, demolition and confiscation of homes, the EU urges the Israeli authorities to halt demolitions of Palestinian structures,” WAFA news agency reported.

On Thursday, six Palestinian families from the village of al-Tira, southwest of Ramallah, were handed demolition orders by the occupation forces, under the pretext of lacking an Israeli building permit.

On Friday, the Palestinian Bashir family, in the Jabal al-Mukaber neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, started to knock down its 85 square meter home, as ordered by the Israeli municipality.

The demolition displaced the six-member family, which includes elderly disabled Rasmiya Bashir, confined to a wheelchair.

UN Suspends 80% of Reproductive Health Facilities in Yemen

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) announced the suspension of reproductive health services in 80 percent of the facilities it supports in warn-torn Yemen, due to lack of funding.

• June, 01, 2020 

The UN agency said in a statement that due to lack of funding for life-saving reproductive health services, it had been forced to suspend the provision of reproductive health care in 140 of its 180 health facilities in Yemen, the Middle East Monitor reported.

The statement said, “The UNFPA is the sole provider of life-saving reproductive health medicines and supplies in Yemen, which has seen its health system all but collapse under five grinding years of conflict.”

The UNFPA received only 41 percent of the $100.5 million it had appealed for earlier this year for its humanitarian response in Yemen, it added.

On Friday, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, announced that 30 of the UN’s 41 humanitarian programs would close due to lack of funding.

Since the Saudi-led coalition invaded Yemen in 2015, over 100,000 people have been killed, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).

Yemen’s Aden Leads World with Highest COVID-19 Mortality Rate: UN

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The city of Aden in south Yemen has the world's highest mortality rate from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with 70 percent of its infected residents dying, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Thursday.

• May, 29, 2020 - 

"In Aden, we have the highest mortality rates in the world of COVID-19 - 70 percent of those that have the disease are dying," Guterres said.

Guterres noted that the situation in Yemen is tragic and it is, therefore, crucial for the international community to demonstrate solidarity with the people there and fully support the appeal for funds that will be issued at an upcoming pledging event, Sputnik reported.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Yemen has so far confirmed 278 novel coronavirus cases and 57 COVID-19-related deaths.

The UN has voiced its concern that the actual numbers may be much higher than reported due to low testing capacity.

UNHCR: No Funds to Support 25,000 Families in Yemen

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that 25,000 families in Yemen will no longer receive aid as of next month due to lack of funding.

• May, 28, 2020 -

UNHCR Global Spokesperson, Shabia Mantoo, stressed the need to stop the Saudi-led war on Yemen, noting that the lack of funding would stop the humanitarian programs in the war-torn country, which is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, the Middle East Monitor reported.

She called for international cooperation to help Yemenis protect themselves.

Last April, the UNHCR warned that aid to a million displaced persons and refugees in Yemen might be interrupted due to lack of funding, explaining that it urgently needs $89.4 million to continue its programs in the war-torn country.

The Saudi-led coalition invaded Yemen in 2015. Since then, over 100,000 people have been killed, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).

Hydroxychloroquine: A Drug Dividing Opinion Worldwide

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Banned in some countries, promoted in others, the drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for the new coronavirus is dividing opinion worldwide.

• June, 01, 2020 - 15:32 

Scientists looking to find licensed medicines that could be repurposed as a treatment for COVID-19 had started tests of hydroxychloroquine, normally used to treat arthritis, and chloroquine, an anti-malarial.

Both drugs can produce potentially serious side effects, particularly heart arrhythmia, leading many experts to warn against their use outside of clinical trials.

But that has not stopped prominent figures like US President Donald Trump endorsing hydroxychloroquine despite a lack of evidence of its efficacy.

Escalating the debate, The Lancet on May 22 published a study of nearly 100,000 coronavirus patients that showed no benefit in treating them with the two drugs - and even increased the likelihood of them dying in hospital.

This led the World Health Organization to suspend clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine, but dozens of scientists have since raised concerns over the study’s methodology.

The Lancet corrected part of the data, but researchers have stood by their conclusions.

Countries worldwide vary on their own policies.

The study prompts several countries to halt the use of hydroxychloroquine.

France does so on May 27, days after controversial French doctor Didier Raoult - whose own methodology has been questioned - rejected the study and stood by his belief the drug can help patients recover from the virus.

Other countries including Italy, Egypt, Tunisia, Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, Cape Verde, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina also ban the use of the drug for COVID-19 patients, though in Italy it remains possible in clinical trials.

Hungary meanwhile does not use the drug “for newly diagnosed patients” but continues to do so “for patients who already started taking it”, according to a government spokesperson.

Even before the study some countries had stopped using hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients.

Sweden had used the drug in the early phases of the pandemic to treat patients with severe symptoms, but halted its use in April after the European Medicines Agency recommended it only be used in clinical trials.

Germany too had judged that the current studies did not allow for the drug to be used on individual COVID-19 patients and it could only be used in clinical trials.

Several countries continue to promote the use hydroxychloroquine in the fight against the virus.

These include Brazil, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Jordan, Romania, Portugal, Kenya, Senegal, Chad and the Republic of Congo, according to AFP.

Russia, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates have not yet suspended the use of the drug either.

Thailand is also still using hydroxychloroquine in its treatment of COVID-19 patients, and India and Venezuela continue to use the drug as a preventative measure.

Cuba too is using the drug but will revise its protocols to introduce further precautions.

In the US hydroxychloroquine can only in principle be given to COVID-19 patients in hospital, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned in April that the drug could have potential harmful impact on the heart.

Trump had promoted the use of the drug and even said he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a precaution, before saying shortly after the publication of the study that he had stopped.

The study has led to the suspension of the use of the drug in several clinical trials including the WHO’s Solidarity Trial and Europe’s Discovery programme coordinated by France’s Inserm research institute.

The international trial Copcov also suspended its use of doses on medical personnel in contact with the virus.

Two trials led by the University of Tuebingen clinic in Germany and five trials in Denmark have also been suspended and Mali says it is ready to suspend its clinical trials too.

But other clinical trials are continuing, such as the Recovery trial in Britain, the one by McGill University in Canada and ones taking place in Nigeria and Mexico.

In China the drug is only used in clinical trials but its potential as a treatment, considered promising by the University of Wuhan in February, has since been called into question by a respected hospital in Shanghai.

Clashes Erupt in Brazil between Pro, Anti-Bolsonaro Groups

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Groups supporting and opposing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro clashed in violent disturbances amid the political and health crisis besetting the South American giant, one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

• June, 01, 2020 - 

The most serious incidents occurred on Sunday along Paulista Avenue in the heart of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, where the pro-Bolsonaro forces demanded the "closure" of both Parliament and the Supreme Court and a "military intervention" but encountered a huge opposition group that had gathered for a protest "in defense of democracy", according to Efe news.

Tensions rose among those aligning themselves with the "conservative values" proclaimed by the ultra-rightist Bolsonaro as they confronted those demonstrating in favor of "democratic institutions" and against the "authoritarianism" they accuse the reserve army captain turned president, who was inaugurated in January 2019, of fomenting and pursuing, Indo-Asian News Service reported.

The pro-democracy forces carried signs to that effect and were joined by the fans of several soccer clubs.

The demonstrations, convened in several cities around the country, come at a point where Brazil, with almost half a million confirmed coronavirus cases, finds itself in the No. 2 spot worldwide in terms of people infected with the virus and No. 4 in terms of deaths, with 28,834, according to the latest official tally.

Also on Sunday in Brasilia, Bolsonaro attended an event organized by his supporters at which there were also harsh words for Parliament and the Supreme Court and calls for a military intervention to impose "order and progress", the slogan on the Brazilian flag.

Bolsonaro made no remarks at the event, limiting himself to greeting and embracing many of those attending, lifting children in his arms and posing for selfies with the crowd, all without wearing a facemask, although doing so is obligatory for the general public in moving about the streets of the capital.

After greeting his some 3,000 followers participating in the event, the President headed over to a group of mounted policemen, got into the saddle on one of the horses and took the horse through the crowd, after which the throng dispersed without any further incident.

The demonstration came after a day after a small group of ultra-rightist activists who have been camping out for days in downtown Brasilia headed toward the Supreme Court building in a torchlit march.

In a scenario evoking neo-Nazi memories, dressed in black and some wearing facemasks, the demonstrators chanted slogans against the high court, which they accused of "yielding to communist interests".

Bolsonaro and three of his sons are currently being investigated in several probes being pursued by the Attorney General's Office and supervised by the Supreme Court.

The President is suspected of trying to illegally intervene in the Federal Police, an autonomous entity that is under the authority of the Ministry of Justice, the former head of which, Sergio Moro, has denounced those alleged irregularities.

On Saturday, Bolsonaro posted a series of messages on the social networks alluding to the problems his administration is having with the judiciary and complained - as he has been doing almost daily - about the treatment that the press, exclusively "leftist" in his opinion, is giving to the investigations that have tainted him, his sons and several allies.

BunkerBoy Trend Triggered after Protesters Force Trump to Hide in Underground Bunker

June, 01, 2020 -

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A huge #BunkerBoy trend was triggered on Twitter after the US President Donald Trump was rushed to an underground bunker on Friday along with his wife and son, Barron amid the massive George Floyd protest in front of the White House


Trump was moved to the secure location by the Secret Service, according to reports by the New York Times and Associated Press. According to AP, the US president spent about an hour in the facility, which is designed to be used in case of a physical threat to senior executive officials.

Both reports make it clear that the decision to move Trump into the bunker was taken by the Secret Service. The image of the man hiding from the people’s wrath like some despot on the verge of being toppled was too appealing for his many detractors to miss.

The #Resistance side of Twitter had a field day snickering about how the president was hiding underground from a bunch of 20-year-olds.

Following the allegations in the media, the hashtag #BunkerBoy started trending on Twitter, adding more fuel to the fire in relations between the sitting US president and the public.



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Trump Took Shelter in White House Bunker As Protests Raged

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Secret Service agents rushed US President Donald Trump to a White House bunker on Friday night as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the executive mansion, some of them throwing rocks and tugging at police barricades.

June, 01, 2020 - 11:38

Trump spent nearly an hour in the bunker, which was designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks, according to a Republican close to the White House who was not authorized to publicly discuss private matters and spoke on condition of anonymity. The account was confirmed by an administration official who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

The abrupt decision by the agents underscored the rattled mood inside the White House, where the chants from protesters in Lafayette Park could be heard all weekend and Secret Service agents and law enforcement officers struggled to contain the crowds.

Friday's protests were triggered by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after he was pinned at the neck by a white Minneapolis police officer. The demonstrations in Washington turned violent and appeared to catch officers by surprise. They sparked one of the highest alerts on the White House complex since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

“The White House does not comment on security protocols and decisions,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere. The Secret Service said it does not discuss the means and methods of its protective operations. The president's move to the bunker was first reported by The New York Times.

The president and his family have been shaken by the size and venom of the crowds, according to the Republican. It was not immediately clear if first lady Melania Trump and the couple’s 14-year-old son, Barron, joined the president in the bunker. Secret Service protocol would have called for all those under the agency's protection to be in the underground shelter.

Trump has told advisers he worries about his safety, while both privately and publicly praising the work of the Secret Service.

Trump traveled to Florida on Saturday to view the first manned space launch from the US in nearly a decade. He returned to a White House under virtual siege, with protesters — some violent — gathered just a few hundred yards away through much of the night.

Demonstrators returned Sunday afternoon, facing off against police at Lafayette Park into the evening.

Trump continued his effort to project strength, using a series of inflammatory tweets and delivering partisan attacks during a time of national crisis.

As cities burned night after night and images of violence dominated television coverage, Trump’s advisers discussed the prospect of an Oval Office address in an attempt to ease tensions. The notion was quickly scrapped for lack of policy proposals and the president’s own seeming disinterest in delivering a message of unity.

Trump did not appear in public on Sunday. Instead, a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the plans ahead of time said Trump was expected in the coming days to draw distinctions between the legitimate anger of peaceful protesters and the unacceptable actions of violent agitators.

On Sunday, Trump retweeted a message from a conservative commentator encouraging authorities to respond with greater force.

“This isn’t going to stop until the good guys are willing to use overwhelming force against the bad guys,” Buck Sexton wrote in a message amplified by the president, AP reported.

In recent days security at the White House has been reinforced by the National Guard and additional personnel from the Secret Service and the US Park Police.

On Sunday, the Justice Department deployed members of the US Marshals Service and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration to supplement National Guard troops outside the White House, according to a senior Justice Department official. The official could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Double Standard of the American Riot
KELLIE CARTER JACKSON THE ATLANTIC


The nationwide protests against police killings have been called un-American by critics, but rebellion has always been used to defend liberty.

Those who rebuke violent responses to injustice should ask themselves: How should the oppressed respond to their oppressors? (Phobymo)

Since the beginning of this country, riots and violent rhetoric have been markers of patriotism. When our Founding Fathers fought for independence, violence was the clarion call. Phrases such as “Live free or die,” “Give me liberty or give me death,” and “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God” echoed throughout the nation, and continue today. Force and violence have always been used as weapons to defend liberty, because—as John Adams once said in reference to the colonists’ treatment by the British—“We won’t be their Negroes.”


Black rebellion and protest, though, have historically never been coupled with allegiance to American democracy. Today, peaceful demonstrations and violent riots alike have erupted across the country in response to police brutality and the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Yet the language used to refer to protesters has included looters, thugs, and even claims that they are un-American. The philosophy of force and violence to obtain freedom has long been employed by white people and explicitly denied to black Americans.

Think back to March 5, 1770, when Crispus Attucks, a man of African and Native American descent, became the first casualty of the American Revolution. Attucks was one of a handful of protesters killed by British forces during the Boston Massacre. The lawyer tasked with defending the British soldiers in their American criminal trial was none other than Adams. When presenting his case, Adams described the men those soldiers killed as “a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and molattoes [sic], Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs.” He built his defense of the British soldiers on the charge that Attucks struck the first blow and led the “dreadful carnage.” Adams concluded that the “mad behavior” of Attucks provoked the soldiers’ response, saying that Attucks’s group was “under the command of a stout molatto fellow, whose very looks, was enough to terrify any person.” Some 250 years later, Adams’s words still underline a central truth in American disobedience: Freedom through violence is a privilege possessed only by whites. Seminal moments in U.S. history that historians have defined as patriotic were also moments that denied patriotism to black people.


Read: When police view citizens as enemies

If violence is a political language, white Americans are native speakers. But black people are also fluent in the act of resistance. Attucks stood up to British tyranny. The numerous slave rebellions led by Gabriel Prosser, Charles Deslondes, and Nat Turner were all attempts to gain freedom with force. Throughout the 20th century, black Americans armed themselves in the face of white mobs and organized protection for their freedom marches. Accordingly, when George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others were killed by police, black people and their allies chose to rise up.Protests at Philadelphia City Hall on May 30, 2020 (Phobymo)

Americans like to harken back to the civil-rights era as a moment of nonviolence and civil disobedience. But that movement was an orchestrated response to violence. Violence at the voting booth. Violence at the lunch counter. Violence that bombed a church with four little black girls inside. Violence that left a bloated black boy in an open casket. Violence that left a black husband and father murdered in his driveway. The movement ended with the violent death of Martin Luther King Jr. And his death ignited riots in more than 100 cities.


Read: The American nightmare

It is easy to dismiss the rock thrower; Attucks himself was accused of throwing sticks. But those who rebuke violent responses to injustice should ask themselves: How should the oppressed respond to their oppressors? How should the nation respond to political dissent? How do the oppressed procure power? Throughout history, black people have employed violence, nonviolence, marches, and boycotts. Only one thing is clear—there is no form of black protest that white supremacy will sanction. Still, black people understand the utility of riotous rebellion: Violence compels a response. Violence disrupts the status quo and the possibility of returning to business as usual. So often the watershed moments of historical record are stamped by violence—it is the engine that propels society along from funerals to fury and from moments to movements.

In December 1866, the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote an essay for The Atlantic in which he reflected on the benefits of rebellion: “There is cause to be thankful even for rebellion. It is an impressive teacher, though a stern and terrible one.” He then concluded, “The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.” Many people are asking if violence is a valid means of producing social change. The hard and historical answer is yes. Riots have a way of magnifying not merely the flaws in the system, but also the strength of those in power. The American Revolution was won with violence. The French Revolution was won with violence. The Haitian Revolution was won with violence. The Civil War was won with violence. A revolution in today’s terms would mean that these nationwide rebellions lead to black people being able to access and exercise the fullness of their freedom and humanity.

The other night, I was watching the copious news coverage of the protests. I wanted to be out there. I felt helpless. But I’d just had a baby and had no business being out in the streets. I called my mother for encouragement. She said, “I was in college during all of the ’68 riots. Just keep on living; there’ll be another chance.” History has taught me she is likely right. A riot may be temporary violence, quick and dirty, but it could become a revolution. And though slow and long-lasting, when it is fully mature, a revolution is irrefutable change.


KELLIE CARTER JACKSON is an assistant professor of Africana studies at Wellesley College, and the author of Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence.

Trump Will Mobilize US Military to Put Down Violent Protests Nationwide


The president said he was already dispatching “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers” in Washington, D.C.

J. Clara Chan | June 1, 2020

President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the U.S. military to extinguish protests around the country if cities or states do not do what’s “necessary to defend the life and property of their residents.”

“If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” Trump said before reporters on Monday. “I am mobilizing all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your Second Amendment rights.”

Trump called on governors to utilize the National Guard, which the president said he wanted to “dominate the streets” across the country. In Washington, D.C., Trump said he was already dispatching “heavily armed” forces.


“As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property,” he said. “We are putting everyone on warning. Our 7 o’clock curfew will be strictly enforced.”

Also Read:Trump Advocates for 'Retribution' Against Protesters in Call With Governors

The president left without taking any questions. He then walked to St. John’s Church holding a Bible, but law enforcement officials fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd of peaceful protesters to clear a path.

Protests across the country have continued this week in response to the killing of George Floyd. Though many of the protests have been peaceful, police have violently clashed with protesters in numerous cities, frequently using tear gas, rubber bullets and arresting hundreds. In Los Angeles, businesses across the county have also been vandalized and looted by some demonstrators.

Earlier on Monday during a private call with the country’s governors, Trump advocated for “retribution” against protesters, whom he called “terrorists,” “anarchists” and “radicals,” and said governors needed to “dominate” them.

“It’s a movement. If you don’t put it down it will get worse and worse,” Trump said, according to a recording of the call obtained by the New York Times. “The only time they’re successful is when you’re weak. And most of you are weak.”

“Someone throwing a rock is like shooting a gun. You have to do retribution,” he also said.

Last week, Trump also faced pushback for tweeting and writing in a Facebook post, “When the shooting starts, the looting starts” — a phrase with a racist historical context. Twitter placed a content-warning label on the tweet for “glorifying violence,” but Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said his platform wouldn’t remove or otherwise mark the post because “people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force.”

George Floyd Probe Resembles William Barr’s Oversight of Rodney King Case Graham Brookie Retweeted

Michelle Hackman

@MHackman

·

May 31

Under Obama, DOJ launched dozens of investigations into troubled police departments to assess whether they were systematically violating the civil rights of minorities. The Trump administration has curtailed those types of investigations, writes

@sgurman

George Floyd Probe Resembles William Barr’s Oversight of Rodney King Case

The attorney general held the same post under President George H.W. Bush and oversaw the federal civil-rights investigation after the videotaped police beating of Rodney King that led to the 1992 Los...

wsj.com

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