America and Guns, bridging the divide between gun owners and control advocates; protest and Buddhism; a
virtual dance troupe.
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Month: June 2020
Luxury Fashion Challenged to Confront Racist Attitudes
When luxury fashion lined up social media posts to show solidarity with Black Lives Matters protests, brands got a whole lot of blowback.Transgender model and actress Munroe Bergdorf jumped on L’Oreal’s #BlackoutTuesday posts to accuse the beauty brand of hypocrisy for having fired her three years ago when she complained about racism in strong language. U.S. actor Tommy Dorfman, who appears in a recent campaign for Salvatore Ferragamo, called out the Italian luxury brand for what he called a “homophobic and racist work environment.”And ordinary Instagram followers piled on, challenging fashion houses to do more than post a black square on their virtual real estate, to instead make runways, magazine covers, boardrooms and creative studios living showcases of diversity.Global fashion brands have faced racial backlashes in the past, notably in the wake of scandals like the Gucci knitwear recalling blackface, Prada’s Little Black Sambo bag charm and Dolce&Gabbana’s anti-Asian comments.The U.S protests against systemic racism, which are spreading around the globe, are also putting the spotlight on the fashion world in its role as a cultural beacon, and emboldening insiders — some with lucrative deals that often assume their discretion — to speak up.”People have the fire under their bottoms,” said Tamu McPherson, an American content creator based in Milan who collaborates with top luxury brands. “Their stories are strong and their voices are being heard. If they industry ignores them, they can be kept accountable. Everyone is sharing, and corroborating, their stories.”McPherson has been working with luxury brands in Milan, Paris and New York since 2013, contributing to digital campaigns, story-telling and in-house diversity training.”In seven years, I am still one of the only black people invited into those spaces. That is unacceptable,” said McPherson, who urged greater racial inclusion in a letter posted June 6 on her “All the Pretty Birds” website, in which she described the fashion industry as “steeped in racism, anti-Blackness and white privilege.””For years, they did not want to listen. Now they are listening because of the pandemic and the shocking murders we could all pay attention to, because there were not any distractions. This is the moment,” she said.Ferragamo courted criticism when it responded to the protests with a post that said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.”Dorfman shot back that people at the fashion house “have said heinous, transphobic, body phobic and racist things directly to me. I called them out every time and they promised to change.”A person close to Ferragamo said that the brand is committed to inclusivity, noting that it features models of all colors in its runway shows. Nearly half of Ferragamo’s Fall 2020 runway models were of diverse races.The pushback against the industry has had some early results. Bergdorf, who was sacked as L’Oreal UK’s first openly transgender model in 2017 for decrying “the racial violence of white people,” has now accepted a role as consultant on the U.K. Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board to help “influence and inform the brand.” The offer came after she highlighted the hypocrisy of the beauty company’s June 1 statement that it “stands in solidarity with the Black community, and against injustice of any kind … Speaking out is worth it.”The Fashion Spot, which has been tracking diversity on runways and magazine covers, has reported progress since launching its surveys in 2015. The Spring 2020 season had the highest level of diversity on runways in the four main fashion cities of Paris, Milan, New York and London, at 41.5%, only to dip for the Fall 2020 shows, to 40.6%. That remains an improvement from 17% in the website’s inaugural survey for Spring 2015.New York and London have led in diversity, while Paris and Milan tend to lag, according to the Fashion Spot’s data.After her post, McPherson said she has gotten feedback from some brands that her appeal was being shared internally.”The focus truly is on getting representation of Black, Indigenous and people of color integrated and hired at all levels of an organization, especially in decision-making positions and senior roles where they can advocate, educate and inform decisions,” McPherson said. “Now is the opportunity to rebuild.”After coming under fire for designs deemed racist, both Gucci and Prada last year announced long-term strategies to both promote diverse voices that have not been properly represented in fashion, including with scholarships.This time, the reckoning has gone to the fashion world’s highest levels. Anna Wintour has apologized in an internal email for not doing enough to elevate Black voices and publishing images and stories that have been racially and culturally “hurtful and intolerant” during her 32-year tenure at Vogue. Her comments came as Samira Nasr was named the first editor in chief of color in the 153-year history of U.S. Harper’s Bazaar.Supermodel Naomi Campbell — the first Black woman to appear on the cover of French Vogue — is publicly calling for equal pay for models of color and more representation generally, while acknowledging that in the past she has chosen to deal privately with such issues.”It is not something I call out, because I am personally someone who wants to rise to the challenge,” she told CNN. But she said, “in my business, it has gone on for long enough.”
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Thai Trials of COVID-19 Vaccine Reach Make-or-Break Stage
Thai scientists administered a second dose of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine to monkeys on Monday, looking for another positive response to enable clinical trials in humans as early as October. The Thai vaccine is one of at least 100 being worked on globally as the world reels from a devastating virus that has infected more than 8.7 million and killed 461,000, with Sunday’s 183,000 cases the highest reported in a single day. Thirteen monkeys were immunized on Monday and the next two weeks will be critical in determining whether researchers can proceed with further tests. “We’re going to analyze the immune response once again. If the immune response is very, very high, then this is a good one,” said Kiat Ruxrungtham, lead researcher of the COVID-19 vaccine development program at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. Thailand’s government is backing the trials and hopes it can have a cost-effective vaccine manufactured domestically and ready for next year. The monkeys are divided into three groups, with one getting a high dose, another a low dose and the last none. They are receiving three injections in total, each a month apart. The first dose on May 23 prompted positive responses from all but one animal in the high-dose group and from three in the low-dose group, an outcome Kiat called “very impressive.” If there is a similar response after the second dose, Kiat said, the program would order 10,000 doses made for a human trial, adding that his group had been flooded with offers from volunteers. “The earliest we can get may be late September,” he said of the doses. “But we don’t expect it that soon, and the latest may be by November.”
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HIV Drug Sped to Approval 25 Years Ago Revolutionized Fight Against AIDS
AIDS activist Larry Kramer used to wear an oversized rectangular turquoise ring on his left finger, tinged with variations of green. A turquoise band circled a second finger. Two large turquoise rings decorated his other hand.When Kramer first moved to New York in the 1970s, a fortune teller told him he “must always wear something turquoise to look after your health.” He trusted the superstition, surviving hepatitis B and a liver transplant — and battling an HIV infection for more than 30 years.”God knows how,” Kramer told VOA in his final interview before he died of pneumonia on May 27, less than a month before his 85th birthday.Turquoise’s health benefits are unproven, but a revolutionary generation of antiviral drugs, the first of which was studied and approved 25 years ago, kept Kramer and millions of other HIV-positive people alive for decades.Before that success though, the search for an effective treatment took well over a decade and triggered some of the fiercest confrontations between Americans and their government during that period.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Demonstrators from the organization ACT UP, angry with the federal government’s response to the AIDS crisis, protest in front of the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, Md., Oct. 11, 1988.Silence = DeathWhat would prove to be ACT UP’s most consequential clash came on October 11, 1988, when the group shut down the headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency that approves and regulates medications in America. ACT UP blocked roads to the complex outside Washington, as participants lay on the ground in front of the building with mock tombstones, some reading, “RIP Killed by the FDA.” Activists hung a banner above the entranceway with ACT UP’s motto: Silence = Death.Richard Klein, who served as the FDA’s liaison with the AIDS community at the time, called ACT UP’s protest “a great wake-up call for the FDA.”In a recent VOA interview, Klein recalled “very heady days” as tensions boiled over between AIDS activists and federal officials. And he notes that changes did come about. Activists were added to FDA advisory committees as patient representatives. Patient access was expanded for experimental drug studies, many of which were fast-tracked and revamped. Trial subjects in placebo groups whose health deteriorated were reassigned to groups receiving the drug or drugs being tested.”It took people who were dying to really make the point of ‘We don’t want to die in these clinical trials,'” Klein said.Yet AIDS patients continued to die — 300,000 in the United States by 1995. Ending the plague was by no means a given.The most commonly prescribed drug at the time, azidothymidine or AZT, was developed in the 1960s and approved for AIDS treatment in 1987. AZT did initially slow the deterioration of patients’ immune systems. Inevitably, however, the HIV virus became resistant to the medication and the deadly progression of AIDS would resume.New class of drugsFourteen years into the epidemic, 1995 saw a breakthrough. In June of that year, the FDA authorized a study of saquinavir, the first of a new category of drugs called protease inhibitors designed to prevent the HIV virus from replicating,”This new class was seen as a way to possibly overcome the virus resistance issues,” Klein said. Saquinavir proved ineffective by itself. But, when combined with AZT and another anti-viral medication, the resulting “drug cocktail” brought about an increase in AIDS patients’ white blood cell counts, a clear indication that their immune systems had begun to recover. Critically, the HIV virus did not develop resistance to the cocktail.Fewer than four months after receiving the heartening results, the Richard Klein, who worked for more than 41 years with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said activists who served on FDA advisory committees, as seen here, forced the agency to change policies that laid the groundwork for future epidemics.Ending a feud Beyond physical healing, the advent of life-saving drugs allowed for the eventual transformation of a stormy public feud into a friendship. At the height of the AIDS epidemic, Larry Kramer branded Fauci, who was the face of the government’s efforts to combat HIV, an “incompetent idiot” and a “murderer.” Over time, the two men grew to respect and appreciate each other. Kramer called Fauci a “friend” in his interview with VOA. Writing for Time magazine after Kramer’s death, Fauci lauded his activism, adding, “I will miss a lot about Larry, but I think his warmth most of all.” Protease inhibitor drugs saved countless people after 1995, including Kevin Taylor, who shared his story with VOA. The 57-year-old Richmond, Virginia, man is still living with HIV, 35 years after he tested positive for the virus and doctors told him to get his affairs in order in anticipation of an early death. Taylor says HIV medications gave him a new lease on life: “Not necessarily to be cured, but to least have some kind of life as opposed to just living in the shadows waiting for your end to come.” Drugs keep HIV at bay, reducing viral loads to undetectable levels for many. In recent years, the same drugs have proven effective in preventing HIV infections when taken prophylactically by those at high risk for contracting the virus. Despite these advances, there is no cure and no effective vaccine for HIV/AIDS.
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Serbian Ruling Party Scores Landslide Victory in General Elections
Serbia’s Progressive Party and its coalition partners won over 60% of the vote in Sunday’s elections, boycotted by major opposition parties. President Aleksandar Vucic, the party leader, told jubilant supporters that he did not expect such a landslide victory. “I have long been in politics, but I have never experienced such a moment. Tonight we have gained the tremendous trust of the people, the biggest ever in Serbia, under conditions where not many believed in it. We got a warning from the people that we have to be even more responsible, more serious, more diligent and that we have to make best possible results for our people and our citizens,” Vucic said.In the new parliament, the Serbian Progressive Party will hold about 190 out of 250 total seats. “We have won everywhere, where we have been losing (before). We have won in every place abroad, where we have never been winning in the past,” Vucic said.Serbia became the first country in Europe Sunday to hold general elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. The elections, initially scheduled for April, were postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak. The turnout among the 6.6 million voters eligible to cast ballots for the 250 seats in parliament and for local governing bodies was lower than in previous elections. Several main opposition parties boycotted the vote, claiming a lack of free and fair conditions and accusing Vucic of dominating the election campaign through his control of the mainstream media. Vucic denied the accusations. However, some smaller groups decided to participate, saying the boycott would only help Vucic’s party.
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US Police Reform Bills Face Votes This Week in House, Senate
The Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives and Republican-led Senate are set to take key votes this week on reforms to the nation’s police system, with the two chambers agreeing on several major proposals but still not entirely in agreement on what should change. The push for legislation came after the death in police custody of African American George Floyd, the impetus for nationwide and worldwide protests of racism and the use of force by law enforcement officers. A key divide between the Democratic and Republican proposals is on the issue of qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that makes it more difficult for people to file lawsuits against police officers when they feel their civil rights have been violated. Democrats want to end qualified immunity, but Republican leaders have opposed doing so and the White House has labeled the issue a “non-starter” for President Donald Trump.President Donald Trump holds up an executive order on police reform after signing it in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, June 16, 2020.“The Democrat House wants to pass a Bill this week that will destroy our police,” Trump tweeted late Sunday. “Republican Congressmen & Congresswomen will hopefully fight hard to defeat it. We must protect and cherish our police, they keep us safe!” Congresswoman Karen Bass responded with her own tweet saying: “Our bill sets national standards for policing, provides additional training, and creates a registry so that fired officers aren’t rehired. Many departments are in favor of the bill but you clearly don’t understand it – try reading it this evening or have somebody read it to you.” The House Judiciary Committee approved the measure last week, setting up the vote in the full House this week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he plans to bring the Senate bill up for a procedural vote this week as well. Both measures support increasing the use of police body cameras, making lynching a federal crime, boosting training for officers, and increasing the amount of data that departments collect. Senator Tim Scott, who is leading the Republican effort in the Senate, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” show that the two sides agree on 70% of what is needed. He highlighted one provision in the Republican measure, increasing penalties for police officers who file false reports, which is not part of the Democratic proposals. “The false police report has an enhanced penalty on top of the SBI, serious bodily injury, or death that leads to prosecution,” Scott said. “So, it’s really important for us to bring more emphasis on character-driven law enforcement. If we miss that, we miss the entire boat.”
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WHO Reports Largest One-Day Jump in New COVID Cases
The World Health Organization has released sobering numbers showing that the coronavirus pandemic is still in its powerful first wave even as some experts are warning of a second wave. On Sunday, the WHO reported the largest one-day increase in the number of new coronavirus cases worldwide — 183,000 in 24 hours. It said Brazil led the way with nearly 55,000 new cases followed by the United States with more than 36,000 and India with about 15,000 new cases. Overall, the WHO says there are more than 8,708,000 cases worldwide and close to 462,000 deaths. The large number of new cases cannot be explained away by wider testing, Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said on “Fox News Sunday.” President Donald Trump has said he believes testing is the reason. “When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more cases. So, I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down.’ They test and they test,” Trump told the crowd at his campaign rally Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The White House later said the president was just joking. But the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, Dr. Ashish Jha, says there’s nothing funny about COVID-19.A medical worker in a protective suit conducts a nucleic acid test for a resident, following a new outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Beijing, China, June 20, 2020.“This is incredibly frustrating for the millions of Americans who have gotten sick and have not been able to get tests. … This is unfortunately not a joke,” Jha told CNN Sunday. Meanwhile, some heath experts are warning of a second wave of COVID-19, to the frustration of other scientists. “When you have 20,000-plus infections per day, how can you talk about a second wave?” Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told the Associated Press. “We’re in the first wave. Let’s get out of the first wave before you have a second wave.” Some of the experts, including Caitlin Rivers, a disease researcher at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security, say they don’t even want to use the words “second wave” because they say that gives people a false sense of believing the worst is over. Many viruses, such as the flu, get worse in the winter when more people stay indoors and the weather cools. But because COVID-19 is a new coronavirus, scientists say they are still not sure what they are dealing with and how the change of seasons will affect it. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that the pandemic is accelerating. “We are in a new and dangerous phase,” Tedros said, adding that lockdown measures are still needed to halt the spread of the virus even as such measures are being eased around the world. Brazil’s coronavirus death toll officially surpassed 50,000 Sunday, and the South American country now has a total of more than 1 million cases, second only to the United States with 2.2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus. Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed COVID-19 as just a flu and has called those worried about the disease neurotic – much to the consternation of health experts who say the actual number of cases may be higher than the government reports.An artist wearing a protective mask reading “Out Bolsonaro” attends a protest to honour people who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during its outbreak in Brasilia, Brazil June 15, 2020.He has also brushed off such measures as lockdowns and social distancing as damaging an already disease-crippled economy. In Germany, authorities say the coronavirus reproduction rate is rising to a level higher than what experts say is needed for long-term containment of the virus. The authorities reported a 2.88 reproduction rate Sunday – meaning for every 100 people who get COVID-19, an additional 288 people will become infected. The reproduction rate was 1.79 Saturday, and experts say a number of 1 or less is necessary to consider the outbreak contained. Germany has started easing coronavirus-related lockdowns and other restrictions after what it had regarded as success in fighting COVID-19. Authorities blame the surge in German cases on outbreaks inside such places as nursing homes, hospitals and facilities housing refugees and asylum-seekers. On Sunday, the thousands of worshippers who usually flock to Stonehenge to watch the sun rise on the first day of summer made their pilgrimage a virtual one this year. The body that oversees Stonehenge, English Heritage, said more than 3.6 million people tuned in as the sun broke Sunday morning. Britain has a ban on large gatherings to curb the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but a small group of druids, those who say they are descended from the ancient religion, gathered in a nearby field to watch in person. Also Sunday, Bulgarian tennis star Grigor Dimitrov announced he is ill with the coronavirus, the highest-profile tennis player to come down with the disease so far. “I want to reach out and let my fans and friends know that I tested positive back in Monaco for COVID-19,” Dimitrov wrote on Instagram. “I want to make sure anyone who has been in contact with me during these past days gets tested and takes the necessary precautions.” He says he is home and recovering and apologized for any harm he might have caused. Dimitrov pulled out of the Adria Tour match in Zadar, Croatia, Saturday, saying he felt sick. The finals of the Zadar leg of the tour have also been canceled.
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Heat Wave Shatters Record in Siberian Town
One of the coldest places on Earth on Saturday became one of the hottest places on Earth. A Russian heat wave sent the thermometer in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk soaring to 38 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Meteorologists say that would be the highest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle. Verkhoyansk is about 10 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. Temperatures in the town average 40 degrees below zero Celsius (-40 Fahrenheit) in winter, and it rarely gets warmer than 20 degrees (68 Fahrenheit) in summer. Experts blame the unusual heat wave on a massive high-pressure system that has been stalled over Siberia for almost two weeks, preventing cooler air from flowing south. All of Russia has experienced an uncharacteristically warm winter and spring this year with average temperatures breaking records in the first five months of the year set in 2016.
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Подлом скрепы: История шняжества мокшанского и его обиженного карлика пукина
Подлом скрепы: История шняжества мокшанского и его обиженного карлика пукина
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Решится ли коллективный Запад открыть Восточный фронт информационной войны?
Решится ли коллективный Запад открыть Восточный фронт информационной войны?
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Зорян бреше: розбір інтерв’ю шкіряка про авакова, МВС, справу Гандзюк та “реформу” поліції
Зорян бреше: розбір інтерв’ю шкіряка про авакова, МВС, справу Гандзюк та “реформу” поліції.
Блог про українську політику та актуальні події в нашій країні
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Найкращі пропозиції товарів і послуг в Мережі Купуй!
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Ложь обиженного карлика пукина о войне ради снятия санкций
Ложь обиженного карлика пукина о войне ради снятия санкций.
Для обиженного карлика пукина существует две важные темы, на которых строится вся пропаганда и в какие он сам верит: это геополитика, как мы встаем с колен и история, и что мы страна – победитель, а другие страны пытаются ее переписать. Он твердит об этом постоянно и даже написал статью для Запада, если коротко, то с использованием фейковой цитаты Гитлера взятой из книги, которая у нас признана экстремистской
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Обиженный карлик пукин тронулся умом и обнуляет историю 19 века
Обиженный карлик пукин тронулся умом и обнуляет историю 19 века.
Статья обиженного карлика пукина, широко разрекламированная в 2019 году, следа в настоящем не оставит и пройдет практически незамеченной для современников
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Trump vs. Twitter: The Debate Over Free Speech, Censorship in Social Media
Twitter has been important in burnishing the image President Donald Trump wants to portray of a brash straight-talking politician, but the social media company has recently begun to flag Trump’s tweets when they are deemed misleading. Other online platforms like Facebook and Snap are making their own decisions about content. Tina Trinh reports.Produced by: Tina Trinh
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As Protests Continue, Coronavirus Cases Spike in Many US States
As protests against racial discrimination continue in many American cities, President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, the desire to get back to a sense of normalcy across the country is tempered by a spike of COVID-19 cases in many U.S. states.
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Ruling Conservatives Set to Win Serbian Parliamentary Vote
Serbia’s ruling conservative party led by President Aleksandar Vucic is set for a landslide win in Sunday’s parliamentary election, results projected by Ipsos and CeSID pollsters showed.The projection shows the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) on track to win 62.5% of the votes, while the Socialist party, a junior coalition partner in the outgoing government, is seen coming in second with 10.7% of the votes.The center-right Serbian Patriotic Alliance led by former water polo player Aleksandar Sapic is seen in third place with 4% of the votes.A brass band orchestra at the SNS headquarters was playing traditional Serbian music before Vucic proclaimed victory.Dozens of smiling people crammed into a small room, hugged each other and few had their faces covered with masks, despite doctors warning to be cautious to avoid spreading the coronavirus.”Tonight people showed enormous trust in our team,” Vucic told journalists. “Serbian people have decided what kind of future they want.”Another Serbian pollster CRTA saw turnout at 48% compared to 56.7% in 2016. The State Election Commission is to announce preliminary results including turnout later in the evening.Turnout was hit by a boycott by some opposition parties, who say the vote will not be free or fair owing to Vucic’s grip on the media.Florian Bieber, a Balkan expert at Austria’s University of Graz, tweeted after seeing results: “It is a pyrrhic victory, without opposition in parliament the election is discredited and its rule less legitimate than ever before.”Voters largely back efforts by Vucic’s ruling coalition to push for Serbian membership of the European Union while maintaining strong ties with Russia and China.But the future government will face increasing EU and U.S. pressure to recognize the independence of Serbia’s former province of Kosovo, a move seen as key for regional stability.Serbia, which has a population of 7.2 million, has reported 12,894 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 261 deaths. It was among the first European countries to start opening its borders on May 22 and all lockdown curbs have since been lifted.Analysts and pollsters said that health concerns kept some voters at home, especially among higher-risk groups. About 1.2 million people on the electoral list have lived abroad for years and are unlikely to vote.”If we take into account number of votes (the SNS got) … we are heading to a North Korean or Chinese system,” said Slobodan Zecevic, a lecturer of international law with the Belgrade-based European University.
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Rare ‘Ring of Fire’ Solar Eclipse Crossed Skies of Africa, Asia
Many amateur astronomers in Africa and Asia had the chance to observe Sunday, for the summer solstice, a rare solar eclipse of the “ring of fire” type, despite the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus and sometimes unfavorable climatic conditions.This astronomical phenomenon, which occurs once or twice a year, started soon after sunrise in central Africa, passing through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan and Ethiopia before heading to Asia, to finish in the Pacific Ocean, south of the island of Guam, at 09:32 GMT, after having notably crossed India and China. In this type of eclipse, the moon passes in front of the sun, in an alignment with the earth, but instead of completely blocking the sun, there remains a ring, called “ring of fire.”It was above India, in the state of Uttarakhand, near the border with China that the eclipse was “maximum” at 12:10 local time (06:40 GMT): earth, moon and sun were perfectly lined up for 38 seconds.In Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, a little away from the ideal route, the curious could only observe a partial eclipse, with the clouds appearing for a few seconds at the precise moment when the moon should have come to hide almost entirely the sun.Despite everything, “it was very exciting because I am obsessed with eclipses,” said Susan Murabana, founder with her husband, Chu, of the educational program “Traveling telescope,” told AFP.Installed with their telescope on the roof of a residential district, they allowed dozens of people to observe the eclipse, via Facebook and Zoom platforms.Normally, she and her husband would probably have taken people to camp near Lake Magadi (South), where the sky is generally clearer. But because of the coronavirus, movement into and out of Nairobi is prohibited.In the Gulf countries, the observation of the phenomenon was thwarted by the humidity and dust of the summer heat.In Sri Lanka, also because of COVID-19, the planetarium was closed to avoid gatherings.Only about 15 students gathered around a telescope at the University of Colombo, the capital, broadcasting the images of the eclipse live on Facebook.”There is a lot of misinformation around eclipses and we are trying to combat them in our program,” professor Chandana Jayaratne, who heads the university’s department of astronomy and space science, told AFP.”For example, in Sri Lanka, pregnant women are told not to go out for fear that their babies will be born with heart defects. But we want to show people that an eclipse is nothing more than a game of shadows and light,” he said.On the other hand, specialists stress the need to wear special eclipse glasses, approved welders’ masks, or to use the means of observation of amateur astronomers, but not to look at the star with the naked eye, even with sunglasses, which do not filter UV light.In Hong Kong, dozens of spectators, experienced astronomers with telescopes or families, gathered in a park by the sea to attend the 90-minute show.The crowd shouted in joy as the clouds cleared making the eclipse clearly visible.Only 2% of the earth’s surface was affected by the total phase of the eclipse, which makes the phenomenon exceptional.
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Trump Campaign Brushes Off Low Turnout at President’s Rally
U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign on Sunday brushed off the underwhelming size of the crowd at his first political rally in three months, blaming “fake news media” reports of the threat of coronavirus infections and the possibility of protests for keeping people away.The 19,000-seat BOK Center arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma, appeared to be a bit more than half full Saturday night, even though the president’s campaign last week boasted that a million people had registered to attend. The Trump campaign said about 12,000 people passed through metal detectors at the entrances.An outdoor rally for an overflow crowd was called off because few were there, while the arena’s upper gallery was largely empty.For the cheering supporters who did show up, Trump gave them what they came to hear: nearly two hours of red-meat political taunts. He railed against his Democratic opponent in the November national election, former Vice President Joe Biden, attacked “radical left” protesters demonstrating in recent weeks against police abuses in the U.S., and blamed China for the spread of what he called the “kung flu,” his derisive term for the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 120,000 people in the U.S. and infected more than 2.2 million. Trump called his sign-waving supporters “warriors” and declared that “the silent majority is stronger than ever before.” He boasted about his conservative judicial appointees, low taxes, the booming stock market, the wall under construction on the southern border with Mexico to keep out undocumented immigrants and adding to the U.S. military budget.FILE – Brad Parscale, campaign manager for President Donald Trump, speaks to supporters during a panel discussion, in San Antonio, Texas Oct. 15, 2019.Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale on Sunday said the crowd size was kept down by several factors.“A week’s worth of the fake news media warning people away from the rally because of COVID and protesters, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally,” he said.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued warnings that large gatherings such as Trump’s rally are possible breeding grounds for the spread of the coronavirus. The Trump campaign checked the temperatures of rally-goers and handed out face masks to everyone, although it did not require anyone to wear one.As news cameras scanned the crowd, only a small portion of those watching the rally appeared to be wearing a mask.Parscale said protesters “even blocked entrances to the rally at times,” although media reporters on the scene said they saw few protesters and that people who wanted to attend the rally appeared to walk in unimpeded.Demonstrators march near the BOK Center where President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 20, 2020.Parscale dismissed reports that TikTok and K-Pop fans had flummoxed the Trump campaign by registering for tickets to the rally, to make it appear there would be a huge crowd, with no intention of attending.The campaign manager said, “We constantly weed out bogus numbers, as we did with tens of thousands at the Tulsa rally, in calculating our possible attendee pool. These phony ticket requests never factor into our thinking.”He added, “For the media to now celebrate the fear that they helped create is disgusting, but typical. And it makes us wonder why we bother credentialing media for events when they don’t do their full jobs as professionals.”Trump campaign adviser Mercedes Schlapp told “Fox News Sunday” that despite the Tulsa crowd size, 5.3 million people watched on Trump campaign digital channels, giving the rally a much broader reach than might have appeared from the telecast of the event.Biden’s campaign scoffed at the size of the Tulsa crowd, saying, “Donald Trump has abdicated leadership and it is no surprise that his supporters have responded by abandoning him.”National polls show Biden pulling out to an average lead of 9.5 percentage points over Trump less than five months before the election, according to a compilation of polls by Real Clear Politics. Biden has shunned any political rallies, giving television interviews from his home in the eastern state of Delaware and making a few appearances in nearby Philadelphia for speeches before small gatherings. He has not held a news conference in nearly three months.
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US Policing Reforms Can Curb Deadly Encounters, Key Lawmaker Says
The U.S. can curb police killings on American streets with better law enforcement training and more accountability, the lead Senate Republican advocate for policing reforms said Sunday. Sen. Tim Scott, center, accompanied by Sen. James Lankford, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill, June 17, 2020.Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone black Republican in the U.S. Senate, told ABC’s “This Week” show, “I think we can prevent more of these deaths” and enhance “character-driven law enforcement” by approving legislation that cuts off or limits federal aid to city and state police agencies if they do not adopt better training and policies for their officers. Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington are in the midst of a legislative debate over U.S. policing practices in the wake of controversial deaths of African American men while in police custody. Scott said the two political parties agree on 70% of what is needed. “We all want to ban chokeholds; that we already know is unnecessary,” Scott said of a policing practice ended by many U.S. police agencies in which police restrain criminal suspects around the neck to subdue them as they are arrested. Both parties are calling for a national registry of police who have engaged in misconduct so they cannot easily move from one police agency to another. But differences remain as the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives head to key votes this week and next. Democrats want to make it easier for people who believe their civil rights have been infringed on by police actions against them to sue police, removing their virtually unlimited protection against liability for their actions. But President Donald Trump says he is opposed to changing the legal protection for police and Republican lawmakers have expressed reservations. U.S. President Donald Trump listens to applause after signing an executive order on police reform during a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, June 16, 2020.“Americans want law and order,” Trump has said on several occasions. Scott said police must be more accountable for their actions and required to report on them to the U.S. Justice Department in order to get federal funding. He said only about 40% of local police actions are now reported to the federal government. Scott said any legislation approved by Congress should be targeted “so we get the outcome we want,” compelling police agencies to adopt training and policies on police encounters with the public “we feel are best for the nation.” He said there is “plenty of blame” among both Republican and Democratic lawmakers about racial sensitivities in the U.S. “We need to be more sensitive in our racial comments,” Scott said. “We should be working toward a more harmonious union.” The move toward adoption of national policing reforms comes in the wake of the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was held down on a city street by a white police officer for nearly nine minutes as he pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck even as Floyd said he could not breathe. The officer was charged with second-degree murder. FILE – Demonstrators march on pavement, Sunday, May 31, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25.Floyd’s death spawned weeks of coast-to-coast protests about police abuse of minorities, some of which turned into violent clashes between police and demonstrators although most were peaceful.
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Coronavirus Dampens Stonehenge Solstice Celebrations
The coronavirus pandemic has prevented druids, pagans and party-goers from watching the sun rise at Stonehenge to mark the summer solstice this year.The ancient stone circle in southwestern England usually draws thousands of people to mark the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. But Britain has banned mass gatherings as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.English Heritage, the body that oversees Stonehenge, livestreamed the sunrise instead. It said more than 3.6 million people watched as dawn broke at 4:52 a.m. Sunday (0352GMT, 11:52 p.m. EDT Saturday).Stonehenge, a World Heritage site, is believed to be 4,500 years old. It is known for its alignment with the movements of the sun.Some dedicated druids were determined to watch the sun rise in person, gathering in a field near Stonehenge despite the morning rain. Well-known druid King Arthur Pendragon said it had been “very wet,” but he was undaunted.“You can’t cancel the sunrise,” he told the BBC. “It’s going to happen, and we were there to celebrate it.”
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