Movement for Black Lives plans virtual national convention

By AARON MORRISON

1 of 10 https://apnews.com/1f6e88ae5f1be5730ac48b299398e746

 In this June 24, 2020, file photo, Antonio Mingo, right, holds his fists in the air as demonstrators protest in front of a police line on a section of 16th Street that's been renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza, in Washington. Thousands of Black activists from across the U.S. will hold the 2020 Black National Convention on Aug. 28, 2020, via livestream to produce a new political agenda that builds on the protests that followed George Floyd’s death. Organizers of the gathering shared their plans with The Associated Press on Wednesday, July 1, ahead of an official announcement. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — Spurred by broad public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, thousands of Black activists from across the U.S. will hold a virtual convention in August to produce a new political agenda that seeks to build on the success of the protests that followed George Floyd’s death.

The 2020 Black National Convention will take place Aug. 28 via a live broadcast. It will feature conversations, performances and other events designed to develop a set of demands ahead of the November general election, according to a Wednesday announcement shared first with The Associated Press.


The convention is being organized by the Electoral Justice Project of the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 150 organizations. In 2016, the coalition released its “Vision for Black Lives” platform, which called for public divestment from mass incarceration and for adoption of policies that can improve conditions in Black America.

“What this convention will do is create a Black liberation agenda that is not a duplication of the Vision for Black Lives, but really is rooted as a set of demands for progress,” said Jessica Byrd, who leads the Electoral Justice Project.

At the end of the convention, participants will ratify a revised platform that will serve as a set of demands for the first 100 days of a new presidential administration, Byrd said. Participants also will have access to model state and local legislation.

“What we have the opportunity to do now, as this 50-state rebellion has provided the conditions for change, is to say, ‘You need to take action right this minute,’” Byrd said. “We’re going to set the benchmarks for what we believe progress is and make those known locally and federally.”

In this June 24, 2020, file photo, Tyshawn, 9, left, and his brother Tyler, 11, right, of Baltimore, hold signs saying "Black Lives Matter" and "I Can't Breathe" as they sit on a concrete barrier near a police line as demonstrators protest along a section of 16th Street t that has been renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington. Thousands of Black activists from across the U.S. will hold the 2020 Black National Convention on Aug. 28, 2020,  hat has been renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington. Thousands of Black activists from across the U.S. will hold the 2020 Black National Convention on Aug. 28, 2020, via livestream to produce a new political agenda that builds on the protests that followed George Floyd’s death. Organizers of the gathering shared their plans with The Associated Press on Wednesday, July 1, ahead of an official announcement. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Wednesday’s announcement comes at a pivotal moment for the BLM movement. A surge in public support, an influx in donations and congressional action to reform policing have drawn some backlash.

President Donald Trump lashed out again Wednesday on Twitter over plans to paint “Black Lives Matter” in yellow across New York City’s famed Fifth Avenue, calling the words a “symbol of hate.” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump “agrees that all Black lives matter” but disagrees with an organization that would make derogatory statements about police officers. McEnany was referring to an oft-cited chant of individual protesters from five years ago.

The Black National Convention was originally planned to happen in person, in Detroit, the nation’s Blackest major city. But as the coronavirus pandemic exploded in March, organizers quickly shifted to a virtual event, Byrd said. The first-ever Black Lives Matter convention was held in Cleveland in 2015.

The most recent AP analysis of COVID-19 data shows Black people have made up more than a quarter of reported virus deaths in which the race of the victim is known.

Initial work to shape the new platform will take place Aug. 6 and 7, during a smaller so-called People’s Convention that will virtually convene hundreds of delegates from Black-led advocacy groups. The process will be similar to one that produced the first platform, which included early iterations of the demand to defund police that now drives many demonstrations.

Other platform demands, such as ending cash bail, reducing pretrial detention and scrapping discriminatory risk-assessment tools used in criminal courts, have become official policy in a handful of local criminal justice systems around the U.S.
Full Coverage: Racial injustice

Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, which organizes in 15 states, said the 2020 Black National Convention will deepen the solutions to systemic racism and create more alignment within the movement.

In this Aug. 24, 2018, file photo, Black Voters Matter Fund co-founders, LaTosha Brown, left, and Cliff Albright, right, lead Mississippi grassroots partners in some empowerment cheers aboard a bus tour to Greenville, Miss. Thousands of Black activists from across the U.S. will hold a virtual convention on Aug. 28, 2020, to produce a new political agenda that builds on the protests that followed George Floyd’s death. Albright, said the 2020 Black National Convention will deepen the solutions to systemic racism and create more alignment within the movement. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

“We’re in this stage now where we’re getting more specific about how all of this is connected to our local organizing,” Albright said. “The hope is that, when people leave the convention, they leave with greater clarity, more resources, connectivity and energy.”

The coalition behind the convention includes Color of Change, BYP100, Dream Defenders and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which has 16 official chapters nationwide.

Convention organizers said this year’s event will pay tribute to the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, which concluded with the introduction of a national Black agenda. The Gary gathering included prominent Black leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Shirley Chisholm, who ran for president, as well as Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz.

That convention came after several tumultuous years that included the assassinations of Malcolm X and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and outbreaks of civil unrest, all of which were seen as blows to the civil rights movement.

In this March 13, 1972, file photo, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, executive director of Operation: PUSH, speaks from the floor of the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Ind. Thousands of Black activists from across the U.S. will hold the 2020 Black National Convention on Aug. 28, 2020, via livestream to produce a new political agenda that builds on the protests that followed George Floyd’s death. Convention organizers said this year’s event will pay tribute to the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention. (AP Photo/Jim Wells, File)

The upcoming convention builds on more than a century of Black political organizing.

In 1905, civil rights activist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois formed the Niagara Movement after a national conference of Black leaders near Buffalo, New York. In a written address to the country, Du Bois and others decried the rise of institutionalized racial inequality in voting, criminal justice systems and public education.

In the 1950s, William Patterson, founder of the now-defunct Civil Rights Congress, led the effort to charge the U.S. with genocide of African Americans using legal standards set by the United Nation. The resulting petition, “We Charge Genocide,” is an oft-cited document in conversations about fatal shootings of Black people by police in the U.S.

And in 1998, organizers of the Black Radical Congress in Chicago met to strategize ways to beat back attacks on affirmative action policies that helped to diversify higher education and other facets of American life.

Like any large political gathering, consensus is not guaranteed. The National Black Political Convention caused divisions between participating organizations over the Black agenda’s position on busing to integrate public schools and statements on global affairs that some viewed as anti-Israel. Ultimately, the agenda prompted a leader of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, to sever ties with the convention.

Somewhat similarly, the Vision for Black Lives platform and its characterization of Israel as an “apartheid state” committing mass murder against Palestinian people drew allegations of anti-Semitism from a handful of Jewish groups, which had otherwise been supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Black Lives Matter movement’s coalition has more than doubled in size in the years since the first platform, largely because of organizers’ laser focus on issues central to Black freedom, Byrd said.

“That actually is the Black self determination that our politics require,” Byrd said, “that we don’t just respond to the Democratic Party. That we don’t just respond to the Republican Party. We don’t just say ‘Black lives matter’ and beg people to care. We build an alternative container for all of us to connect, outside of the white gaze, to say this is what we want for our communities.”

The August convention will happen on the same day as a commemorative, in-person march on Washington that is being organized by Sharpton, who announced the march during a memorial service for Floyd, a Black man who died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer held a knee to his neck.

The Black National Convention will broadcast after the march, Byrd said.

August “is going to be a huge month of Black engagement,” she said.

___

Associated Press Writer Darlene Superville in Washington and news researchers Randy Herschaft in New York and Monika Mathur in Washington contributed to this report. Morrison is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.

Court considers status of Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia
yesterday

1 of 6 https://apnews.com/bf9f86b63e8bba72544007da4863e066
An aerial view of the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, one of Istanbul's main tourist attractions in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, Saturday, April 25, 2020. The 6th-century building is now at the center of a heated debate between conservative groups who want it to be reconverted into a mosque and those who believe the World Heritage site should remain a museum. (AP Photo)



ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A state attorney on Thursday recommended that Turkey’s highest administrative court reject a request that Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia, which now serves as museum, be turned back into a mosque, state-run media reported.

The 6th-century structure was the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral before it was changed into an imperial mosque following the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, then turned into a museum that attracts millions of tourists each year.

Nationalist and religious groups have long been pressing for the landmark, which they regard as an Muslim Ottoman legacy, to be converted back into a mosque. Others believe the UNESCO World Heritage site should remain a museum, as a symbol of Christian and Muslim solidarity.

On Thursday, Turkey’s Council of State, began considering a request by a group that wants Hagia Sophia to revert back into a mosque.

The lawyer of the group argued that the building was the personal property of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, who conquered Istanbul, and pressed for the annulment of a 1934 Council of Ministers’ decision that turned it into a museum, the Anadolu Agency reported.

A state attorney, meanwhile, argued that the 1934 decision was legal, Anadolu reported. He recommended the request be rejected, arguing that a decision on restoring the structure’s Islamic heritage was up to the government, the agency said.

A decision is expected within two weeks.

Greece as well as the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, considered the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, have urged Turkey to keep Hagia Sophia as a museum. Bartholomew warned this week that its conversion into a mosque “will turn millions of Christians across the world against Islam.”

U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo waded into the debate Wednesday, urging Turkey to keep Hagia Sophia as a museum “to serve humanity as a much-needed bridge between those of differing faith traditions and cultures.” His comments sparked a rebuke from Turkey’s Foreign Ministry, which said Hagia Sophia was a domestic issue of Turkish national sovereignty.

Built under Byzantine Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia was the main seat of the Eastern Orthodox church for centuries, where emperors were crowned amidst ornate marble and mosaic decorations.

Four minarets were added to the terracotta-hued structure with cascading domes and the building was turned into an imperial mosque following the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople — the city that is now Istanbul.

The building opened its doors as a museum in 1935, a year after the Council of Ministers’

Pompeo urges Turkey not to convert Hagia Sophia into mosque  
Issued on: 01/07/2020 -

The United States has urged Turkey not to change the status of the Hagia Sophia, a church turned mosque turned museum Ozan KOSE AFP

Washington (AFP)

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to convert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque and said Istanbul's celebrated former cathedral should remain open to all.

Erdogan, whose roots are in political Islam, has mused about turning Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, triggering tension with neighboring Greece.

Pompeo issued a statement on the eve of an expected Turkish court decision on whether Hagia Sophia was rightfully turned into a museum.

"We urge the government of Turkey to continue to maintain the Hagia Sophia as a museum, as an exemplar of its commitment to respect the faith traditions and diverse history that contributed to the Republic of Turkey, and to ensure it remains accessible to all," Pompeo said.

"The United States views a change in the status of the Hagia Sophia as diminishing the legacy of this remarkable building and its unsurpassed ability -- so rare in the modern world -- to serve humanity as a much-needed bridge between those of differing faith traditions and cultures," he said in a statement.

Pompeo -- an evangelical Protestant who often speaks about the rights of religious minorities -- said that the United States hoped to maintain dialogue with Turkey over the preservation of religious and cultural sites.

Muslim clerics in May recited prayers inside the landmark to celebrate the anniversary of the Ottomans' 1453 conquest of the city, then known as Constantinople.

The stunning edifice was first built as a church in the sixth century under the Byzantine Empire as the centerpiece of Constantinople.

After the Ottoman conquest, it was converted into a mosque before being turned into a museum during the rule of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the secularizing founder of modern Turkey, in the 1930s.

Erdogan mused last year about turning the museum into a mosque.

The remarks have drawn wide concern in Greece, whose Orthodox Church maintains its ecumenical patriarchate in Istanbul.

Turkey is a NATO ally of the United States but the two nations have seen friction in recent years, including over Ankara's incursions into Syria and its purchase of weapons from Russia.

© 2020 AFP

QUE?!

GOP candidate is latest linked to QAnon conspiracy theory


Businesswoman Lauren Boebert speaks during a watch party at Warehouse 25 Sixty Five in Grand Junction, Colo., after polls closed in Colorado's primary election on Tuesday, June 30, 2020. Boebert, a pistol-packing restaurant owner who has expressed support for a far-right conspiracy theory has upset five-term Colorado U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton. Lauren Boebert is an ardent defender of gun rights and border wall supporter. She will run in November’s general election against Diane Mitsch Bush, who won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday. (McKenzie Lange/Grand Junction Sentinel via AP, File)
STRAPS ON A GUN FAILS TO WEAR SENSIBLE SHOES
DENVER (AP) — When Lauren Boebert was asked in May about QAnon, she didn’t shy away from the far-right conspiracy theory, which advances unproven allegations about a so-called deep state plot against President Donald Trump that involves satanism and child sex trafficking.

“Everything that I’ve heard of Q, I hope that this is real because it only means that America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values,” she said.

At the time, Boebert was on the political fringe, running a campaign largely focused on her gun-themed restaurant and resistance to coronavirus lockdowns. She is now on a path to becoming a member of Congress after upsetting five-term Rep. Scott Tipton in Tuesday’s Republican primary. The GOP-leaning rural western Colorado district will likely support the party’s nominee in the November general election.

Boebert is part of a small but growing list of Republican candidates who have in some way expressed support for QAnon. They include Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is advancing to a runoff for a congressional seat in a GOP-dominated Georgia congressional district, and Jo Rae Perkins, the party’s Senate nominee in Oregon.

The trend pales in comparison to previous movements that have swept Capitol Hill, such as the 2010 tea party wave. But at a time when the GOP is facing steep headwinds among women and in the suburbs, the QAnon candidates could add extra headaches.

“The more times you have candidates who are crazy, the more it hurts your brand,” said John Feehery, a Republican consultant and former House leadership aide. “The trick is for Republicans to embrace the anti-establishment mood without embracing the crazy.”

Republican leaders have distanced from some candidates, such as Greene. But now that Boebert is the nominee in Colorado, the GOP made clear Wednesday it would support her.

“Lauren won her primary fair and square and has our support,” Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the chair of the House Republican campaign arm, said in a statement. “This is a Republican seat and will remain a Republican seat as Nancy Pelosi and senior House Democrats continue peddling their radical conspiracy theories and pushing their radical cancel culture.”

Boebert’s campaign manager, Sherronna Bishop, said the campaign was ignoring the headlines tying the candidate to the QAnon conspiracy.

“We know exactly what we’re about and that’s the Constitution and freedom,” Bishop said. “We are not into conspiracy theories.”

She said Boebert was not available for an interview until Sunday because she is traveling to South Dakota for a Bikers for Trump event near Trump’s Independence Day rally at Mount Rushmore.


The QAnon theory has ricocheted around the darker corners of the internet since late 2017. It is based around an anonymous, high-ranking government official known as “Q” who purportedly tears back the veil on the “deep state,” often tied to satanism, child molestation and even cannibalism.

Trump has retweeted QAnon-promoting accounts. Followers flock to Trump’s rallies wearing clothes and hats with QAnon symbols and slogans.

Republican voters may not know the details of the theory, but they’ve become more amenable to the notion of conspiracies because Trump exploited them during his own campaign and administration, said Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami who studies conspiracy theories.

“Just as that worked for him, there are going to be copycats, too,” he said.

Uscinski stressed that Democrats also believe in conspiracy theories — he cited Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ insistence that the 1% run politics and that his 2016 losses in Democratic presidential primaries showed the system was “rigged.”

And Uscinski said there’s nothing in the QAnon theory that’s inherently conservative, and Boebert was nowhere near as enthusiastic about it as other candidates.

For example, Perkins, the GOP’s Senate nominee in Oregon, repeated the QAnon oath in a recent video. She took down a video backing the movement, then said she’d been duped by her own campaign staff and supported it again.

Still, Perkins has almost no chance in reliably Democratic Oregon. Boebert is running in a seat that leans Republican and stands the best chance of any of the candidates who have flirted with QAnon to end up in Congress.

“I shouldn’t have to guess if my congressperson believes in satanic, baby-eating child molesters,” Uscinski said.

Boebert owns Shooters Grill, an eatery where servers carry handguns in the aptly named western Colorado town of Rifle. She ended up on Fox News after confronting Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke in a Denver suburb last year over his plans to confiscate assault-style rifles.

Boebert’s sole known comments on QAnon came during a May interview with internet journalist Ann Vandersteel, whose site highlights other conspiracy theories. Vandersteel asked Boebert what she thought of “the Q movement.”

Boebert said she knew about it from her mother, who was “a little fringe.” Pressed, she added, “If this is real, it could be really great for our country.”

Some Republican candidates have referred to the conspiracy theory in social media posts but say they’re not believers. Angela Stanton-King, the GOP’s nominee in Georgia’s solidly Democratic 5th Congressional District, said in a statement that a post linking to a QAnon video on Instagram that begins: “This would explain why they tried so hard to make us hate him...” was just questioning the movement. She also said that her use of QAnon hashtags in tweets didn’t mean she was an adherent, explaining she peppers her social media with various hashtags to extend her reach.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the defeated Tipton was seen Wednesday sitting alone in the massive Capitol Rotunda. He said his campaign focused on the district’s issues and didn’t attack his opponent.

Asked if, in retrospect, he believed that was a winning tactic, he said: “I don’t know. Maybe we’re in a different world right now.”

___

Fram reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, “Ground Game.”

COMMON SENSE VS PENCE
Poll: Two-thirds of Americans say COVID-19 crisis getting worse


A woman wearing a mask jogs in New York City's Brooklyn Bridge Park on June 25, with One World Trade Center and the Manhattan Skyline in the background at sunset. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

July 2 (UPI) -- Nearly two-thirds of Americans, a record share, believe the coronavirus crisis is getting worse, according to a new survey Thursday.

Gallup said 65 percent of respondents polled last week, amid new surges in cases nationwide, said the overall COVID-19 situation is worsening either by a "little" or "a lot." That figure is an increase from 37 percent just two weeks earlier, and the previous high of 56 percent in April.

Less than a quarter, 23 percent, answered that the situation is getting better -- down from 47 percent earlier this month.
Gallup also said the share of U.S. adults "very" or "somewhat" concerned about catching the coronavirus disease has increased to 56 percent, the highest figure since it was at 57 percent in April.

RELATED Poll: With election 5 months away, 20% satisfied with U.S. direction

Gallup said the results are based on its online COVID-19 tracking survey, which interviews weekly random samples from its probability-based panel. The pollster says it uses probability-based, random sampling methods to recruit panel members.

"Americans may dispute whether the recent increase in new daily coronavirus cases represents a continuation of the first wave or the start of a second wave of infections -- but there is a growing public consensus that the situation is getting worse," Gallup wrote.

"Recent developments are a grim reminder that even as the number of new daily cases declined in recent months, the virus never went away. Consequently, Americans are increasingly likely to think the disruptions to daily life will persist in the U.S. through at least the end of this year."

RELATED Poll: More than 80% in U.S. confident they can ward off COVID-19

Gallup polled nearly 3,500 panel members for the survey, which has a margin of error of 3 points.

Long-shut factory helps COVID-struck Afghans breathe free


1 of 9 https://apnews.com/4f87093bd1b898229b53169980f7f4ca
A man helps his father to drink juice at the Afghan-Japan Communicable Disease Hospital, for COVID-19 patients, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday June 18, 2020. Afghan media reported last week that several COVID-19 patients died in government hospitals due to a shortages of medical oxygen, though the government denied the reports. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

A man tests oxygen at a privately owned oxygen factory, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday June 18, 2020. For seven years, Najibullah Seddiqi's oxygen factory sat idle in the Afghan capital Kabul. He shut it down, he says, because corruption and power cuts made it impossible to work. But when the novel coronavirus began racing through his country, he opened the factory's dusty gates and went back to work. Now he refills hundreds of oxygen cylinders a day for free for COVID-19 patients — and at reduced rates for hospitals. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Seven years ago, Najibullah Seddiqi closed his oxygen factory, frustrated with power cuts and with rampant corruption that kept him from getting contracts with hospitals.

But as the coronavirus raced through Afghanistan, he knew he had to help.

“I saw a man crying for his wife who died from coronavirus due to lack of oxygen,” Seddiqi said. “That moment I made the decision to reopen my factory.”

Now relatives of Afghans ailing with COVID-19 line up at his factory in the capital city of Kabul for free refills that can keep their loved ones alive.

Afghanistan has struggled with shortages of medical oxygen under the pandemic. The country gets its oxygen cylinders from abroad. Until recently, imports were halted by sealed borders.

Prices for new canisters have skyrocketed 10-fold, to 20,000 Afghanis ($250). With people stockpiling as much as they can, the price to refill a canister is now 2,000 Afghanis, or $25, five times what it once was. Many accuse retailers of price gouging and the government of failing to ensure a supply.


A man carries an oxygen tank from a privately owned oxygen factory, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday June 18, 2020. For seven years, Najibullah Seddiqi's oxygen factory sat idle in the Afghan capital Kabul. He shut it down, he says, because corruption and power cuts made it impossible to work. But when the novel coronavirus began racing through his country, he opened the factory's dusty gates and went back to work. Now he refills hundreds of oxygen cylinders a day for free for COVID-19 patients — and at reduced rates for hospitals. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)


So Seddiqi’s free service is a godsend for the many poor hit by the virus. Minivans of people bringing cylinders roll in as word of the distribution spreads on social media.

“This factory is doing great work offering it for free,” said Bilal Hamidi as he waited on the crumbling concrete floor.

Hamidi said he fills three small cylinders a day for his brother, who was infected while caring for their mother. She died of COVID-19 in early June.

The factory, closed and long idle, is dusty. Parts are run-down. But when Seddiqi reopened the doors to resume production, everything still worked.
“I’m happy I didn’t sell these machines,” said Seddiqi, who also owns an ice factory.

He hired 12 men, working in two shifts. Seddiqi even moved in temporarily so he’s always on hand: “I’m worried that I go home and someone in intense need comes late at night and doesn’t find anyone to help them.”

His factory refills 200 to 300 small cylinders a day free for COVID-19 patients. For hospitals and retail sellers, he fills close to 700 large cylinders a day for 300 Afghanis each, or $3.80. That’s far cheaper than the going rate but it’s enough to cover his free distribution, he said.


NOT UNLIKE THE CANADIAN LIQUID AIR PLANT I WORKED AT IN THE SEVENTIES

AND NO THIS IS NOT AS EASY AS IT SEEMS AND IF THEY FALL IT CAN BE DANGEROUS IF A NOZZLE BREAKS OFF THE CANISTER BECOMES A TORPEDO

Retailers insist they are not jacking up prices. Imports of cylinders from the United Arab Emirates and China stopped for months amid pandemic restrictions. They recently resumed, but “unbalanced supply and demand has caused prices to rise,” said Khanjan Alkozai, a board member at the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Afghan media reported last week that several COVID-19 patients died in government hospitals due to lack of oxygen, though the government denied it.

Lawmaker Fatima Aziz, who has been infected by the coronavirus, posted a video from her bed, an oxygen tube in her nose. She blamed corruption and government failures.

“People lose their life for two drops of oxygen,” she said. “I curse all the mafias in this business that take advantage.”

The Health Ministry’s deputy spokeswoman, Masooma Jafari, said shortages at hospitals are being resolved. She said the Health Ministry ordered oxygen factories to give the health sector priority over industry.

Seddiqi’s factory is one of six in Kabul that produce oxygen — but his is the only one giving free refills.

“My only aim is to save as many lives as I can,” he said. “When the virus spread ends, then I’ll go home.”

Video: Florida police laugh after shooting rubber bullets

BOYS AND THEIR TOYS

By KELLI KENNEDY

1 of 4
LaToya Ratlieff looks at a photograph of herself, Friday, June 12, 2020, in Lauderhill, Fla. Ratlieff was hit in the face by a police officer's rubber bullet during a Fort Lauderdale protest over the death of George Floyd on May 31. Protests continue in support of Floyd, a black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Newly released body camera footage shows Florida police officers laughing and celebrating after shooting rubber bullets at a protest last month in which a Black woman was shot in the face and seriously injured.

Fort Lauderdale police posted a video on its official YouTube channel Wednesday taken from the body camera of Detective Zachary Baro, who was leading the department’s SWAT team unit on May 31. At one point in the video, Baro can be heard saying, “Beat it” and using a profanity, after officers shot the less lethal projectiles.

LaToya Ratlieff was hit in the face with a rubber bullet during what had been a largely peaceful demonstration less than a week after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. The 34-year-old said she suffered a fractured skull and required 20 stitches. She couldn’t eat for a week and still has trouble seeing out of one blood-filled eye.

She’s asked to sit down with the police department to discuss reform and make sure there’s accountability going forward. However, her spokesman, Evan Ross, said the city has not yet accepted her invitation.

“I’m heartbroken. We deserve better,” she said in response to the latest video.

A Fort Lauderdale police officer was charged with battery during that same protest after video showed he pushed a kneeling woman to the ground. Witnesses said the peaceful gathering took an angry turn after that and protesters responded by throwing bottles. The officer’s colleagues quickly pushed him away from the woman and down the street.

During another section of the new video released Wednesday, Baro incorrectly tells another officer that his camera is not recording and the two officers begin laughing and joking about the people they had shot with rubber bullets.

Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione said the department was conducting an exhaustive review of nearly 8,000 minutes of body camera footage, with a report to be completed within the next month.

“The entire video clearly demonstrates our officers were under attack by a group of people who chose to use violence instead of peace to antagonize the situation,” Maglione said in a statement. “Although the language is extreme, and offensive to some, our officers were dealing with the chaos of a developing situation.”

Several disturbing videos have emerged from that protest in recent weeks. Ratlieff said they’re traumatizing and make her feel like she’s relieving the moment. She often turns them off.

One graphic witness video shows Ratlieff wearing a bright pink backpack, bending over and coughing from the tear gas. As she walks away from police, they fire a rubber bullet and a protester grabs her hand and tries to hurry her. A second shot cracks loudly through the air and Ratlieff crumples to the concrete with a bone-chilling cry.

“She’s hurt, she’s hurt. She’s bleeding,” a witness screams frantically, as several gather around her and blood is seen pouring onto the ground.

A stranger tore off his shirt and applied pressure to her head as another stranger drove her to the hospital.

Ratlieff has an attorney, but hasn’t filed a lawsuit, saying it’s not about money. She testified this week before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Civil Rights & Civil Liberties during a briefing on government violence against peaceful civil rights protesters.

“I just didn’t want to think that the police did that,” she said. “I still want to understand why ... not having those answers, it does leave me in a place of frustration.”

___

David Fischer contributed to this report in Miami

UPDATED 

Landslide at Myanmar jade mine kills at least 162 people

By ZAW MOE HTET and PYAE SONE WIN

1 of 12 https://apnews.com/8d689af35b5f65e0971b1e6b5af5b611

People gather near the bodies of victims of a landslide near a jade mining area in Hpakant, Kachine state, northern Myanmar Thursday, July 2, 2020. Myanmar government says a landslide at a jade mine has killed dozens of people. (AP Photo/Zaw Moe Htet)


HPAKANT, Myanmar (AP) — At least 162 people were killed Thursday in a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar, the worst in a series of deadly accidents at such sites in recent years that critics blame on the government’s failure to take action against unsafe conditions.

The Myanmar Fire Service Department, which coordinates rescues and other emergency services, announced about 12 hours after the morning disaster that 162 bodies had been recovered from the landslide in Hpakant, the center of the world’s biggest and most lucrative jade mining industry.

The most detailed estimate of Myanmar’s jade industry said it generated about $31 billion in 2014. Hpakant is a rough and remote area in Kachin state, 950 kilometers (600 miles) north of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon.

“The jade miners were smothered by a wave of mud,” the Fire Service said.

It said 54 injured people were taken to hospitals. The tolls announced by other state agencies and media lagged behind the fire agency, which was most closely involved. An unknown number of people are feared missing.

Those taking part in the recovery operations, which were suspended after dark, included the army and other government units and local volunteers.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep sadness at the deaths, sent condolences to families of the victims and Myanmar’s government and people.

Gutteres reiterated “the readiness of the United Nations to contribute to ongoing efforts to address the needs of the affected population,” said his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

The London-based environmental watchdog Global Witness said the accident “is a damning indictment of the government”s failure to curb reckless and irresponsible mining practices in Kachin state’s jade mines.”

“The government should immediately suspend large-scale, illegal and dangerous mining in Hpakant and ensure companies that engage in these practices are no longer able to operate,” Global Witness said in a statement.

At the site of the tragedy, a crowd gathered in the rain around corpses shrouded in blue and red plastic sheets placed in a row on the ground.

Emergency workers had to slog through heavy mud to retrieve bodies by wrapping them in the plastic sheets, which were then hung on crossed wooden poles shouldered by the recovery teams.

Social activists have complained that the profitability of jade mining has led businesses and the government to neglect enforcement of already very weak regulations in the jade mining industry.

“The multi-billion dollar sector is dominated by powerful military-linked companies, armed groups and cronies that have been allowed to operate without effective social and environmental controls for years,” Global Witness said. Although the military is no longer directly in power in Myanmar, it is still a major force in government and exercises authority in remote regions

Thursday’s death toll surpasses that of a November 2015 accident that left 113 dead and was previously considered the country’s worst. In that case, the victims died when a 60-meter (200-foot) -high mountain of earth and waste discarded by several mines tumbled in the middle of the night, covering more than 70 huts where miners slept.

Those killed in such accidents are usually freelance miners who settle near giant mounds of discarded earth that has been excavated by heavy machinery. The freelancers who scavenge for bits of jade usually work and live in abandoned mining pits at the base of the mounds of earth, which become particularly unstable during the rainy season.

Most scavengers are unregistered migrants from other areas, making it hard to determine exactly how many people are actually missing after such accidents and in many cases leaving the relatives of the dead in their home villages unaware of their fate.

Global Witness, which investigates misuse of revenues from natural resources, documented the $31 billion estimate for Myanmar’s jade industry in a 2015 report that said most of the wealth went to individuals and companies tied to the country’s former military rulers. More recent reliable figures are not readily available.

It said at the time the report was released that the legacy to local people of such business arrangements “is a dystopian wasteland in which scores of people at a time are buried alive in landslides.”

In its statement Thursday, Global Witness blamed the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, which came to power in 2016, for failing “to implement desperately needed reforms, allowing deadly mining practices to continue and gambling the lives of vulnerable workers in the country’s jade mines.”

Jade mining also plays a role in the decades-old struggle of ethnic minority groups in Myanmar’s borderlands to take more control of their own destiny.

The area where members of the Kachin minority are dominant is poverty stricken despite hosting lucrative deposits of rubies as well as jade.

The Kachin believe they are not getting a fair share of the profits from deals that the central government makes with mining companies.

Kachin guerrillas have engaged in intermittent but occasionally heavy combat with government troops.

___

Pyae Son Win reported from Yangon, Myanmar.

More than 100 dead in landslide at Myanmar jade mine

ARTISANAL MINING

Issued on: 02/07/2020 -


Rescue workers carry a dead body following a landslide at a mining site in Hpakant, Kachin State City, Myanmar on July 2, 2020, in this picture obtained from social media. © Myanmar Fire Services Department via Reuters

Text by:NEWS WIRES

The bodies of at least 100 jade miners were pulled from the mud after a landslide in northern Myanmar on Thursday, in one of the worst ever accidents to hit the perilous industry.

Scores die each year while working in the country’s lucrative but poorly regulated jade industry, which uses low-paid migrant workers to scrape out a gem highly coveted in China.

The disaster struck after an early bout of heavy rainfall close to the Chinese border in Kachin state, the Myanmar Fire Services Department said in a Facebook post.

“The miners were smothered by a wave of mud,” the statement said. “A total of 113 bodies have been found so far.”

They had apparently defied a warning not to work the treacherous open mines during the rains, local police told AFP.

Rescuers worked all morning to retrieve the bodies from a mud lake, pulling them to the surface and using tyres as makeshift rafts.

Police told AFP that 99 bodies were found by noon, with another 20 injured.

They said search and rescue efforts had been suspended because of more heavy rains.

The workers were scavenging for the gemstones on the sharp mountainous terrain in Hpakant township, where furrows from earlier digs had already loosened the earth.

Photos posted on the fire service Facebook page showed a search and rescue team wading through a valley flooded by the mudslide.

Rescuers carried bodies wrapped in tarpaulins out of the mud lake as a deluge poured down from above.

Unverified footage of the scene showed a torrent of sludge crashing through the terrain as workers scrambled up the sharp escarpments.

Chinese demand

Police said the death toll could have been even higher if authorities had not warned people to stay away from the mining pits the day before.

“It could have been hundreds of people dead—more than this, but the notice might have saved some,” superintendent Than Win Aung told AFP.

Open jade mines have pockmarked Hpakant’s remote terrain and given it the appearance of a vast moonscape.

Landslides in the area are common, especially when rainfall hammers the muddy terrain during Myanmar’s notoriously severe monsoon season.

The workers combing through the earth are often from impoverished ethnic communities who are looking for scraps left behind by big firms.

A major collapse in November 2015 left more than 100 dead.

A mudslide buried more than 50 workers last year, when a days long recovery effort saw police digging through a “mud lake” to retrieve bodies from the sludge.

Myanmar is one of the world’s main sources of jadeite and the industry is largely driven by insatiable demand for the green gem from neighbouring China.


Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe

The mines are mired in secrecy, though Global Witness claims their operators are linked to former junta figures, the military elite and their cronies.

The watchdog estimated that the industry was worth some $31 billion in 2014, although very little reaches state coffers.

Northern Myanmar’s abundant natural resources—including jade, timber, gold and amber—help finance both sides of a decades-long civil war between ethnic Kachin insurgents and the military.

The fight to control the mines and the revenues they bring frequently traps local civilians in the middle.

(AFP)

US seizes Chinese products made from human hair in forced labor crackdown

Issued on: 02/07/2020 -

A US Customs and Border Protection officer at the Port of New York/Newark inspects a shipment of hair pieces and accessories from China suspected to have been made with forced or prison labor Handout US Customs and Border Protection/AFP
Washington (AFP)

US customs officials said Wednesday they had seized a shipment of products made from human hair believed to be made by Muslims in labor camps in the country's western Xinjiang province.

They were part of an $800,000, 13-ton shipment from Lop County Meixin Hair Product Co. US Customs and Border Protection ordered on June 17 that the company's goods be held on grounds it uses prison and forced labor, including from children.

"The production of these goods constitutes a very serious human rights violation," said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner for trade at CBP.

"The detention order is intended to send a clear and direct message to all entities seeking to do business with the United States that illicit and inhumane practices will not be tolerated in US supply chains."

Lop County Meixin was the third Xinjiang exporter of human hair -- typically used in weaves and extensions -- to be blacklisted in recent months for using forced labor.

The announcement came as the US State, Commerce, Treasury and Homeland Security departments warned US businesses to beware importing goods through supply chains that involve forced or prison labor in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China.

And they also warned companies against supplying surveillance tools to be used by authorities in Xinjiang, or aiding in the construction of facilities used in the mass detention of Muslims and minorities in the province.

The Chinese government "continues to carry out a campaign of repression in Xinjiang, targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups," the State Department said.

Businesses that expose themselves to this "should be aware of the reputational, economic, and legal risks," they said.

© 2020 AFP

DESPICABLE ME
Unpopular New Zealand health minister quits after COVID lapse
Issued on: 02/07/2020

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (L) said the minister's presence had become a distraction. He had also been accused of blaming top health official Ashley Bloomfield (R) Marty MELVILLE AFP/

Wellington (AFP)

New Zealand's health minister resigned Thursday after a public backlash over his breach of lockdown and his criticism of the civil servant responsible for the country's world-leading coronavirus response.

Outgoing minister David Clark was already under a cloud after breaking lockdown in April and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who faces an election in September, admitted his presence had become a distraction.

"It's essential our health leadership has the confidence of the New Zealand public," she said.


"As David has said to me, the needs of the team must come before him as an individual."

Clark described himself as "an idiot" in April after admitting he breached strict lockdown orders by taking a 20-kilometre (12-mile) drive to the beach with his family.

He kept his job but was kept out of the public eye, with health department director-general Ashley Bloomfield appearing alongside Ardern to give daily updates on the coronavirus crisis.

As the success of New Zealand's response became apparent -- it has recorded only 22 deaths in a population of five million -- the bespectacled Bloomfield became wildly popular, with fans printing his face on tea towels and posting tributes on social media.

It meant there was public anger when Clark criticised Bloomfield for a series of mistakes linked to border quarantine and footage went viral of the minister admonishing his subordinate as the civil servant stood by looking crestfallen.

Critics said it was "like kicking a puppy" and accused Clark of throwing Bloomfield "under a bus".

Announcing his resignation, Clark insisted he had a warm relationship with Bloomfield and singled him out for praise.

"He is an exceptional public servant," Clark told reporters.

"Thank you Ashley and your team for the extraordinary work you have done for our country during our most serious health crisis in a century."

Clark denied he was pushed from his ministerial position ahead of the September 19 election, saying he only stayed on after breaking lockdown because he did not want to leave in the midst of a health emergency.

"Now that we're on a stable footing, it feels appropriate to let someone else take the reins," he said.

Ardern said Education Minister Chris Hipkins would handle the health portfolio until the election.

If the government is re-elected, Ardern did not rule out another ministerial role for Clark, who plans to stay in parliament.

Uruguay rides out COVID threat without imposing a lockdown

Issued on: 02/07/2020 -

Women jog along the seafront of Uruguay's capital Montevideo, where government strategy has kept the coronavirus pandemic under control Mariana SUAREZ AFP/File
Montevideo (AFP)

Uruguay's president was recently photographed surfing in the early morning ahead of a cabinet meeting, symbolizing his government's relief that a policy of "freedom with responsibility" in containing the COVID-19 pandemic is succeeding.

Photos of 47-year-old Luis Lacalle Pou emerging from the South Atlantic in a wetsuit with a board under his arm and a smile on his lips hit the newsstands on Tuesday, as Europe reopened its borders to 15 countries.

The list included only one Latin American country: Uruguay.

With less than 1,000 registered novel coronavirus cases and just 27 deaths, the country of 3.4 million is a notable exception in a region that has become the epicenter of the global health crisis.

Uruguay currently has just 83 active cases, while its giant neighbor Brazil is the world's worst-hit country after the United States.

This success is especially remarkable as there never was an official lockdown.

- Closures, but no lockdown -

Instead, amid industry furloughs and school and border closures, officials urged people to stay indoors and strictly adhere to social distancing.

The message was drilled home in the media and by police helicopters flying overhead.

The center-right president, who took office in early March as the pandemic was heating up, has said he opted for "individual freedom" rather than "a police regime."

The calls for self-isolation were widely followed.

Infectious diseases specialist Alvaro Galiana attributes Uruguay's success to early tracing.

"The early appearance of well known cases, at a time when the circulation of the virus within the population was very limited, led to adequate measures being implemented -- even if at the time they seemed exaggerated -- right at the start of the school year," Galiana said, referring to the southern hemisphere's school year.

Uruguay's demographics were also in its favor, given a low population density and the absence of large urban centers outside of the capital Montevideo.

- Gradual easing -

Uruguay chose to ease back to normal gradually, beginning in April with the return of 45,000 construction workers. Later, cafes and restaurants reopened, followed by gyms in May.

Shopping centers reopened in mid-June and football, the national passion, is due to resume on August 15, though in empty stadiums.

The economic shock however has been considerable: 200,000 people are unemployed, a massive spike from the 10,000 at the start of the pandemic. Exports fell 16 percent in the first half of the year, and GDP is expected to fall by 3.0 percent this year.

The IMF is forecasting a 9.4 percent contraction for all of Latin America this year.

The government is also relaxing requirements in a bid to attract foreign investment.

This week, Uruguay became the first country in the region to allow schools, colleges and universities to reopen.

The government however is refusing to declare victory, fearing flare-ups or even a second wave. Meanwhile, after three months of voluntary confinement, Uruguayans are easing back into a semblance of normality.

In February work started on the first tests to screen for the virus, said Henry Cohen, a specialist on the government's COVID-19 advisory board. "Today we have more than the country needs," he said.

Spanish carrier Iberia is to resume direct flights between Madrid and Montevideo on Sunday, though land borders with Brazil and Argentina remain closed.

Facundo Caballero, 29, has been waiting to join his girlfriend in Europe since his flight to Paris was canceled in March.

"I've been waiting for someone to tell me 'go ahead' and I'll go for it. You never know if there is a second wave and I have to stay here longer," he said.

© 2020 AFP