"PERSIST "

Elizabeth Warren book: Massachusetts senator reflects on 2020 loss and gender in new memoir

By Daniella Diaz, Aaron Pellish and Rashard Rose, CNN


Weeks before Elizabeth Warren launched her first senatorial campaign, she made a call to a woman she said was a longtime Democratic activist in Massachusetts. She recalls telling the woman she was going to run for Senate.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 22: (L-R) Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks during a news conference concerning the extension of eviction protections in the next coronavirus bill, at the U.S. Capitol on July 22, 2020 in Washington, DC. Amid economic hardships during the pandemic, the federal moratorium on evictions is set to expire on Friday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

"Martha lost," Warren says the woman responded, according to her new memoir. The woman was referencing Martha Coakley, who was the first female Senate nominee of a major party in Massachusetts, but lost two statewide campaigns.

"Oof," Warren responded.

That's just one of many anecdotes the Massachusetts senator recalls in her new memoir out this week where she reflects on gender and loss in the 2020 presidential campaign. She also details her countless plans that she says would help middle class Americans, something she became known for during the campaign.

In the memoir, "Persist," a copy of which was obtained by CNN, Warren acknowledged publicly -- now months later -- that maybe she "wasn't good enough" for American voters to win the 2020 presidential primary.

"I didn't want to run for president to make a point," Warren wrote. "I wasn't carefully measuring how hard to hit a glass ceiling. I didn't need to be heralded as the First Something. I just wanted a chance to fight for the things I cared about -- economic opportunity, racial justice, halting climate change, combating Washington corruption, improving our education system. I had been talking about these issues for a long time."

She goes on to write: "But there's always another possibility, a much more painful one: in this moment, against this president, in this field of candidates, maybe I just wasn't good enough to reassure the voters, to bring along the doubters, to embolden the hopeful."

Throughout her memoir -- the third book Warren has written as a politician -- she reflects on the role her gender played in her presidential campaign. While she never directly blamed sexism for losing the nomination, it's a theme that comes up again and again in anecdotes of her life that are intertwined with decisions she's made or views she has on issues.

In one, she recounts thinking as she lay in bed after her first day fundraising for her presidential bid, "I wondered whether anyone said to Bernie Sanders when he asked for their support, 'Gore lost, so how can you win?' I wondered whether anyone said to Joe Biden, 'Kerry lost, so clearly America just isn't ready for a man to be president.'"

She added: "I tried to laugh, but the joke didn't seem very funny."

Warren sprinkles commentary about her then-2020 rivals throughout the memoir. She calls Sanders "fearless and determined" and Biden "a good leader and fundamentally decent man."

With Sanders specifically, she referenced him telling her a woman couldn't win the election. (Sanders denied the characterization of that conversation in a statement to CNN at the time.)

"The news caused a stir. But the question of whether a woman could win the presidency was clearly on voters' minds, and it would come up in debates and town halls," she said. "When asked, I always told an upbeat story about why I believed success was within our grasp, but I was under no illusion -- I knew that winning would be an uphill battle."

There is one presidential rival Warren does not compliment in her memoir -- Michael Bloomberg. Warren recalls her first debate performance against the former New York City mayor and billionaire where she felt he was not listening to her attacks against him.

"Like so many women in so many settings, I found myself wondering if he had even heard me," she wrote.

Many attributed Warren's debate performance that night in Las Vegas as to why Bloomberg dropped out of the race. But Warren reflects on what critics said about what she told Bloomberg that night -- about how she came off, according to one analyst, as "mean and angry."

"And there it was, the same damn remark made about every woman who ever stood up for herself and threw a punch. Repeat after me: fighting hard is 'not a good look,'" she wrote.

Warren also goes into detail about several parts of her past, including a story she often told on the campaign trail about being fired from her teaching job when she was pregnant.

A portion of her memoir is devoted to memorializing her brother Don Reed Herring, who died of coronavirus last year and whose death, she wrote, "didn't need to happen," blaming the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic.

Warren also acknowledges her claims to Native American heritage as a "bad mistake."

"I should never have identified as Native American. I've never been a citizen of a tribal nation. Tribal nations -- and only tribal nations -- determine who their citizens are," she wrote.

Still, Warren's memoir is not just about her past, but about what she wants to continue to do in the future, she wrote.

"This book is not a campaign memoir. It is not a rehash of big public events. It's a book about the fight that lies ahead," she wrote.

"It's about the plans we need -- no surprise there! -- but it's about much more than plans. It's about the passion and commitment that underlie those plans, and the human connection that will keep us in this fight until we see real change

Intel investing $3.5B in New Mexico fab upgrade, boosting US chipmaking


Intel on Monday announced a $3.5 billion upgrade to a chip manufacturing plant in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, that will boost a processor stacking technology called Foveros. That spending, combined with $20 billion to build two new facilities in Arizona, is part of a major effort by Intel to rejuvenate its manufacturing.

© Provided by CNET Intel plans to spend $3.5 billion upgrading its chipmaking plant in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Intel

The chipmaker on Sunday confirmed the upgrade plan, first reported on CBS' 60 Minutes, and said Monday it'll mean 700 new jobs at the site over the next three years. Intel manufacturing chief Keyvan Esfarjani detailed the plan at a press conference with New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico's two senators, Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, Intel said. The spending also means 1,000 new construction jobs, with work starting this year.© Stephen Shankland/CNET

Intel has struggled to shrink circuitry, key to making processors competitive and profitable.

Intel led chipmaking progress for decades but fell behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in recent years. Investing in its new chipmaking plants, called fabs, is part of a major Intel effort to restore its competitiveness under new CEO Pat Gelsinger. The company is also planning to build chips for others, a business called a foundry, and to rely on other chip foundries to build some of its own chips.

At the New Mexico fab, Intel will increase use of a processor packaging technology called Foveros that Intel debuted in 2018 and first used in an efficient but uncommon chip code-named Lakefield. Stacking separate chip elements atop one another and connecting them with power distribution and communication links is technologically difficult, but Intel expects it'll increase manufacturing flexibility. It also could be used to accommodate chip elements made at other chip foundries.
More chipmaking investment, less stock buybacks

Intel is happy with current political efforts to drum up federal funding to help the US chip industry. Gelsinger said Intel will invest more of its own money, too, instead of spending it on buying its own stock, which keeps shareholders happy but doesn't help research or operations.

"We will not be anywhere near as focused on buybacks going forward as we have in the past," Gelsinger told 60 Minutes. "That's been reviewed as part of my coming into the company, agreed upon with the board of directors."

Appeasing shareholders was important as Intel struggled, Moor Insights and Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead tweeted Monday. "If they didn't do buybacks I think the company would have been broken up," Moorhead said. One widely suggested remedy for Intel's woes has been to split its chip design business, which comes up with processors like its Core and Xeon models, from its chip manufacturing business.

Intel's stiff competition

The Silicon Valley company remains profitable, but it faces stiff competition on several fronts besides TSMC and the third major chipmaker, Samsung . All smartphone processors are members of the Arm family, including Apple 's A series. Apple also has split from Intel for its new M series of Mac processors. Amazon, meanwhile, has an Arm server processor for its Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing foundation that powers huge swaths of the internet.

Intel also faces a smaller Arm rival called RISC-V that's won interest from some notable chip startups. One, Tenstorrent, hired Jim Keller, formerly a high-profile Intel chip designer, as chief executive. Another, Esperanto Technologies, has revealed an AI chip design with more than 1,000 processing cores.

In a sign of how serious Intel is about its foundry business, though, it'll be able to build both Arm and RISC-V processors.

TSMC is spending billions of dollars on its new fabs, too, mostly in Taiwan but also in Arizona. Gelsinger is bullish, though: "We believe it's going to take us a couple of years and we will be caught up," he told 60 Minutes.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says Americans can expect a 'big return' from Biden's $4.1 trillion spending proposal

bwinck@businessinsider.com (Ben Winck) 

© Andrew Harnik/AP Treasury secretary Janet Yellen pushed for stimulus checks 

President Biden's spending plans can offer a "big return," Tres. Sec. Janet Yellen said Sunday.

The measures should be paid for while interest rates sit at historic lows, she added.

If inflation rises more than expected, the government "has the tools to address it," Yellen said.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated her support for President Joe Biden's spending plans on Sunday, pitching the measures as strong investments in the country's future.

The president on Wednesday rolled out a $1.8 trillion spending proposal that includes funding for paid family and medical leave, universal pre-K, and childcare. The measure follows the March passage of Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus package and joins the president's $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan as his latest step in big-government economic policy.

Republicans and some moderate Democrats have balked at the follow-up plans cost, saying the measures would dangerously inflate the government's debt pile. Yellen countered on NBC's "Meet The Press," saying it's a better time than ever to spend on such projects.

"We're in a good fiscal position. Interest rates are historically low... and it's likely they'll stay that way into the future," the Treasury Secretary said. "I believe that we should pay for these historic investments. There will be a big return."

Video: Full Yellen Interview: 'Over the long run, deficits need to be contained' 

(NBC News)

That's not to say the government shouldn't offset the multitrillion-dollar price tag. The Biden administration rolled out a handful of tax hikes and stronger enforcement to cover the spending, but those proposals were swiftly rejected by Republicans. The GOP has criticized Biden's public-works plan and a proposed corporate tax increase, calling it a "slush-fund" and a "Trojan horse" for Democratic priorities.

The economy is poised to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic throughout 2021 and, in turn, bring in greater tax revenues. That stronger growth justifies some spending, but the safest and most sustainable way to spend on infrastructure and care involves equitable tax increases, Yellen said.

Stricter tax compliance would also play a critical role. The country is currently estimated to lose $7 trillion through tax underpayment over the next decade. Stepping up compliance efforts and adequately funding the IRS can also boost tax collection, Yellen added.

The Treasury Secretary also rebuffed concerns of the massive spending fueling a sharp rise in inflation.

Administration officials and the Federal Reserve already anticipates the latest stimulus and economic reopening to drive a sharp but temporary bout of stronger inflation. While Biden's latest proposals are far larger than the March stimulus, plans to spend them over eight to 10 years cuts down on the risk of rampant inflation, Yellen said.

"I don't believe that inflation will be an issue, but if it becomes an issue, we have tools to address it," she added. "These are historic investments that we need to make our economy productive and fair."

A majority of investors and business owners have faith in Biden's economic boom, new UBS survey finds

© Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Jorge Sactic is the owner of Chapina Bakery in Langley Park, Maryland. Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty

About 64% of investors and business owners see Biden's policies aiding the global recovery.

A majority also said Biden's measures will support global markets, according to a UBS survey.

The optimism comes as Biden preps another $4.1 trillion in spending to boost the economic recovery

The Biden boom is in full swing and people like what they see.

Investors and business owners around the world are largely optimistic that the Biden administration's economic policies will fuel a robust recovery and leave them on better footing, according to a recent UBS survey. Some 64% of respondents view the administration as having a positive impact on the global economy. Six in 10 believe the White House's policies will support global markets.

Roughly 57% of investors and business owners said the Biden administration has benefitted their personal finances, and 54% of business owners said the policies benefitted their companies.

In just the first 100 days of his time in office, President Joe Biden has embarked on one of the most ambitious policy strategies in modern history. The president passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus measure - the second-largest in history - on March 11 and has since unveiled follow-up packages that include roughly $4.1 trillion in additional spending. Economists have largely linked soaring retail sales and stronger economic growth to the stimulus measure.

To be sure, President Joe Biden's policies aren't the only cause for optimism. New COVID-19 cases in the US sit at their lowest seven-day average since October, and state and local governments have been slowly rolling back lockdown measures for weeks. And while the vaccination rate has slowed, it still sits at an average 2.5 million doses per day. At the current rate, the US will reach herd immunity over the next three months, according to Bloomberg data.

In the US specifically, seven in 10 investors expressed hope about the path of the economy. That compares to just 52% three months ago and makes US investors the most positive globally, UBS said.

The share of US investors growing positive toward stocks rose to 71% from 59%. The shift underscores a broader move toward riskier assets as investors ditch the safe havens they held at the start of the pandemic and position for a swift recovery.

The responses join other sentiment gauges that have turned stronger in recent months. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to a fresh pandemic-era high in April, according to a Friday release. That level is the highest since March 2020. Separately, the Conference Board's consumer confidence measure rose to its highest level since February 2020 as the healing labor market and latest round of stimulus checks boosted outlooks.

UBS interviewed 2,850 investors and 1,150 business owners around the world from March 30 to April 18. Responses were sourced from 14 markets including the US, the UK, Mexico, mainland China, Japan, Italy, Brazil, and Mexico.

Hong Kong plan to force Covid vaccines on foreign domestic workers sparks alarm

Hong Kong’s government has sparked discrimination concerns over plans to force hundreds of thousands of foreign domestic workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or face losing their job.

Authorities have embarked on mass mandatory testing of the city’s 370,000 domestic workers after a more infectious strain was detected in the community, and flagged plans for compulsory vaccinations.

Under the measures, workers would need to be vaccinated before their contracts could be renewed, and any incoming worker would be required to have the vaccination to enter Hong Kong.

Related: Hong Kong passes law that can stop people leaving

The vast majority of Hong Kong’s domestic workers are migrant workers, primarily from the Philippines and Thailand, and no other foreign workforce has been singled out for mandatory vaccines, drawing criticism from Philippines officials. The country’s foreign affairs secretary, Teddy Locsin Jr, praised Hong Kong’s provision of free vaccines to domestic workers, but said singling them out to make it mandatory “smacks of discrimination”

.

Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images Migrant workers queue up for Covid-19 testing in the Central district of Hong Kong on Saturday.

“If it is a special favour, it is unfair to other nationalities. Hong Kong can do better than that,” he said.

Eman Villanueva, spokesperson for the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, said the enforced testing and proposed vaccinations were “discrimination and social exclusion of domestic workers at its worst”, and accused the government of “blackmailing” workers by tying vaccines to contracts.

“They did not respond like this when there were outbreaks in several fitness gyms and dance studios, restaurants, banks, etc,” he said in an opinion piece for Stand News. “It’s because to them we are easy targets and scapegoats. It’s because they know we don’t have much choice but to follow their discriminatory, illogical, and unreasonable impositions or end up jobless.”

The comments by Locsin echoed those by the Philippines consul general, Raly Tejada, who said his office had been very supportive of Hong Kong’s free vaccine programme, but if it was to become mandatory for work contracts then it should be non-discriminatory and include “other non-resident workers who are similarly situated so that there is no feeling of being singled out”.

In explaining the new rules, Hong Kong’s minister for labour, Dr Law Chi-kwong, said the “high risk group” mainly spent their holidays with friends, which could lead to cross-family infections. The migrant workers, who usually travel alone to Hong Kong, have one day off a week and frequently gather in public places to socialise away from the home where they work.

“In the long run, we need to think about how to get more domestic workers vaccinated,” said Law.

On Sunday the Hong Kong government said the labour department was “working out the relevant details” on mandatory vaccines. It said its mandatory testing programme did not discriminate based on race or status, but did not address accusations that its plans for mandatory vaccines were.

It appealed to all workers to get their vaccines voluntarily “to protect their own health and that of their employers’ family and others, and to avoid being subject to any regular testing in the future”.

It also urged employers to encourage their workers and to give them sufficient rest after getting vaccinated. Those who could not be vaccinated for health reasons could get an exemption, it added.

On Sunday health authorities reported the second consecutive day of no community transmission cases detected. There had been about 20 in the past two weeks.

Diego Maradona was in agony for the 12 hours leading up to his death, his treatment was "reckless and indifferent," Argentine medical board says


By Iván Pérez Sarmenti and Jack Guy, CNN 

Marcos Brindicci/Getty Images Diego Armando Maradona, at the time head coach of Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata, greets fans prior to a match against Boca Juniors at the Alberto J. Armando Stadium on March 7, 2020 in Buenos Aires.

Diego Maradona was in agony for 12 hours and the medical team treating him was "deficient, reckless and indifferent" when faced with his possible death, according to a report from the medical board appointed to investigate his demise.

The Argentine football great "did not have full use of his mental faculties" and could have had "a better chance of survival" if he had been admitted to a healthcare facility, the medical board concluded in its report, which will become of the part of the judicial investigation into this death, the prosecutor handling the case confirmed to CNN.

© Jorge Duran/AFP/Getty Images Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona, wearing a diamond earring, balances a soccer ball on his head as he walks off the practice field following the national selection's May 22, 1986 practice session in Mexico City.

Investigators are looking into why the former footballer was treated at a house during his final days and whether his psychological state allowed him to make decisions of his own accord, as well as looking into a lack of treatment for his heart condition, among other things

© David Cannon/Allsport/Getty Images Diego Maradona in action during a 1986 World Cup qualifying match against Peru at the National Stadium on June 23, 1985 in Lima, Peru.

Each of these elements is mentioned in the medical board report, which CNN obtained from a source working on the case.


No one has been formally charged, but seven people have been told they are under investigation, although they deny any responsibility.

READ: Tormented genius who became one of football's greatest players


'He would have had a better chance of survival'

"Although it is counterfactual to assert that DAM (Diego Armando Maradona) wouldn't have died if he had been treated adequately, taking into account what was known about the days leading up to his death we agree that he would have had a better chance of survival if he had been treated in a healthcare facility according to medical best practice," reads the report.

The work of Maradona's medical team, led by neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, was heavily criticized by the investigators.

In addition to calling their actions "inadequate, deficient and reckless," the board said it is possible to infer "that the medical team viewed fully and completely the possible death of the patient, were completely indifferent to the possibility and didn't change their behavior or treatment plan, sustaining the damaging omissions laid out previously, leaving the health of the patient 'to chance.'"

In November, Luque told prosecutors about his professional relationship with Maradona. "There is nothing to suggest I was negligent," he said.

In December, Cosachov's lawyer told CNN that his client "had used her best judgment from a medical point of view."

READ: Diego Maradona did 'everything better and bigger, but fell more dangerously and darker'


'He started to die at least 12 hours prior'

The experts also confirmed the results of an autopsy which determined that the cause of death was "acute pulmonary edema secondary to the exacerbation of chronic cardiac insufficiency" and tests did not find drugs or alcohol in his system.

But they underlined that Maradona, who was aged 60 at the time of his death, suffered prolonged agony.

"DAM started to die at least 12 hours before 12.30 p.m. on 25/11/2020, which is to say there were unmistakable signs of a period of prolonged agony, and as a result we conclude that the patient was not adequately monitored from 00:30 a.m." that day.

"The warning signs that the patient exhibited were ignored," continue the experts, who also mention an audio message sent to Maradona's loved ones by physical therapist Nicolás Taffarel.

"Last week I told them we had to get him up because he could develop a pulmonary edema," he said.



READ: Naples mourns Diego Maradona as his former club bids to rename the stadium in his honor


'He did not have full use of his mental faculties'

The former footballer "did not have full use of his mental faculties, nor was he in a fit state to make decisions about his health, from at least the time he was admitted to (the medical clinic in the city of La Plata)," according to the report.

It goes on to discuss the supposed "home hospitalization" Maradona received at a house in Tigre, in the northern part of Buenos Aires, after he was checked out of the Olivos Clinic on November 11, and where he died two weeks later.

The board said the home hospitalization "was not so, as the basic conditions to hospitalize a patient with multiple complex pathologies like those DAM had did not exist."

The medical experts also asserted that the nursing team at the house was "plagued by irregularities and deficiencies," that the "correct checks and care" were not performed by "practicing physicians" and "therapeutic assistants."

Finally, the board discussed the psychiatric medication prescribed to Maradona.

Despite being "suitable in both dosage and posology for his nervous disorder," it can't be ruled out "that this medication didn't play a role in the fatal outcome" as "cardiological and laboratory tests were not carried out in the 14 days before death."

Although all of those being investigated say they committed no wrongdoing, they have not yet commented on the medical board report, which will be analyzed by prosecutors working on the case to decide how the judicial investigation will move forward.

Covid: political chaos and poverty leave South America at virus’s mercy

Tom Phillips in Rio 


South America produced some of the most horrific episodes of the pandemic last year, with mass graves dug in the Brazilian Amazon and bodies dumped on pavements in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil. But at the end of 2020 there was some hope that with the onset of vaccination the worst might have passed. Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, even claimed the crisis had reached its “tail-end” in December.

© Photograph: Amanda Perobelli/Reuters 

A protest in Sao Paulo against President Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic, 30 April 2021.

Such predictions have proved grotesquely misguided. Brazil’s death toll has since more than doubled to more than 400,000, after an explosion of infections caused a catastrophic healthcare collapse. At least 100,000 Brazilians have died in the last 36 days and 100,000 more are expected to lose their lives before July.

Many of Brazil’s neighbours are also in dire straits, including Uruguay, which was once heralded as a regional success story but in April suffered its deadliest month. On Thursday Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia all registered their highest daily death tolls with 561, 505 and 106 fatalities respectively. The mayor of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, urged residents to stay at home, warning they faced “the most difficult two weeks – not of the pandemic, but of our lives”. The situation in authoritarian Venezuela is harder to gauge, but also appears to be deteriorating.

© Provided by The Guardian A man cycles past shuttered businesses during the strict lockdown in Bogotá, Colombia. Photograph: Fernando Vergara/AP

Last week South America, home to 5.5% of the world’s population, suffered nearly 32% of all reported Covid deaths. “What’s happening is a catastrophe,” Argentina’s health minister, Carla Vizzotti, admitted as her country’s Covid restrictions were extended until late May.

Public health experts say South America’s agony is partly the result of longstanding structural problems, including underfunded health systems and poverty. Effective quarantine policies have proved impossible to enforce in a region where between 30% and 60% of workers are employed in the informal sector.

“People need to eat,” said Michel Castro, a 31-year-old resident of Rio’s Chatuba favela, who nearly died from Covid but understood why neighbours were still going out to work. Castro scoffed at the emergency payments that hard-up families were being offered by the government. “It’s nothing. It’s like trying to quench somebody’s thirst with a pipette,” he said.

Political chaos has also been crucial to the virus’s spread. Bolsonaro’s sabotage of social distancing has earned him international notoriety and made him the focus of a domestic parliamentary inquiry that began last week. Upheaval in Peru – which has had three presidents since the pandemic started and is about to elect a fourth – has also hampered efforts to tame an outbreak which has killed at least 61,000 people.

But many specialists suspect South America’s current collapse is largely the work of the more contagious P1 variant that emerged late last year in the Brazilian city of Manaus and has spent 2021 rampaging across the continent, from Lima to Buenos Aires.

“Manaus should have been shut down: airports, ports, roads. This wasn’t done,” said Jesem Orrelana, a local epidemiologist who believes Brazil’s failure to contain the variant is to blame for South America’s current woes.

Orrelana said P1 was being aided and abetted by public exhaustion with South America’s seemingly endless epidemic, with many resuming their normal lives despite soaring infections and deaths.

The vaccination of older age groups offered some hope that future waves would be less deadly – but even that was not assured if new variants appeared. “You cannot underestimate coronavirus,” Orrelana warned. “If it was capable of doing this in 2021, it could easily do it again in 2022.”

Cuban government ends leading dissident's hunger strike
By Marc Frank

 1 day ago

© Reuters/ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI FILE PHOTO: 

Dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara speaks during an interview in Havana, Cuba

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's government put an end on Sunday to a week-long hunger strike staged by a leading dissident - the head of a group that has protested state censorship of artistic works - and was reported by authorities to be in stable condition.


A note published by the Havana Department of Public Health said Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara was "referred" to a local hospital early on Sunday for "self-imposed food deprivation" and arrived by ambulance "and walking without difficulty." He had spent seven days without food or fluids.

The San Isidro Movement led by Otero Alcantara, a performance artist, is a dissident group that includes a few dozen artists, writers and activists.

The health department said the hospital had found no sign of malnutrition or other chemical imbalances but said Otero Alcantara had been admitted, was in stable condition and was being attended to by physicians.

Members of the San Isidro movement said state security had forced Otero Alcantara from his home and that he was in custody, presumably at the hospital. They questioned the report and demanded more information.

"How is it possible he has no signs of malnutrition or dehydration after being on a hunger and thirst strike for more than 7 days?" the group asked in a Twitter post.

Otero Alcantara's home had been surrounded by police for days with no one allowed in or out during his hunger strike.

The U.S. State Department in a Twitter post on Saturday had expressed concern over Otero Alcantara's health and urged "the Cuban government to take immediate steps to protect his life and health."

People can survive more than a month without food, but rarely more than 10 days without food or fluids.

Members of the San Isidro Movement in November had staged a hunger strike against censorship and harassment of independent creators and activists by the Communist government. Police ended the hunger strike, prompting a rare protest by around 300 people in front of the Culture Ministry in Havana.

Authorities since then have vilified members of the group as outside agitators working with the United States. Its members repeatedly have been temporarily detained and often told they cannot leave their homes, with communications cut.

Otero Alcantara was arrested a few weeks ago as he protested a Communist Party congress by sitting in a garrote. Authorities seized or destroyed some of his art.

In his hunger strike, Otero Alcantara was demanding a return of his art, compensation, freedom of expression and an end to police harassment. The dissident group has been appealing for support since his hunger strike began, gaining little traction in Cuba but notice some abroad including from human rights organizations and the U.S. government.

(Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Will Dunham)

Italian rapper accuses state TV of attempted censorship

© Provided by The Canadian Press

MILAN — Italian rapper Fedez received a wave of public support Sunday after going public with attempts by RAI state television to censor his planned remarks on homophobia during an annual Worker's Day concert.

Fedez prevailed and made the statement as planned during the Saturday evening concert, saying it was the first time he had ever been asked to submit his remarks ahead of time.

He went on to read homophobic statements by members of Italy's right-wing League party. The rapper's remarks were made in support of legislation that seeks to punish discrimination and hate crimes against gays and transgender people, but which is stalled in parliament by right-wing opposition.

After RAI denied putting pressure on the rapper, Fedez released a recording of a phone call with a RAI executive and co-workers during which he was told that his remarks would be “inappropriate" and discouraging him from using the first and last names of the politicians he was citing.

The head of state-run RAI has promised to investigate.

Among those supporting Fedez were two former premiers, Enrico Letta, now head of the Democratic Party, and Giuseppe Conte, who has been tapped as head of the 5-Star Movement. Letta called on RAI to apologized to the rapper.

Gay rights groups mostly welcomed Fedez' words. The president of Arcigay, Gabriele Piazzoni, said he “gave voice to millions of us,” while the spokesman of Partito Gay (Gay Party), Fabrizio Marrazzo, said the phone call with the RAI management was “disconcerting” and called on RAI's oversight board to intervene.

The president of Equality Italia, Aurelio Mancuso, was more cautious, warning that polarization could further stall the proposed law, “which must be approved in the Senate, not on Fedez' Instagram page.”

League leader Matteo Salvini, meanwhile, went on an offensive, reiterating his reasons for opposing the legislation in television appearances and social media posts and offering to debate the issue on TV with Fedez.

Still, Salvini distanced himself from the remarks by the League members, calling them “disgusting.”

The so-called Zan Law, named for a Democratic Party lawmaker and gay rights activist Alessandro Zan, would add women along with people who are gay, transgender or have disabilities to the classes of those already protected under a law banning discrimination and punishing hate crimes.

Right-wing politicians object to language they claim would make it a crime to publicly oppose gay marriage or adoptions by gay people.

Colleen Barry, The Associated Press

Montreal 'ghost bike' honoring dead cyclist to be displayed in museum

MONTREAL — The dangerous stretch of Montreal underpass where Mathilde Blais died while cycling to work now has a bike path, with a concrete median to separate the riders from traffic passing by.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

And on Sunday, the white commemorative "ghost" bike installed to honour the 33-year-old woman's death was taken down to be sent to a museum, where it will highlight both the dangers of cycling and the progress made to make cities safer.


Groups in several Canadian cities have installed the white-painted bicycles at intersections where cyclists are killed, both as a memorial and a call to action for better infrastructure.

A ceremony was held to remove the bicycle honouring 33-year-old Blais, who died after being struck in the underpass seven years ago.

A coroner's report found her death was avoidable, and urged governments at all three levels to work to improve road safety for cyclists.

Blais' mother was on hand as the white bicycle, which was decorated with flowers, was taken down and handed to the president of Quebec City's Museum of Civilization.

Advocates said the ceremony was held to highlight the ongoing risk cyclists face, but also to recognize the progress that has been made.

They said Blais' death spurred efforts to build the protected bicycle path that now runs past the site of her death.

"Had this been in place seven years ago, Mathilde would not have died," said Séverine Le Page of Vélo Fantôme, the group that organizes the ghost bicycles in the city.

Le Page said the creation of the bicycle path, called the Réseau express vélo or REV, means the Blais' commemorative bicycle can finally be taken down and replaced with a plaque, with the permission of her family.

But she says other ghost bikes will remain in place throughout Montreal because the infrastructure is not yet in place to protect cyclists.

Quebec's automobile association says between 8 and 11 cyclists die on the province's roads each year.

Genevieve Laborde, Blais' mother, described her daughter as someone who always wanted to help others, whether it was through her work as a speech pathologist or by helping the homeless.

"I'm happy to know you can ride safely, because seven years ago it was a very dangerous place," she said of city cyclists.

Museum President Stéphan La Roche said the bicycle would be put on display as a "tangible witness to our social evolution."

He said it was a symbol of grief but also of increasing awareness of the need for safe urban infrastructure to protect cyclists and pedestrians from cars.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2021

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press