Germany: Catholic Church sees record drop in membership

More than half a million people officially left the Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany in 2019, new figures show. Just over half the population now belongs to one of the two main denominations.

Germany's top Catholic body said Friday that a record 272,771 people left the country's Catholic Church in 2019, and that the number of baptisms and weddings taking place in churches also dropped sharply.

The number compares with some 216,000 people canceling their membership in 2018, and beats the previous record of around 218,000 in 2014 by a large margin.

The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Georg Bätzing, said the statistics could not be made to look good in any way and that the drop in baptism and wedding ceremonies showed the "erosion of a personal attachment to the church" particularly clearly.

The German Protestant Church (EKD) also had cause to be concerned about its membership numbers, with 270,000 people leaving in 2019, an increase of 22% on the year before. The figure equals that of 2014.

Read more: German church at the center of over 100 coronavirus cases

Heinrich Bedford-Strohm (far left) and Bishop Georg Bätzing (far right) at a mass commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II
'Painful' losses

EKD head Heinrich Bedford-Strohm said that every person lost to the church was a painful blow, as church workers were all "highly motivated."

Churches in Germany also suffer financially when they lose members, as a church tax is deducted from people's incomes if they are registered as being either Catholic or Protestant.

Read more: Germany's churches reimagined: Practicing faith in a pandemic

No reason for leaving a church has to be given. Bedford-Strohm said the reasons for the increase in departures would be examined in a special study. Last year, both churches published a study in which they predicted that membership numbers would be halved by 2060.

With deaths outnumbering births in recent years, the fall in membership goes beyond the number of people leaving. There are now around 22.6 million Catholics in Germany, a drop of 400,000 in 2019, and 20.7 million Protestants, 427,000 fewer than the year before.

Altogether 52.1% of people in Germany still officially belong to one of the two main Christian denominations.

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Pandemic leads to rise in Canada fatal drug overdoses

Issued on: 28/06/2020

A pedestrian walks past a passed-out drug user on June 25, 2020 in Ottawa, Canada; an emergency government pandemic payment has been used by some addicts to buy drugs, and overdoses have surged Lars Hagberg AFP/File

Ottawa (AFP)

A homeless Canadian with a drug addiction, Luc Laplante has lost three friends -- Dave, Emily and Pat -- to opioid overdoses in the last three months of the coronavirus pandemic.

Partly to blame, he said, is a government emergency program that put temptation in the way of users by giving them a sudden cash infusion with few questions asked.

"People have been applying for the government COVID-19 aid, using it to binge on drugs and overdosing," he said, just hours after surviving a dangerously high dose of fentanyl himself.

It left him with a painful reminder: he fell while high, suffering a bloody scrape along the right side of his face.

Addicts and outreach workers say several factors have contributed to a surge in overdoses during the pandemic: physical isolation amid lockdowns, reduced access to addiction services such as safe injection sites, and shifts in health care resources from serving addicts to treating COVID-related illnesses.

- 'People went on benders' -

The Trudeau government introduced a monthly Can$2,000 ($1,500) emergency benefit in March to help Canadians left jobless by the pandemic, as businesses were ordered closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The government simplified the application process to quickly funnel payments to Canadians in need.

Applicants are required only to answer a few questions and certify their veracity.

"With Can$2,000 in their pocket, people just went on benders," Laplante said.

"They had access to quick cash and it killed them."

The Ontario coroner estimates fatal overdoses have shot up by 25 percent in the last three months. In British Columbia, deaths increased by 40 percent over the same period last year.

- Clusters of overdoses -
"Tragically, other jurisdictions across the country are reporting similar trends," Canada's chief public health officer Theresa Tam said last month.

She pointed to "clusters of overdoses due to unknown or unusual mixes of toxic illicit substances" in several cities, including Toronto and Calgary.

Bonnie Henry, the chief public health officer in British Columbia, broke down in tears at a recent briefing while describing a record 170 overdose fatalities in May, more than the number of coronavirus deaths in the province.

"COVID-19 is not our only health crisis," Henry said.

Three safe injection sites in Ottawa's Lower Town neighborhood slashed in half the number of spaces available to drug users, in keeping with new social distancing rules.

As a result, some people have been using drugs and overdosing in the streets.

- Outside a 'safe' site -

An AFP journalist observed paramedics responding to several overdoses right outside a safe injection site.

Laplante, 37, a bent cigarette dangling from his lips and with dirt wedged beneath his fingernails, said he was alone in an empty parking lot when he shot up Monday night.

He said he was looking to relieve pain in his knee, aggravated by walking around in poor footwear while lugging all his worldly possessions in a large backpack.

It was a "stronger batch of drugs" than he was used to that did him in, he insisted.

Luckily for him, a passerby spotted him lying on the ground and alerted paramedics.

"They got me back on my feet and sent me on my way. I rested up and did more drugs," he said.

Anne Marie Hopkins of Ottawa Inner City Health said some of her clients had used payments to rent hotel rooms and died of an overdose -- alone.

"It's very sad, and devastating for everyone involved," she told AFP.

"We were already dealing with a lot, with the opioid crisis, but we were making headway. And then the pandemic hit and it made things worse," she said.

A University of British Columbia study released Thursday found that a disproportionately high number of Canadians with mental health issues (59 percent versus 33 percent) had experienced a decline in their emotional, psychological and social well-being during the pandemic. Many have ended up homeless and addicted.

"People who were already experiencing mental health challenges and... marginalization appear to be the hardest hit," researcher Emily Jenkins said in a statement.

Hopkins said she fears people with drug addictions could suffer "severe withdrawal effects" when the government funds run out.

Too, some who had used the money for better housing could be back on the streets.

And if people are found to have wrongly tapped into the emergency benefit, the government might claw it back from future financial aid, she said.

"It's a frightening time for a lot of people already suffering from trauma in their lives," she said.

© 2020 AFP

 CANNABIS CANADA 

Cannabis pandemic sales uptick not enough to save struggling sector

Issued on: 28/06/2020 -
NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A GAGGER

The sale of marijuana was classifed as an essential service at the start of Canada's coronavirus lockdowns Lars Hagberg AFP/File

Toronto (Canada) (AFP)

Canadian cannabis sales soared at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but not enough to bolster a sector in the throes of reorganization only two years after the drug was legalized.

Fearing a shortage of the dried flower, Canadians rushed to cannabis stores and websites to stock up ahead of what would turn out to be a three-month government-ordered lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Sales jumped almost 20 percent in March from the previous month and continued at a brisk pace through April, according to the government statistical agency.

ADVERTISING


Classified as an essential service, pot stores remained open while online sales exploded.

Industry expert Bradley Poulos, who teaches at Ryerson University in Toronto, said the pandemic has had a positive effect in that the legal market has actually seen an uptick in business.

"We saw a transfer of some of the illegal (black market) business over to the legal market during this time," he told AFP.

But, he added, that hasn't been enough of a boost for an industry in trouble and still struggling to reach profitability.

Canada was the second nation, after Uruguay in 2013, to legalize the recreational use of cannabis.

Canadian firms -- including Canopy Growth, Aurora and Tilray -- quickly established themselves as industry leaders, expanding into foreign markets in anticipation of legalization spreading, for recreational or medical use.

They raised billions of dollars from investors, listing on the Toronto and New York stock markets.

But the buzz quickly faded.

- High hopes -

Overly optimistic projections, management issues and product flops left the sector with an overcapacity and deep in the red. Companies' valuations plummeted.

Also, said Richard Carleton, head of the Canadian Securities Exchange, "The legal market's ability to compete with the illegal market has been compromised or hampered by a number of the government regulations."

The junior stock exchange lists about 175 cannabis firms.

Carleton pointed to a ban on advertising modelled on restrictions for tobacco, and the slow rollout of retail stores across Canada for the industry's lacklustre performance.

Firms and investors, he said, had high hopes that the recent introduction of higher-margin drinks and edibles infused with cannabinoids would start to turn things around.

But the pandemic threw a wrench in product launches, he said.

"It's not the way that we drew up our launch plans for our cannabis drinks," said Canopy Growth spokesman Jordan Sinclair.

The epidemic has also weighed on pot producers' operations when most were undergoing a massive restructuring.

Over the past year, several firms have curtailed their operations and scaled back expansion plans in order to preserve cash, as some company founders were shown the door.

In March, Canopy Growth announced the closure of two greenhouses and laid off 500 workers.

On Tuesday Aurora became the latest to scale down, closing five greenhouses and letting go 700 staff.

Rishi Malkani, head of Deloitte Canada's cannabis practice, said cannabis firms are facing dire liquidity problems.

About 10 companies on the verge of failing have filed for bankruptcy protection since the start of the year, and more are expected to follow in the coming months, he predicted.

"It's very difficult for cannabis companies to raise capital in the current environment," Malkani said.

He predicted that this unprecedented health crisis will accelerate consolidation in the industry.

Despite all of its woes, Carleton said he expects the nascent cannabis industry to overcome and grow, noting that its labelling as an essential service during pandemic has "provided more legitimacy for the industry."

© 2020 AFP

Arrests made in theft of Banksy's Paris artworkFrench authorities say they've arrested six people in connection to a work stolen from the Bataclan night club in 2019. The image, stenciled on a door, turned up in Italy two weeks ago.



French authorities said on Saturday they had arrested six people in connection with the theft of an artwork by British street artist Banksy.

The stenciled image of a veiled girl with head bowed in mourning was first spotted on an emergency exit door at Paris' Bataclan concert hall in June 2018, and was stolen the following January.

The Bataclan was targeted by "Islamic State" (IS) extremists as part of a coordinated terrorist attack that killed 90 people at the club, and 130 in total during a series of attacks across Paris on November 13, 2015.

When the work was stolen, the Bataclan took to Twitter to announce "profound indignation," calling the piece "a symbol of memory and belonging for everyone — locals, Parisians, citizens of the world."

At a June 11 press conference, Italian authorities announced they had located the stolen mural at a farmhouse in the central Italian region of Abruzzo.

Door cut off hinges

Though it is known that a group of hooded individuals used portable angle grinders to cut the door off its hinges and speed it away from the concert hall in a waiting van, it is not known how the door made its way to the Italian farmhouse, or why.


French authorities say six individuals are currently being held in pre-trial detention after arrests in the southeastern French regions of Isere and Upper Savoy over the past week.

Two of the suspects are being held for the theft, while the other four stand accused of accessory to theft.

The search for the painting has been ongoing across Europe since its disappearance. Speaking with the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, Aquila District Prosecutor Michele Renzi said: "The discovery was made possible by investigations conducted by the district prosecutor in collaboration with the police and French investigators."

Banksy, an anonymous art world phenom, has created a number of murals around the globe, many of them in Paris. Though ostensibly a street artist, those works of Banksy's that do make it to auction have regularly sold for millions of dollars.

js/mm (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

France arrests six over theft of Banksy artwork from Bataclan
Issued on: 27/06/2020 -

Italian Carabinieri military police stand by a mural attributed to British street artist Banksy that was stolen from the Bataclan theatre in Paris, where Islamist militants killed 90 people in 2015, after it was found in a farmhouse in central Italy, in L'Aquila, Italy, June 11, 2020. via REUTERS - UFFICIO STAMPA CARABINIERI

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Six people have been arrested in France over the theft of an artwork by street artist Banksy commemorating the victims of the 2015 Paris attacks that was stolen from the Bataclan concert hall, sources said Saturday.

The suspects were arrested across France this week after the artwork, an image of a girl in mourning painted on one of the Paris venue's emergency doors, was found in Italy earlier in the month, judicial and police sources told AFP.

Two were charged with theft while the other four were charged with concealing theft, the sources added. All six were placed in pre-trial detention.

The door with the artwork was cut out and taken in January last year at the Bataclan, where Islamic State gunmen massacred 90 people in 2015.

French and Italian police said on June 10 this year that they found the work in an abandoned farmhouse in Italy's central east Abruzzo region.

Good news! A stolen #Bansky was just recovered!
Art should be accessible to all, not stolen.
In a tribute to the Bataclan victims in Paris, Banksy's art called for dignity & respect, not greed.
Join the fight against illicit trafficking https://t.co/HLHkjcgTJc #ShareCulture pic.twitter.com/dmlehCr8Rf— Lara Palmisano (@larapalmisano) June 26, 2020

One of the French policeman who intervened in the 2015 Bataclan attack was present when the door was found, and was overcome with emotion, according to the French crime unit.

Works by Banksy, known for their distinctive style, irreverent humour and thought-provoking themes, have been found on walls, buildings and bridges from the West Bank to post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

At auction, they have sold for more than $1 million.

(AFP)

Coronavirus: Stars, nations raise billions in EU vaccine driveAn international summit has raised billions for the fight against the coronavirus, with a star-studded concert afterward. The campaign behind the events stresses the importance of world unity in overcoming the crisis.


Summit aims to help vulnerable countries battle corona


A virtual pledging summit held on Saturday as the culmination of a campaign launched by the European Commission and advocacy group Global Citizen has raised €6.15 billion ($7.01 billion) to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The conference, entitled Global Goal: Unite for Our Future — the Summit, was attended by several world leaders, artists and activists.

Von der Leyen spoke of an unbelievable result. The Commission and Germany together pledged around €5.3 billion, and other large pledges came from the US and Canada, among other countries.


Angela Merkel promised an additional €383 million at the summit while von der Leyen announced that the EU would provide an additional €4.9 billion. Germany had earlier promised €525 million for investments in vaccines.

Almost €10 billion was collected from EU, governments and billionaire philanthropists at a first fund-raising summit on May 4.

Speaking before the summit, von der Leyen said that a challenge such as the pandemic can be met "only if the world unites," stressing that investment in vaccines was needed at "unprecedented speed and scale."

Reporting on the summit, DW's chief international editor Richard Walker said much of the money would go to organizations that can coordinate the production and testing of vaccines.

Star-studded concert

Star musicians and actors then took part in an online concert also aimed at gaining funding to help the world combat the pandemic with vaccines and medication and to aid the hardest-hit communities to recover.

The concert, entitled Global Goal: United for our Future — the Concert, was hosted by actor Dwayne Johnson, and featured performances by musicians such as Shakira, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.

Personalities such as Chris Rock, Hugh Jackman, Charlize Theron and David Beckham also took the stage.

Ahead of the events, von der Leyen spoke of the power of artists "to inspire change." She said that at the two events, artists, scientists and world leaders would "speak with one voice, in a true and rare moment of global unity."

She also said the European Union was "fully committed to ensuring fair access to an affordable vaccine, as soon as possible, for everyone that needs it."

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Summit aims to help vulnerable countries battle corona

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A meat-processing plant has become epicenter of Germany's coronavirus outbreak. To stem the spread, authorities have massively restricted public life in the town of Gütersloh and a neighboring district. How was the virus able to spread so quickly?

Wirecard overseen by 'only one' German regulatory staffer: report

Germany's BaFin regulator had just one employee overseeing Wirecard, claims the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper. The online payments provider says its business "will be continued," despite its insolvency filing.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) in its Sunday edition said Germany's financial supervisory agency BaFin effectively tasked only one overseer with scrutiny of Wirecard as complex allegations spiraled in the past 16 months.

Back in January 2019, said FAZ, the Bonn-based BaFin, prompted by warnings over Wirecard, commissioned Germany's BPR financial accounting inspectorate in Berlin, but it had too few personnel. Only one employee was tasked.

The results of a special audit reportedly instigated by BaFin and DPR in February 2019, were still not available, said FAZ's Sunday edition, known as FAS.

Wirecard AG, a Munich-based payments processor, initiated insolvency protection proceedings in a Munich court on Thursday, and on Saturday said its subsidiaries were continuing operate.

Last week, it had admitted that €1.9 billion ($2.1 billion) missing from accounts in the Philippines — disclosed by external auditors — likely did not exist.

The Munich public prosecutor's office is currently investigating former chief executive Markus Braun and other former and active top managers of the DAX-30 concern.

Wirecard says it has 5,800 employees and 313,000 customers worldwide.

Read more: Opinion: Wirecard debacle exposes cracks at Germany's financial regulator

German financial regulator BaFin has itself come under scrutiny amid the 

Wirecard scandal

EU also scrutinizing German regulators

Germany's apparently fragmented oversight is to be examined by the EU's financial authority ESMA, which had been told by the European Commission to report back to it by July 15, said FAZ.

BaFin chief Felix Hufeld in May last year told a Frankfurt press conference that his agency could "not simply pin a Sheriff's badge to our lapel and ride off to arrest anyone we are suspicious of."

Only prosecuting authorities could use investigative "police means," Hufeld said: "If they conduct an investigation, that does not mean that we have been sleeping on the job."

BaFin itself was spotlighted last year after a series of reports in the Financial Times newspaper cast doubt on Wirecard's accounting practices. 

Business to be 'continued'

In share market statement Saturday, Wirecard AG said its business activities "will be continued," with its management board saying this was "in the best interests of the creditors."

"The business operations of the Group companies including the licensed units are currently ongoing," it stated.  

Payments for merchants of the firm's banking arm, Wirecard Bank, "will continue to be executed without restrictions," and it was in "constant contact with credit card organizations," the parent company added.

Former Wirecard boss Markus Braun was arrested earlier this week

Customer concerns

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) watchdog imposed restrictions on Wirecard's British unit on Thursday.

That in turn, reported Reuters, had forced firms relying on Wirecard services to temporarily suspend transactions, leading customers to complain on social media about losing access to vital services — and money.

The FCA said so-called safeguarding rules should protect and return customer money if a firm were to fail. 

Sarah Kocianski, head of research at the fintech consultancy 11:FS, told Reuters that the knock-on effects of the Wirecard drama posed a big test for digital firms that often relied on backend services provided by bigger players.

ipj/dr (Reuters, dpa, AFP)

Law enforcement struggles with policing in reckoning moment

By COLLEEN LONG June 25, 2020

WHAT POLICING SHOULD LOOK LIKE, 

ANDY OF MAYBERRY

FILE - In this June 11, 2020, file photo Assistant Chief Jeff Maddrey, leaves the Brooklyn North Patrol Borough in the Brooklyn borough of New York. “You know, being a Black man, being a police officer and which I’m proud of being, both very proud — I understand what the community’s coming from,” said Maddrey, an NYPD chief in Brooklyn and one of many officers who took a knee during protests. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

WE WHITE PEOPLE GREW UP WITH

A GOOD WHITE COP... ON TV 

WHAT POLICING IS; 

MILITARISED STATE VIOLENCE AGAINST PROTESTERS

FILE - In this June 4, 2020, file photo Austin police keep watch as demonstrators gather in downtown Austin, Texas, to protest the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

MORE PHOTOS https://apnews.com/438c1f1b1f76836ec6ee0c943cb1db3f

DISARM! DEMILITARIZE! DEFUND! THE  POLICE

WASHINGTON (AP) — As calls for police reform swell across America, officers say they feel caught in the middle: vilified by the left as violent racists, fatally ambushed by extremists on the right seeking to sow discord and scapegoated by lawmakers who share responsibility for the state of the criminal justice system.

The Associated Press spoke with more than two dozen officers around the country, Black, white, Hispanic and Asian, who are frustrated by the pressure they say is on them to solve the much larger problem of racism and bias in the United States. They are struggling to do their jobs, even if most agree change is needed following the death of George Floyd, who was Black, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

Most of the officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation or firing.

“You know, being a Black man, being a police officer and which I’m proud of being, both very proud — I understand what the community’s coming from,” said Jeff Maddrey, an NYPD chief in Brooklyn and one of many officers who took a knee as a show of respect for protesters.

All of officers interviewed agreed they’d lost some kind of trust in their communities. For some, the moment is causing a personal reckoning with past arrests. Others distinguish between the Floyd case and their own work, highlighting their lives saved, personal moments when they cried alongside crime victims.

“I have never seen overtly racist actions by my brothers or sisters in my department,” wrote white Covington, Kentucky, police specialist Doug Ullrich in an Op-Ed. “In fact, I believe that my department is on the leading edge of ‘doing it right.’”

Of course, hardly all police support change. Some are incensed — deriding colleagues as traitors for taking a knee or calling out sick to protest the arrests of some police for their actions amid the protests.

For Dean Esserman, senior counselor of the National Police Foundation and past police chief of Providence, Rhode Island, and New Haven and Stamford in Connecticut, the result so far has been for communities and police to pull away from one another. That will mean fewer personal connections — and more problems, he said.

“Many police leaders who are saying ‘don’t call us’ when there are emergencies miss the point,” he said. “I delivered nine babies in my career, and I never shot anybody. The community isn’t part of the job. It IS the job.”

It’s not the first time that police officers have found themselves caught in the middle. The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this decade spawned a “blue lives matter” campaign and the belief among many Americans that cops were being unfairly stigmatized over the actions of a few or split-second decisions during tense situations.

But now, Americans are largely united behind the idea that change is necessary: 29% think the criminal justice system needs “a complete overhaul,” 40% say it needs “major changes.” Just 5% believe no changes are needed, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The long, often dark history of American policing has meant minority communities are treated one way, and white ones another. Floyd’s killing cracked open the pain anew, but minorities have long begged for officers to stop seeing them as criminals and to police with equity.

While many activists acknowledge that the problems they’re fighting go beyond police departments, they say that doesn’t mean individual officers aren’t guilty.

“People who try to sell you ‘police reform’ are trying to sell you the idea that you can (asterisk)train(asterisk) the anti-Black racism out of an institution built upon and upheld by anti-Black racism,” activist Adam Smith tweeted.

A culture that allows racism to fester in law enforcement hasn’t yet changed because that would take deep structural shifts, new blood and a lot of time, said Sandra Susan Smith, a criminal justice professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

“It’s not just about the institutional mandate to control and confine, it’s also about the views individual officers bring to neighborhoods,” she said.

The difference now is top police officials nationwide are increasingly supporting reform. Patrick Yeos, president of the national Fraternal Order of Police, said change must come from the top down — and lawmakers must play their role.

“These issues are not created by officers,” he said.

Police don’t always have the autonomy their elected leaders claim they do. When NYPD officers were stopping hundreds of thousands of mostly Black and Hispanic men a year, top brass said officers were exercising their judgment — and the stops were necessary. But officers testified at a federal trial over the stop-and-frisk tactic they felt pressured by superiors to show they were cracking down. And those stops rarely resulted in arrest.

Cerelyn Davis, police chief in Durham, North Carolina, and president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said reform is possible, but there must national accountability standards, and teeth behind them.

“They talk about one bad apple,” she said. “In this field we can’t afford to have one bad apple. One bad apple can have grave consequences.”

As the debate has played out, the tensions have led to violence. Officers are accused of harming protesters. And they’re getting hurt and killed, too.

A sheriff’s deputy in California was killed and four others officers wounded by an Air Force sergeant with links to a far-right group, officials said. He was also charged with killing a federal security officer outside a courthouse. A 29-year-old police officer was shot in the head during a protest on the Las Vegas Strip and has been left paralyzed from the neck down.

Hundreds of officers have been injured in the protests in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, some critically.

This, too, has happened before. In 2014, after the grand jury declined to bring charges against a cop in the death of Eric Garner, a man angry over the death shot two officers dead in their patrol car. Across the nation, others were targeted.

In New York, where an officer was charged with strangulation Thursday after an apparent chokehold — the same tactic used on Garner — Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said continued reforms are needed and he lauded the push for them.

But, he said: “It’s also a moment in time where it’s a pretty tough time to be in law enforcement.”

___

Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo and Gary Fields in Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed to this report.

NWSL players kneel during the national anthem

By ANNE M. PETERSON

1 of 3
Players for the Portland Thorns, left, and the North Carolina Courage kneel during the national anthem before the start of their NWSL Challenge Cup soccer match at Zions Bank Stadium Saturday, June 27, 2020, in Herriman, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)


Players for the Portland Thorns and the North Carolina Courage knelt during the national anthem Saturday when the National Women’s Soccer League opened the Challenge Cup tournament in Utah.

The players and coaches wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts in warmups before the game, which was nationally televised on CBS. The players also knelt during a moment of silence before kickoff.

“We took a knee today to protest racial injustice, police brutality and systemic racism against Black people and people of color in America. We love our country and we have taken this opportunity to hold it to a higher standard. It is our duty to demand that the liberties and freedoms this nation was founded upon are extended to everyone,” the Thorns and Courage said in a joint statement released before the game.

The league said Friday that it would play the national anthem before the Challenge Cup games and that it would support the players in whatever they chose to do.

The NWSL is the first professional team sport in the United States to return amid the coronavirus outbreak. The monthlong Challenge Cup opened Saturday with a pair of games played without fans at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, Utah.

The Courage defeated the Thorns 2-1 in Saturday’s opening match. The Chicago Red Stars play the Washington Spirit in the late game.

“Today, hopefully, it was a powerful statement,” Courage midfielder Sam Mewis said. “It was an emotional time and I hope that both teams’ message comes through clearly.”

Thorns defender Becky Sauerbrunn said: ``The (players’ association) has been about collaborating with teams on what we can do to maintain and sustain the conversation around racial injustice in this country.

“We made a strong statement and we wanted to kind of maintain that momentum that has been happening and to show official commitment to the cause,” she added.

Megan Rapinoe, who plays for OL Reign but opted out of the Challenge Cup, was criticized when she knelt at an NWSL game and a pair of U.S. national team games in 2016. She said she wanted to express solidarity with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during the anthem to bring attention to racial inequality.

In response, U.S. Soccer adopted a rule that required players to stand. But that rule was repealed earlier this month amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd and racial inequity.

Rapinoe voiced her support for the NWSL players Saturday on social media: “You love to see these women using their voice, demanding better for America, and for black people and people of color.”

Mewis said the teams plan to keep calling attention to racial injustice.

“I think we want to keep this momentum and keep the attention on the Black Lives Matter movement throughout this tournament,” she said.

___

More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Mississippi takes step toward dropping rebel image from flag

THE LAST CONFEDERATE FLAG IN THE USA

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS



2 of 17 https://apnews.com/fdb1408a077b4988a71be339e4c94c2e
Don Hartness of Ellivilles,  A WHITE GUY SUPREMACIST 

walks around the Capitol carrying the current Mississippi state flag and the American flag, Saturday, June 27, 2020, in Jackson, Miss. A supporter of the current flag, Hartness wanted to make his position known to lawmakers as he walked around the building for several hours. The current state flag has in the canton portion of the banner the design of the Civil War-era Confederate battle flag, that has been the center of a long-simmering debate about its removal or replacement. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Spectators at the Mississippi Capitol broke into cheers and applause Saturday as lawmakers took a big step toward erasing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, a symbol that has come under intensifying criticism in recent weeks amid nationwide protests against racial injustice.

“The eyes of the state, the nation and indeed the world are on this House,” Republican Rep. Jason White told his colleagues.

On the other end of the Capitol, Sen. Briggs Hopson declared: “Today, you — Mississippi — have a date with destiny.”

Mississippi has the last state flag with the Confederate battle emblem — a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars. Many see the emblem as racist, and the flag has been divisive for generations in a state with a 38% Black population.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said Saturday for the first time that he would sign a bill to change the flag if the Republican-controlled Legislature sends him one. He previously said he would not veto one — a more passive stance.

“The argument over the 1894 flag has become as divisive as the flag itself and it’s time to end it,” Reeves said.

On Saturday, the House and Senate voted by more than the required two-thirds majority to suspend legislative deadlines and file a bill to change the flag. That allows debate on a bill as soon as Sunday


Saturday’s vote was the big test, though, because of the margin. Only a simple majority is needed to pass a bill.

“I would never have thought that I would see the flag come down in my lifetime,” said Democratic Sen. Barbara Blackmon of Canton, who is African American.

A bill will erase the current Mississippi flag from state law. A commission will design a new flag that cannot include the Confederate battle emblem but must have the phrase “In God We Trust.” The new design will be put on the ballot Nov. 3. If a majority voting that day accept the new design, it will become the state flag. If a majority reject it, the commission will design a new flag using the same guidelines.

“I know there are many good people who ... believe that this flag is a symbol of our Southern pride and heritage,” said White, the Republican speaker pro tempore of the House. “But for most people throughout our nation and the world, they see that flag and think that it stands for hatred and oppression.”

Republican Rep. Chris Brown of Nettleton appeared at a 2016 rally outside the state Capitol for people who want to keep the Confederate emblem on the flag. He said Saturday that the current flag and a proposed new design should both go on the ballot.
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“I don’t think we can move forward together if we say, ‘You can have any flag you want except ... this one,’” Brown said. “If we put the current flag on the ballot with another good design, the people of Mississippi will change it. ... Let’s not steal their joy.”

White supremacists in the Legislature set the state flag design in 1894 during backlash to the political power that African Americans gained after the Civil War.

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the flag lacked official status. State laws were updated in 1906, and portions dealing with the flag were not carried forward. Legislators set a flag election in 2001, and voters kept the rebel-themed design.

Democratic state Rep. Ed Blackmon of Canton — the husband of Sen. Barbara Blackmon — told the House on Saturday that threats were made against him and others who served on a flag design commission in 2000. Ed Blackmon said Mississippi needs a design without the Confederate design so his children and grandchildren can stand at attention when they see it.

“We’ll all be proud to say, ‘That’s my flag, too,’” Blackmon said.

All of the state’s public universities and several cities and counties have stopped flying it because of the Confederate symbol.

Influential business, religious, education and sports groups are calling on Mississippi to drop the Confederate symbol.

People for and against the current flag filled the Capitol on Saturday.

Karen Holt of Edwards, Mississippi, was with several people asking lawmakers to adopt a new banner with a magnolia, which is both the state tree and the state flower. She said it would represent “joy of being a citizen of the United States,” unlike the current flag.

“We don’t want anything flying over them, lofty, exalting itself, that grabs onto a deadly past,” Holt said.

Dan Hartness of Ellisville, Mississippi, walked outside the Capitol carrying a pole that with the American flag and the current Mississippi flag. He said the state flag pays tribute to those who fought in the Civil War.

“Being a veteran, that’s important to me — that you remember these guys that fought in battle, whether they’re on the right side or the wrong side,” Hartness said.

____

Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.

‘Saying the quiet part out loud’: Trump criticized for suggesting $5 billion weapons contract awarded to boost 2020 chances in Wisconsin

Published on June 26, 2020 By Common Dreams


“There is nothing normal about the commander-in-chief publicly admitting that the government contracting process was corrupted by political considerations.”

Several shipbuilding companies may have grounds to file formal complaints with the U.S. Navy and the Government Accountability Office after President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested a multi-billion dollar weapons contract was awarded to a Wisconsin company because of its status location in a key 2020 battleground state.

Speaking to workers at Fincantieri Marinette Marine on Thursday, Trump said the company was selected for the $5.5 billion contract to build 10 guided-missile frigates because of the speed and maneuverability of its existing ships—and because of the company’s location in a swing state.

“I hear the maneuverability is one of the big factors that you were chosen for the contract,” the president said. “The other is your location in Wisconsin, if you want to know the truth.”

“Always saying the quiet part out loud and undermining trust in government along the way,” Peter W. Singer of the think tank New America tweeted in response.

Trump Says Electoral Vote Politics Swayed Navy’s Frigate Award https://t.co/jgLLurHT07 via @defenseone

“The other is your location in Wisconsin, if you want to know the truth.”
Always saying the quiet part out loud and undermining trust in government along the way.
— Peter W. Singer (@peterwsinger) June 26, 2020

Fincantieri Marinette Marine was awarded the contract in April, beating out companies in Maine, Mississippi, and Alabama. Maine, which has not supported a Republican for president in more than three decades, is currently expected to go to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in November, and the solidly-red states of Mississippi and Alabama are expected to vote for Trump.

“There is nothing normal about the commander-in-chief publicly admitting that the government contracting process was corrupted by political considerations.”
—Robert Mackey, The Intercept

In Wisconsin, Biden is currently polling 10 points ahead of Trump according to a Marquette Law School survey taken on June 18. Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the battleground state in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes.

As Robert Mackey wrote at The Intercept on Thursday, the shipbuilders who were passed over for the contract could feasibly file a protest with the GAO’s Procurement Law Division.

“There is nothing normal about the commander-in-chief publicly admitting that the government contracting process was corrupted by political considerations,” wrote Mackey.

The three companies who lost out on the contract have 10 days to file a protest from the day they learn that the reasoning for awarding the work to Fincantieri Marinette Marine may have been questionable, according to the GAO.

“That sound you’re hearing is every Navy acquisition [public affairs officer] putting their phone on ‘do not disturb’ and activating their out-of-the-office automated email responses until the protest period ends,” wrote Andrew Clevenger, a defense policy reporter at Roll Call.

Jodi Vittori of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International added that the U.S. Congress and the inspector general of the Navy could have reason to investigate the contract

If true, once again, #American #tax for defense are going to bolster election prospects and also point to further politicization of #military procurement. Looks like something for #IG and #Congress to investigate https://t.co/qszCgB6f4O
— Jodi Vittori (@j_vittori) June 26, 2020

During his appearance in Wisconsin, the president also claimed that 15,000 jobs would be created by the guided-missile frigate project before changing the projected number to 9,000. Both estimates were well over the one put forward by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) in April, who projected “more than 5,000 direct and indirect jobs” would be created over a 10-year period as a result of the contract.

At The Intercept, Mackey corrected the record regarding Trump’s claim during his speech that he had personally intervened in the design of the previously “terrible-looking” frigate, helping to design a “beautiful model.”

“It’s like a yacht with missiles on it,” the president told the workers.

In fact, Mackey wrote, the frigate is based on an Italian warship that was in existence long before the Trump administration awarded the contract to Fincantieri Marinette Marine

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY.....

Ireland’s old rivals forge coalition, shutting out Sinn Fein
GREEN'S JOIN IN RIGHT WING COALITION

Published on June 26, 2020 By Agence France-Presse


Ireland’s two historic centre-right rivals forged an unlikely coalition with the Green Party on Friday that shuts the resurgent republicans Sinn Fein out of government.

The alliance brings together incumbent Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael with its ancient foe Fianna Fail — the two stalwarts of Irish politics.

The premiership is to rotate between the two, with Varadkar reportedly agreeing to assume the leadership after Fianna Fail’s Micheal Martin.

The much smaller Greens become kingmakers in a February election that fractured parliament and left Sinn Fein — historically associated with the paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA) — within touching distance of a role in government.

“There’s work to be done, and we’re the ones to try and help make it happen,” Greens leader Eamon Ryan said after all three backed the coalition in internal votes among its members.Had the proposed alliance faltered, Ireland risked the prospect of holding an election while the country clawed its way out of its coronavirus lockdown.

But analysts said Sinn Fein could savour its role as the main opposition party in the middle of a global health and economic crisis.

– ‘United and strong’ –

Varadkar’s Fine Gael was the first to back the deal Friday, giving it support from 80 percent of its members.

“Fine Gael is going to enter a third term in government and this new coalition is united and strong, and up to the challenge,” Varadkar told reporters.

Fianna Fail, the EU member state’s biggest party with 38 seats in the 160 seat chamber, backed the deal with 74 percent approval.

Its leader Martin is expected to be voted in as Taoiseach, or prime minister, in a special parliamentary sitting on Saturday now that the Greens have approved the deal.

“We have chosen this route, it has many challenges,” said Martin.

“But on the other hand it’s also a moment of opportunity and a moment of hope for our people.”

Under a rota system, Varadkar — whose party was routed to third place with 35 seats — would reportedly return to office in December 2022.

– Sinn Fein surge –

The Greens secured numerous flagship concessions in the coalition talks, wielding an outsized influence as a 12-seat bloc vital to providing the alliance with a parliamentary majority.

But progressive party members had reason to be cautious of a deal with Ireland’s centre-right establishment.

After entering a coalition with Fianna Fail in 2007, the Green Party was wiped out in the ensuing 2011 general election, losing all six of its parliamentary seats.In a dramatic upheaval of the status quo, February’s general the election saw republican party Sinn Fein leap to prominence.

The one-time fringe party won the popular vote with 24.5 percent of first preference ballots, becoming the second-largest force in parliament after running on a left-wing platform.

It now expects to become the main opposition party.

That could act as a vital foothold in a push to power in the next election, analysts said.

“Being the lead party of opposition would suit them well, and I don’t think they’d be too worried about a second election,” University College Cork politics researcher Jonathan Evershed told AFP.

But the pandemic also improved the prospects Fine Gael, which bled seats in February after pinning its election campaign on success in the politically-tense Brexit negotiations.

An Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll published last week showed Varadkar enjoying a 75-percent approval rating.

© 2020 AFP

Company linked to Trump adviser got millions in coronavirus aid as he urged GOP to cut relief
 
 June 27, 2020 By Igor Derysh, Salon

THE LAUGHABLE CURVE 
Art Laffer, a longtime economic adviser to President Donald Trump, urged Republicans against funding additional coronavirus relief even as a company in which he held stock cashed in on tens of millions in small business aid.

Laffer, who popularized the idea of “trickle-down economics” and advised Trump on tax cuts and coronavirus relief, called for the president and Senate Republicans to “cut the [coronavirus] spending” in a letter released on June 16.

“There is no limit to worthy causes, but there is a limit to other people’s money,” the letter addressed to Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and signed by 20 prominent Republicans, including Laffer, fellow Trump adviser Stephen Moore and tax-cut zealot Grover Norquist, said. “The inside-the-Beltway crowd falsely calls these trillions of dollars a ‘stimulus’ to the economy. But government can only give money to some people, as Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman taught all of us many years ago, by taking money from others.

But a company in which Laffer owned stock and served as a director for years had no problem “taking money from others” when it announced it received nearly $20 million in forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). (Disclosure: Salon received a PPP loan to keep our staff and independent journalism at 100%.)

Laffer served on the board of directors at GEE Group, a provider of staffing and human resources solutions, until March. Laffer had been on the board since 2015.

At the end of last year, Laffer appears to have held nearly $154,000 in GEE Group shares at the company’s closing price of $0.39 per share on Dec. 23, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The stock holdings were in addition to the $26,000 in stock awards he earned from the company last year.

And the holdings are significant. The company had more than 13 million outstanding shares, meaning Laffer’s 394,140 shares amounted to about 3% of the company’s value, according to the SEC filing.

GEE Group, a provider of staffing and human resources solutions, said it received $19.9 million in PPP loans, according to an SEC filing, even after it laid off workers, per a financial report released last month.

“Art Laffer waves his finger at federal relief spending for working families but doesn’t seem to mind when it benefits him personally,” Derek Martin, a spokesman for the progressive watchdog group Accountable.US, told Salon. “His hypocrisy wouldn’t be so serious if it weren’t coming while millions of workers in desperate need of a lifeline continue to file for unemployment benefits. This is yet another example of the wealthy and well-connected getting ahead during this crisis.”

Accountable.US reviewed the documents as part of its TrumpBailouts.org project, which tracks recipients of PPP money after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the department would not disclose who received the funds. The department on Thursday relented, agreeing to give Congress access to the loan data.

Despite Laffer’s opposition to the coronavirus stimulus, the Small Business Administration touted the PPP as a “direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.”

GEE Group argued in the SEC filing that PPP loans were “the only source of funding available to our companies” and were “absolutely critical to our ability to maintain operations, including the employment of our temporary and full-time employees.”

The company said the loans were necessary to counter the “severe negative effects” of the pandemic. The company indicated in its financial report that the PPP loans “allowed the company to restore compensation levels and bring back furloughed employees and selectively add new talent.”

Shortly after laying off workers earlier this year, the company announced it would add three new members to its board of directors. The company’s SEC filing showed that its board of directors collectively own millions in company stock, suggesting that the new hires are poised to earn hundreds of thousands — if not millions — in stock.

Laffer holds a lot of influence in the Trump administration. He “helped write” the Trump campaign’s tax plan, according to The New York Times, and mentored Larry Kudlow, the head of the White House economic council.

Trump praised Laffer, who wrote a fawning book about the president’s economic policies titled “Trumponomics,” when he awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year.

“Few people in history have revolutionized economic theory like Arthur Laffer,” he said, claiming that “Art would go on to prove [critics] all wrong on a number of occasions.”

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
“Laffer’s relentless and sunny advocacy of tax cuts, deregulation and free trade have influenced decades of Republican policy proposals, most famously under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s,” The Times reported. “Democrats have criticized him for repeatedly promising that tax cuts would deliver growth and revenues that did not appear, such as damaging state tax cuts in Kansas that produced a large shortfall in the state budget and prompted the Republican-controlled Legislature to ultimately reverse them.”Since the pandemic hit, Laffer has advised Trump, Mnuchin and Kudlow on economic issues, according to RealClearPolitics. But Laffer advised the administration against supporting the CARES Act, which included the PPP, even though Trump now brags that the bill helped save “30 million American jobs.”

Laffer instead urged Trump to impose taxes on non-profits, cut the pay of public officials and college professors and give businesses and workers a payroll tax holiday until the end of the year, according to Reuters. Laffer claimed that the CARES Act would “only serve to deepen the downturn” and “disincentivize work,” according to the outlet.

Economists and lawmakers largely agree that the CARES Act, and the PPP specifically, were a massive help to millions of small businesses and workers. However, many argue that the program needs more funding as companies continue to struggle.

Laffer was nevertheless floated as a potential candidate to serve on Trump’s task force to reopen the economy.

“Bring in minds like Art Laffer,” Fox News host Sean Hannity urged in April.

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that adding Laffer to the task force would be a terrible idea.

Laffer has “bad ideas that are even worse in a pandemic,” he told RealClearPolitics. “It is a very crazy time to put someone like this in charge of economic policy.”

Biden slams Trump over reported bounties placed on US troops
By LYNN BERRY

FILE - In this June 17, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks in Darby, Pa. The coronavirus pandemic isn't going away anytime soon, but campaigns are still forging ahead with in-person organizing. The pandemic upended elections this year, forcing campaigns to shift their organizing activities almost entirely online and compelling both parties to reconfigure their conventions. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden attacked President Donald Trump on Saturday over a report that he said, if true, contains a “truly shocking revelation” about the commander in chief and his failure to protect U.S. troops in Afghanistan and stand up to Russia.

The New York Times reported Friday that American intelligence officials concluded months ago that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The report said the Russians offered rewards for successful attacks last year, at a time when the U.S. and Taliban were holding talks to end the long-running war.

“The truly shocking revelation that if the Times report is true, and I emphasize that again, is that President Trump, the commander in chief of American troops serving in a dangerous theater of war, has known about this for months, according to the Times, and done worse than nothing,” Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said during a virtual town hall.

The White House said neither Trump nor Vice President Mike Pence was briefed on such intelligence. “This does not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence but to the inaccuracy of the New York Times story erroneously suggesting that President Trump was briefed on this matter,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.

Russia called the report “nonsense.”

“This unsophisticated plant clearly illustrates the low intellectual abilities of the propagandists of American intelligence, who instead of inventing something more plausible have to make up this nonsense,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The Times quoted a Taliban spokesman denying that its militants have such a deal with the Russian intelligence agency.

The newspaper, citing unnamed officials familiar with the intelligence, said the findings were presented to Trump and discussed by his National Security Council in late March. Officials developed potential responses, starting with a diplomatic complaint to Russia, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the report said.

Biden slammed Trump over his reported failure to act.

“Not only has he failed to sanction and impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin,” the former vice president said.

Biden called it a “betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation — to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm’s way.”

He said Americans who serve in the military put their life on the line. “But they should never, never, never ever face a threat like this with their commander in chief turning a blind eye to a foreign power putting a bounty on their heads,” he said.

“I’m quite frankly outraged by the report,” Biden said. He promised that if he is elected, “Putin will be confronted and we’ll impose serious costs on Russia.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/06/russia-offered-afghans-bounty-to-kill-u.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com2020/06/a-dereliction-of-duty-bombshell-nyt.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/06/trump-administration-has-refused-/to.html