A statue of Confederate General James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart is being removed in Richmond, Virginia.Richmond, the former Confederacy capital, and still the state’s capital city, has removed three Confederate statues in the past week. Calls for the removal of the statues comes after protests in Virginia and around the United States after the death of George Floyd sparked a movement to remove statues and monuments to those in history with connections to slavery and the Confederacy, saying they represent markers of oppression and injustice.Crews lower the statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart in preparation for transport after removing it from it’s pedestal on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., July 7, 2020.The statue of J.E.B. Stuart, who served as commander of the Cavalry Corps for the Confederacy in northern Virginia, depicts him in uniform on a horse, armed with a sword. The statue includes many words of praise for Stuart, including one line that reads, “He gave his life for his country and saved his city from capture.”Protesters tried to pull down the Stuart statue June 21 using ropes, but police shut down these attempts by declaring an unlawful assembly. Today, the city has sent crews in a cherry picker to remove the statue from its base and drive it away.On July 1, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney promised to remove all Confederacy statues from the city.Stonewall Jackson Removed From Richmond’s Monument AvenueConfederate general was a commander in the First Battle of Bull Run, which marked the first major land battle of the American Civil WarAfter Stuart’s statue is removed, the only other remaining Confederate statue on Virginia state land will be General Robert E. Lee. The statue is set to be removed, but a number of lawsuits have temporarily prevented this.Stoney is ordering the removal of these statutes through his acting role as the city’s emergency mayor, saying if he did not remove the statues, they would constitute a threat to public safety. 
 
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A federal appeals court on Monday blocked a key U.S. policy to deny asylum to anyone who passes through another country without first seeking protection there, dealing it a second blow in less than a week. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling has no immediate impact because a judge appointed by President Donald Trump in Washington last week knocked down the policy on procedural grounds. The three-judge appeals panel in San Francisco found procedural errors as well as substantive reasons to block the policy while litigation continues. The panel said it does “virtually nothing” to prevent asylum-seekers from being sent to unsafe countries, a violation of international treaty obligations. The impact is also lessened by a pandemic-related measure imposed in March to quickly expel asylum-seekers. In May, the administration extended it indefinitely, relying on a little-known public health law to prevent the spread of disease.  The Justice and Homeland Security departments didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday. In response to last week’s decision, Homeland Security said it strongly disagreed and was considering options. The Supreme Court is unlikely to hear arguments before January if it takes the case.  The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights and Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of immigrant advocacy and service groups. “The court recognized the grave danger facing asylum seekers and blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to make an end-run around asylum protections enacted by Congress,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt. Judge William Fletcher, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, wrote the opinion. He was joined by Judge Richard Clifton, an appointee of George W. Bush, and Eric Miller, a Trump appointee who said the ruling should be much narrower in scope. 
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The U.S. government has awarded a $1.6 billion contract to Novavax, Inc. to develop a coronavirus vaccine.The award to the Maryland-based company is the largest to date from the government’s “Operation Warp Speed” initiative to fast-track the development of vaccines and other treatments for COVID-19.
 
Chief Executive Stanley Erck said the company aims to begin delivering 100 million doses of a vaccine in the fourth quarter of this year, an endeavor he said that “may be completed by January or February of next year.”Report: Britain Nears $625 mln Sanofi/GSK COVID-19 Vaccine DealClinical trials are due to start in September and Sanofi has said it expects to get approval by the first half of next year, sooner than previously anticipatedThe U.S. Health and Human Services Department and the Defense Department said in a joint statement that because the federal government funded the initiative, they “will own the 100 million doses of investigational vaccine expected to result from the demonstration projects.”The award was granted as the number of new infections are surging in the U.S., the world leader in infections and fatalities, prompting a growing number of states and cities to reimpose lockdown measures.The country’s preeminent infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned in an interview Monday the U.S. is still “knee-deep in the first wave of this” pandemic.Novavax’s stock price soared in premarket trading on the news it had received the government funding.WATCH: VOA Interview -Dr. Fauci optimistic about vaccine Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
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As part of a new report on targeted killings using drones, a U.N. human rights investigator says a January U.S. strike that killed top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was an “arbitrary killing,” and that Iran’s retaliatory missile attack was not justified. “No evidence has been provided that General Soleimani specifically was planning an imminent attack against U.S. interests, particularly in Iraq, for which immediate action was necessary and would have been justified,” said Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, in her report to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The strike took place as Soleimani’s convoy was leaving the airport in Baghdad, and it also killed a senior Iraqi military official and four members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces. The United States said in a report to the U.N. Security Council that its forces carried out the strike in self-defense “in response to an escalating series of armed attacks in recent months” by Iran. But Callamard said the U.S. explanation “fails to describe even one ongoing attack” and that U.S. officials were “remarkably vague and inconsequential as far as a possible imminent threat is concerned.” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said days after the strike that Soleimani had planned a “broad, large-scale attack against American interests, and those attacks were imminent.” Callamard said because the attack was carried out without Iraq’s consent, it amounted to a violation of the country’s sovereignty. “What is most telling is the failure of the U.S. to even address the rights of Iraq and explain, and provide evidence for, its use of force against the country and its citizens,” she wrote.  “Until such an explanation is made, the conclusion must be that the strike is an act of aggression against Iraq, and the killing of its citizens and of non-citizens on its territory was unlawful and arbitrary under international law.” Callamard is due to go before the Human Rights Council to present her findings on Thursday.  The United States withdrew from the council in 2018. Iran responded to Soleimani’s killing by launching missiles at two Iraqi bases housing U.S. service members.  That attack injured more than 100 U.S. military personnel. As with the U.S. strike, Callamard cited Iran’s filing to the Security Council in which it claimed to have acted in self-defense. She said Iran “made no reference to an imminent or ongoing armed attack by the U.S.” and that the strike against Soleimani “did not justify Iran’s subsequent actions.” Callamard expressed concerns more broadly about the use of drones possessed by dozens of countries and that “the vast majority of targeted killings by drones are subjected to little public scrutiny at either national or international levels.” She said “mistakes are inevitable” in identifying and accurately striking intended targets, and that even when missiles hit their target, “the evidence shows that frequently many more people die.”  Callamard writes that those casualties may amount to violations of international humanitarian law. She calls for the United Nations and member countries to develop strong standards for transparency, oversight and accountability, to use arms control measures to control the proliferation of drones around the world, and to investigate allegations of unlawful deaths in drone strikes. Callamard also suggested the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights produce a yearly report that tracks drone strikes and casualties for members to debate at the Human Rights Council. 
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One day after making huge gains, Asian markets took a mostly negative turn Tuesday. The benchmark Nikkei index in Tokyo closed the day’s trading down 0.4%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was down 0.6% in late afternoon trading, while the Shanghai Composite was up 1.2%.   The S&P/ASX index in Sydney was virtually unchanged percentage wise.  Seoul’s KOSPI index was down 0.9% and the TSEC index in Taiwan was 0.2% lower, while in late afternoon trading, the Sensex in Mumbai was down 0.3%. Oil markets are also on a downward path Tuesday.  U.S. crude oil was trading at $40.15 per barrel, down 1.1%, while Brent crude was also down 1.1%, trading at $42.62 per barrel. All three major U.S. indexes are trending downward in futures trading.  
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