Month: May 2020

Billions of dollars in trade are hanging in the balance as U.S. lawmakers consider suspending Hong Kong’s special trading status after the State Department said it could no longer certify the territory’s high degree of autonomy from China.  After China took control of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997,  Hong Kong’s economy remained one of the freest in the world, attracting billions of dollars in investment and becoming a home base for companies and banks across Asia.  Now, all of that is uncertain with Beijing’s passage of a new National Security Law that undercuts Hong Kong’s special status and would allow Chinese security agencies to limit the liberties of Hong Kong residents.  Hong Kong is already facing a deep recession because of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on trade and tourism. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Riot police wearing face masks stand guard in front of a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange, May 28, 2020.What’s at stake As of June 2018, more than 1,300 American companies have had business operations in Hong Kong, including nearly every major U.S. financial firm and about 290 regional headquarters with parent organizations in the United States, according to U.S. government data. An analysis from Reuters shows that about $67 billion in annual U.S.-Hong Kong trade of goods and services could be put at risk if Hong Kong loses its preferential lower U.S. tariff rate. The State Department said 85,000 U.S. citizens lived in Hong Kong in 2018. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hong Kong was the source of the largest bilateral U.S. goods trade surplus last year at $26.1 billion. The U.S. Senate proposed a bipartisan bill last week that would sanction officials and entities involved in the execution of new national security laws in Hong Kong and penalize banks that do businesses with those entities.  The Trump administration is also reportedly crafting a range of options to punish China over its tightening grip on Hong Kong, including targeted sanctions, new tariffs and further restrictions on Chinese companies. Such moves could mark the opening salvos of the U.S. response as President Donald Trump weighs how far he is prepared to go. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents U.S. business and investment interests, issued a statement Tuesday calling on the Chinese government to maintain Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” framework, while calling on the Trump administration to continue to seek constructive relations with Hong Kong. “It would be a serious mistake on many levels to jeopardize Hong Kong’s special status, which is fundamental to its role as an attractive investment destination and international financial hub,” it said in the statement. Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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The Justice Department unsealed charges Thursday against more than two dozen North Korean individuals accused of making at least $2.5 billion in illicit payments linked to the country’s nuclear weapons and missile program. The case, filed in federal court in Washington, is believed to be the largest criminal enforcement action ever brought against North Korea. The 33 defendants include executives of North Korea’s state-owned bank, Foreign Trade Bank, which in 2013 was added to a Treasury Department list of sanctioned institutions and cut off from the U.S. financial system.  According to the indictment, the bank officials — one of whom had served in North Korea’s primary intelligence bureau — set up branches in countries around the world, including Thailand, Russia and Kuwait, and used more than 250 front companies to process U.S. dollar payments to further the country’s nuclear proliferation program. Five of the defendants are Chinese citizens who operated covert branches in either China or Libya. “Through this indictment, the United States has signified its commitment to hampering North Korea’s ability to illegally access the U.S. financial system and limit its ability to use proceeds from illicit actions to enhance its illegal WMD and ballistic missile programs,” acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin said in a statement. The prosecution underscores ongoing concerns about sanctions violations by North Korea. Last month, United Nations experts recommended blacklisting 14 vessels for violating sanctions against North Korea, accusing the country in a report of increasing illegal coal exports and imports of petroleum products and continuing with cyberattacks on financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to gain illicit revenue. The U.S. has seized about $63 million from the scheme since 2015, according to the indictment. It was not immediately clear whether any of the defendants had lawyers.
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Health officials in the midwestern U.S. state of Wisconsin reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases Thursday, two weeks after the state Supreme Court struck down a state-wide stay-at-home order issued by the governor and enacted by the state health department. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 599 new known COVID-19 cases Wednesday, with 22 known deaths, the highest recorded daily rise since the pandemic began. The department reports the state had more than 16,460 known cases and 539 known deaths as of Wednesday. The previous state record number of new coronavirus cases was 528 a week earlier. The department also reported the state issued a record number of test results Wednesday with more than 10,300 tests conducted.  On May 13, in a 4-3 ruling, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the state’s stay-at-home order during the pandemic was “unlawful, invalid, and unenforceable” after finding that the state’s health secretary exceeded her authority. While some Wisconsin municipalities continued to enforce their own COVID-19-related restrictions, some bars and restaurants were filled with customers within hours of the ruling. Some local officials, including those in the cities of Milwaukee and Madison, have since instituted their own regulations. The order that was struck down had directed all people in the state to stay at home or at their places of residence, subject only to exceptions allowed by the health secretary, the ruling said. The order, which had been set to run until May 26, also restricted travel and business, along with threatening jail time or fines for those who didn’t comply.  
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Alec de Rham sat with his back against a stone obelisk marked “International Boundary” as he and his wife visited with a daughter they hadn’t seen in 10 weeks.  
Hannah Smith took a bus and a bicycle from Vancouver, British Columbia, to the border to meet her “main person,” Jabree Robinson, of Bellingham, Washington.
And beside a large, white arch symbolizing U.S.-Canadian friendship, Lois England and Ian Hendon kissed giddily, reunited for a few hours after the longest separation of their three-year relationship.
Families, couples and friends — separated for weeks by the pandemic-fueled closing of the border between the U.S. and Canada — are flocking to Peace Arch Park, an oasis on the border where they can reunite, and touch, and hug.
The park covers 42 acres (17 hectares) of manicured lawn, flower beds, and cedar and alder trees, extending from Blaine, Washington, into Surrey, British Columbia, at the far western end of the 3,987-mile (6146-km) contiguous border. As long as they stay in the park, visitors can freely roam from the U.S. to the Canadian side, and vice versa, without showing so much as a passport.  
It’s a frequent site of picnics and sometimes weddings, not to mention an area for travelers to stretch their legs when holiday traffic clogs the ports of entry. And for now it’s one of just a few areas along the along the entire border where those separated by the closure can meet.
Officials closed the park in mid-March over coronavirus concerns. The U.S. side reopened early this month, as Washington Gov. Jay Inslee eased some of the restrictions in his stay-home order, and the Canadian side reopened two weeks ago. England, of Sumas, Washington, said she cried when Hendon called to give her the news and they quickly made plans to meet.
England said she and Hendon have generally been careful about social distancing, but there was no thought of keeping 6 feet apart when they saw each other.
“I was really getting depressed over it — this was a huge reprieve,” she said.
It typically takes 40 minutes for England to get to Hendon’s home in Surrey, and they have usually seen each other at least once a week since they met online three years ago. Hendon, an electrician, has kept busy with work during the pandemic, while England has spent time with her daughter and her mother, who live nearby.
The couple chat by Skype almost every morning, but England missed Hendon so badly a few weeks ago that she tried to enter Canada as an “essential” visitor — a category reserved for medical workers, airline crews or truckers hauling crucial goods. Canadian guards turned her away.
One reunion was not enough. The next day, they returned with a barbecue and steaks.
About a half-hour drive to the east, other families met where roads on either side closely parallel a small ditch marking the border. Visitors set up chairs across from each other and had long chats; there’s less freedom to touch there.  
Before they tried it, Tim and Kris Browning thought it might be too hard to see each other without touching. Kris lives north of the border in Abbotsford, where she is a hospital cook, and Tim lives just south, where he works as an electrician for a berry grower. They married in 2014 after meeting online; the virus has delayed Tim’s application to move to Canada.
But chatting across the ditch and a rusty guard rail, or in a nearby raspberry field owned by Tim’s employer, has become a weekly highlight — much better than a device, they said.
“It’s been really heartwarming to see all the families out, and everyone’s been so nice,” said Tim, who usually spends three days a week with Kris and her two children in Canada. “One Border Patrol agent came by and said, ‘Why aren’t you hugging your wife? Go on, hug your wife!'”
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President Donald Trump on Thursday called the world-leading 100,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States “a very sad milestone.”Early in the year, Trump often downplayed the coronavirus threat, saying the number of cases in the U.S. would quickly dwindle to none. But he acknowledged the death toll – a figure larger than the number of U.S. deaths in the Vietnam and Korean wars combined — in a Twitter comment.“To all of the families & friends of those who have passed,” he said, “I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love for everything that these great people stood for & represent. God be with you!” We have just reached a very sad milestone with the coronavirus pandemic deaths reaching 100,000. To all of the families & friends of those who have passed, I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love for everything that these great people stood for & represent. God be with you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2020On Wednesday, former vice president Joe Biden said in a message posted on Twitter “There are moments in our history so grim, so heart-rending, that they’re forever fixed in each of our hearts as shared grief. Today is one of those moments.”  Biden, Trump’s opponent in the November election, ended the message with “To those hurting, I’m so sorry for your loss. The nation grieves with you.”There are moments in our history so grim, so heart-rending, that they’re forever fixed in each of our hearts as shared grief. Today is one of those moments. 100,000 lives have now been lost to this virus.To those hurting, I’m so sorry for your loss. The nation grieves with you. pic.twitter.com/SBBRKV4mPZ— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 27, 2020With the U.S. passing the 100,000 marker in less than four months, a bipartisan group of senators renewed their call for a moment of silence to be held Monday to honor the dead.“The nation must mark this dark moment with unity and clarity,” said Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat. “At this time of almost unimaginable pain, it is essential that we pause to honor every life lost, and that we grieve together.”“The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated our nation,” said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. “Far too many families have seen their loved ones suffer. Due to strict isolation measures, most who have lost someone to the disease have been robbed of their final farewell at the hospital. Many have also been unable to have proper memorials to honor the people they have lost.”A separate proposal in the House of Representatives calls for a daily moment of silence whenever the House is in session, as well as a national day of mourning after the pandemic ends and the establishment of a national memorial for the victims.The United States had seen some improvement in its daily death tolls, but that progress took a sharp step back Wednesday with 1,400 new deaths reported.Worldwide, more than 356,000 people have died from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. There are about 5.7 million confirmed cases, with almost 30% in the United States.South Korea reported 79 new cases Thursday as it continues to work to prevent a more widespread resurgence of the virus.  With most of the new cases located in the Seoul area, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo urged people to avoid unnecessary gatherings and for companies to keep sick workers at home.There is also concern in many countries in Latin America, where the World Food Program says the pandemic could leave 14 million people hungry.“We are entering a very complicated stage,” said Miguel Barreto, the WFP’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “It is what we are calling a hunger pandemic.”Brazil has been the hardest hit in the region, with its 411,000 cases, trailing only the United States. Peru has also seen a sharp rise in cases, including reporting Wednesday a record daily increase of 6,154 new cases.India reported a similar jump Thursday with 6,566 new cases, a record for the country that now ranks 10th in the world in confirmed cases.
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A black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes was a former Texas high school football star who was carving out a living in his adopted state. George Floyd also had something in common with millions of Americans. He had lost his job because of the coronavirus pandemic. Floyd died Monday night in a confrontation that began after a grocery store employee called the police to report someone trying to pass a counterfeit bill. Floyd’s friend, Christopher Harris, said Floyd had moved to Minneapolis from Houston about five years ago to find work.  Before he died after being pinned for minutes beneath a Minneapolis police officer’s knee, George Floyd was suffering the same fate as millions of Americans during the coronavirus pandemic: out of work and looking for a new job.Man Fatally Shot During 2nd Night of Angry Protests in Minneapolis over Death of Black Man in Police Custody Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey calls on local prosecutors to file charges against officer who kneeled on neck of black man who pleaded for his life Floyd moved to Minneapolis from his native Houston several years ago in hopes of finding work and starting a new life, said Christopher Harris, Floyd’s lifelong friend. But he lost his job as a bouncer at a restaurant when Minnesota’s governor issued a stay-at-home order.On Monday night, an employee at a Minneapolis grocery store called police after Floyd allegedly tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.In widely circulated cellphone video of the subsequent arrest, Floyd, who was black, can be seen on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back while Officer Derek Chauvin presses him to the pavement with his knee on Floyd’s neck. The video shows Chauvin, who is white, holding Floyd down for minutes as Floyd complains he can’t breathe. The video ends with paramedics lifting a limp Floyd onto a stretcher and placing him in an ambulance.  Four officers were fired Tuesday; on Wednesday, Mayor Jacob Frey called for Chauvin to be criminally charged. Frey made no mention of the other three officers, who were also at the scene.4 Minnesota Police Officers Fired After Death of Black ManVictim of the incident in Minneapolis is the latest of many black men who have died at the hands of white officersPolice say Floyd was resisting arrest, but Chauvin’s lawyer has declined to comment and the other officers have not been publicly identified.  Floyd, 46, grew up in Houston’s Third Ward, one of the city’s predominantly black neighborhoods, where he and Harris met in middle school. At 6 feet, 6 inches, Floyd emerged as a star tight end for Jack Yates High School and played in the 1992 state championship game in the Houston Astrodome. Yates lost to Temple, 38-20.  Donnell Cooper, one of Floyd’s former classmates, said he remembered watching Floyd score touchdowns. Floyd towered over everyone and earned the nickname “gentle giant.””Quiet personality but a beautiful spirit,” Cooper said. His death “definitely caught me by surprise. It’s just so sad, the world we’re living in now.”Floyd was charged in 2007 with armed robbery in a home invasion in Houston and in 2009 was sentenced to five years in prison as part of a plea deal, according to court documents.Harris, Floyd’s childhood friend, said he and some of their mutual friends had moved to Minneapolis in search of jobs around 2014. Harris said he talked Floyd into moving there as well after he got out of prison.  “He was looking to start over fresh, a new beginning,” Harris said. “He was happy with the change he was making.”Floyd landed a job working security at a Salvation Army store in downtown Minneapolis. He later started working two jobs, one driving trucks and another as a bouncer at Conga Latin Bistro, where he was known as “Big Floyd.”  “Always cheerful,” Jovanni Tunstrom, the bistro’s owner, said. “He had a good attitude. He would dance badly to make people laugh. I tried to teach him how to dance because he loved Latin music, but I couldn’t because he was too tall for me. He always called me ‘Bossman.’ I said, ‘Floyd, don’t call me Bossman. I’m your friend.”Harris said Floyd was laid off when Minnesota shut down restaurants as part of a stay-at-home order. He said he spoke with Floyd on Sunday night and gave him some information for contacting a temporary jobs agency.”He was doing whatever it takes to maintain going forward with his life,” Harris said, adding he couldn’t believe that Floyd would resort to forgery. “I’ve never known him to do anything like that.”Floyd leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter who still lives in Houston with her mother, Roxie Washington, the Houston Chronicle reported. Efforts to reach Washington on Wednesday were unsuccessful.  “The way he died was senseless,” Harris said. “He begged for his life. He pleaded for his life. When you try so hard to put faith in this system, a system that you know isn’t designed for you, when you constantly seek justice by lawful means and you can’t get it, you begin to take the law into your own hands.” 
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It might feel like their city is under siege, but some older New Yorkers are finding the lighter side of the pandemic. As Dora Mekouar reports, they are finding that laughter really is the best medicine.
 
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There’s no doubt that New York Cith has born the brunt of the COVID crisis in the United States. But through it all, New Yorkers have one thing in common: they love their town.Camera: Olga Terekhin Alex Barash, Natalia Latukhina, Vladimir Badikov, Max Avloshenko, Aaron Fedor 
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There’s no doubt that New York Cith has born the brunt of the COVID crisis in the United States. But through it all, New Yorkers have one thing in common: they love their town.Camera: Olga Terekhin Alex Barash, Natalia Latukhina, Vladimir Badikov, Max Avloshenko, Aaron Fedor 
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President Donald Trump has renewed his resolve to “bring our soldiers back home” from Afghanistan, publicly questioning again the goal of the current U.S. military mission to the war-torn country.Trump reiterated his intention amid reports that the ongoing U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan “is well ahead of schedule” outlined in a landmark peace-building pact the United States signed with the Taliban in late February to end the nearly 19-year-old Afghan war.“We are acting as a police force, not the fighting force that we are, in Afghanistan,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. After 19 years, it was time for Afghan authorities to police their own country, he wrote.We are acting as a police force, not the fighting force that we are, in Afghanistan. After 19 years, it is time for them to police their own Country. Bring our soldiers back home but closely watch what is going on and strike with a thunder like never before, if necessary!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020“Bring our soldiers back home but closely watch what is going on and strike with a thunder like never before, if necessary!” Trump added.Under the Feb. 29 U.S.-Taliban agreement, Washington has committed to reduce its military footprint in Afghanistan from about 13,000 to 8,600 by mid-July before withdrawing all troops, along with several thousand partners in a NATO-led non-combatant mission by mid-2021.The drawdown started within days of the signing of the agreement in Qatar, and U.S. military officials say the process has since been on track.In return, the Taliban is committed to preventing terrorist groups from using Afghanistan for international terrorism. It has also promised to reduce battlefield violence and engage in a political reconciliation process with other Afghan stakeholders to negotiate a permanent cease-fire and power-sharing arrangement in post-war Afghanistan.  
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Tropical Storm Bertha made a brief and unexpected visit to the southeastern U.S. coast Wednesday, soaking Charleston, South Carolina, and nearby beaches with heavy rains and gusty winds but causing no major damage. Bertha surprised forecasters by forming off the coast, making landfall and moving inland in just two hours — about the same time it takes to watch a movie.  As of Wednesday evening, Bertha was downgraded to a tropical depression and was expected to drench parts of North Carolina and southwestern Virginia before turning into what forecasters call a remnant low — the leftovers of what had been a tropical weather system. Bertha was the second named storm of what forecasters say will be an exceptionally busy Atlantic hurricane season. The season officially begins June 1 and lasts until November 30, but two storms have already made landfall. Tropical Storm Arthur hit North Carolina earlier this month. Forecasters predict as many as 19 named storms this year with up to 10 building into hurricanes. Six could become major hurricanes — a Category 3 or higher.
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Demonstrators gathered Wednesday for a second night of protests over the killing in the U.S. city of Minneapolis of a handcuffed black man by a policeman who held him to the ground with a knee on his neck.As dusk fell, police formed a human barricade around the Third Precinct, where the officers accused of killing George Floyd worked before they were fired on Tuesday.They pushed protesters back as the crowd grew, a day after police fired rubber bullets and tear gas on thousands of demonstrators angered by the latest death of an African-American at the hands of U.S. law enforcement.Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo cautioned protestors to remain peaceful.President Donald Trump in a tweet called Floyd’s death “sad and tragic” as outrage spread across the country over a bystander’s cellphone video of his killing on Monday while in the custody of four white police officers.All four have been fired, as prosecutors said they had called in the FBI to help investigate the case, which could involve a federal felony civil rights violation.”I would like those officers to be charged with murder, because that’s exactly what they did,” Bridgett Floyd, his sister, said on NBC television.”They murdered my brother…. They should be in jail for murder.”Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he could not understand why the officer who held his knee to Floyd’s neck on a Minneapolis street until the 46-year-old restaurant worker went limp has not been arrested.”Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail? If you had done it, or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now,” Frey said.”Based on what I saw, the officer who had his knee on the neck of George Floyd should be charged,” he said.’I can’t breathe’The case was seen as the latest example of police brutality against African Americans, which gave rise six years ago to the Black Lives Matter movement.Floyd had been detained on a minor charge of allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to make a purchase at a convenience store.In the video, policemen hold him to the ground while one presses his knee to Floyd’s neck.”Your knee in my neck. I can’t breathe…. Mama. Mama,” Floyd pleaded.He grew silent and motionless, unable to move even as the officers told him to “get up and get in the car.”He was taken to hospital where he was later declared dead.’A public execution’Calls for justice came from around the country.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said the FBI needs to thoroughly investigate the case.”It’s a tragic reminder that this was not an isolated incident, but part of an engrained systemic cycle of injustice that still exists in this country,” Biden said.”We have to ensure that the Floyd family receive the justice they are entitled to.”Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris called the policeman’s using his knee on Floyd’s neck “torture.””This is not new, it has been going on a long time… what our communities have known for generations, which is discriminatory implementation and enforcement of the laws,” she said.”He was begging to be able to breathe,” she said. “It was a public execution.”The protests evoked memories of the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 after a policeman shot dead a young African American man suspected of robbery, as well as the case of New Yorker Eric Garner, who was detained by police for illegally selling cigarettes and filmed being held in an illegal chokehold by police that led to his death.”How many more of these senseless excessive-force killings from the people who are supposed to protect us can we take in America?” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who was retained by Floyd’s family.Crump pointed out that the arrest involved a minor, non-violent crime, and there was no sign, as police initially claimed, that Floyd resisted arrest.”There is no reason to apply this excessive fatal force,” Crump said.”That has to be the tipping point. Everybody deserves justice…. We can’t have two justice systems, one for blacks and one for whites.”  
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Walt Disney World will reopen to the public in July, Disney company officials announced Wednesday.The Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks will resume business on July 11, followed by EPCOT and Hollywood Studios on July 15. The four theme parks are in Florida.In a presentation to an economic recovery task force, the multibillion-dollar entertainment company said that the moves will occur in stages to minimize health and safety risks.It is not clear when Disneyland, located in California, will reopen.Precautions approved by local governments in Florida and California include requiring that guests wear face masks, submit to temperature checks and comply with social distancing requirements. Reduced park capacity and cashless transactions will also be implemented. Disney closed its parks around the world after the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe but reopened its Shanghai amusement parks in early May. The location in China had been closed since January.Disney World in Florida employs about 77,000 people. According to CNN, the company’s theme parks accounted for 37% of its annual revenue in 2019. It says the forced closings caused an estimated 58% drop in profit for the parks and experiences unit of the company last quarter.”The theme parks define Disney for millions of its fans around the world,” Robert Niles, editor of ThemeParkInsider.com, told CNN Business. “Returning its parks to operation signals that Disney is coming back to full speed as a company again.”
 
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The launch of a SpaceX rocket ship with two NASA astronauts on a history-making flight into orbit was called off with 16 minutes to go in the countdown Wednesday because of thunderclouds and the danger of lightning. Liftoff was rescheduled for Saturday afternoon.The commercially designed, built and owned spacecraft was set to blast off in the afternoon for the International Space Station, ushering in a new era in commercial spaceflight and putting NASA back in the business of launching astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade. But thunderstorms for much of the day threatened to force a postponement, and the word finally came down that the atmosphere was so electrically charged that the spacecraft with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aboard could get hit by a bolt of lightning.”No launch for today — safety for our crew members @Astro_Doug and @AstroBehnken is our top priority,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted, using a lightning emoji.The SpaceX Falcon 9, with the Crew Dragon spacecraft on top of the rocket, sits on Launch Pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., May 27, 2020.The two men were scheduled to ride into orbit aboard the SpaceX’s bullet-shaped Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, taking off from the same launch pad used during the Apollo moon missions a half-century ago. Both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence had arrived to watch.The flight — the long-held dream of SpaceX founder Elon Musk — would have marked the first time a private company sent humans into orbit.It would also have been the first time in nearly a decade that the United States launched astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil. Ever since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian spaceships launched from Kazakhstan to take U.S. astronauts to and from the space station.During the day, thunder could be heard as the astronauts made their way to the pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and a tornado warning was issued moments after they climbed into their capsule.The preparations took place in the shadow of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed an estimated 100,000 Americans.”We’re launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil. We haven’t done this really since 2011, so this is a unique moment in time,” Bridenstine said.With this launch, he said, “everybody can look up and say, ‘Look, the future is so much brighter than the present.’ And I really hope that this is an inspiration to the world.”The mission would put Musk and SpaceX in the same league as only three spacefaring countries — Russia, the U.S. and China, all of which gave sent astronauts into orbit.”What today is about is reigniting the dream of space and getting people fired up about the future,” he said in a NASA interview before the flight was scrubbed.A solemn-sounding Musk said he felt his responsibilities most strongly when he saw the astronauts’ wives and sons just before launch. He said he told them: “We’ve done everything we can to make sure your dads come back OK.”President Donald Trump looks at an area on a piece of equipment to sign during tour of NASA facilities before viewing the SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2 Launch at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., May 27, 2020.NASA pushed ahead with the launch despite the viral outbreak but kept the guest list at Kennedy extremely limited and asked spectators to stay at home. Still, beaches and parks along Florida’s Space Coast are open again, and hours before the launch, cars and RVs already were lining the causeway in Cape Canaveral.The space agency also estimated 1.7 million people were watching the launch preparations online during the afternoon.Among the sightseers was Erin Gatz, who came prepared for both rain and pandemic. 
Accompanied by her 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, she brought face masks and a small tent to protect against the elements. She said the children had faint memories of watching in person one of the last shuttle launches almost a decade ago when they were preschoolers. “I wanted them to see the flip side and get to see the next era of space travel,” said Gatz, who lives in Deltona, Florida. “It’s exciting and hopeful.”NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 to transport astronauts to the space station in a new kind of public-private partnership. Development of SpaceX’s Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner capsules took longer than expected, however. Boeing’s ship is not expected to fly astronauts into space until early 2021.”We’re doing it differently than we’ve ever done it before,” Bridenstine said. “We’re transforming how we do spaceflight in the future.”
 
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“Do as I say, but not as I do” was the message many British saw in the behavior of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s key aide, who traveled hundreds of miles with coronavirus symptoms during the country’s lockdown.
While  Dominic Cummings has faced calls for his firing  but support from his boss over his journey from London to the northern city of Durham in March, few countries seem immune to the perception that politicians and top officials are bending the rules that their own governments wrote during the pandemic.
From U.S. President Donald Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, global decision-makers have frequently set bad examples, whether it’s refusing to wear masks or breaking confinement rules aimed at protecting their citizens from COVID-19.  
Some are punished when they’re caught, others publicly repent, while a few just shrug off the violations during a pandemic that has claimed more than 350,000 lives worldwide.
Here are some notable examples:New Zealand Health Minister Calls Himself An “Idiot”
In April, New Zealand’s health minister was stripped of some of his responsibilities after defying the country’s strict lockdown measures. David Clark drove 19 kilometers (12 miles) to the beach to take a walk with his family as the government was asking people to make historic sacrifices by staying at home.
“I’ve been an idiot, and I understand why people will be angry with me,” Clark said. He also earlier acknowledged driving to a park near his home to go mountain biking.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said normally she would fire Clark but that the country couldn’t afford massive disruption in its health sector while it was fighting the virus. Instead, she stripped Clark of his role as associate finance minister and demoting him to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings.Mexico’s Leader Shakes Hands
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said it pained him not to embrace supporters during tours because of health risks, but he made a remarkable exception in March, shaking hands with the elderly mother of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán. Asked about shaking her hand when the government was urging citizens to practice social distancing, López Obrador said it would have been disrespectful not to.  
“It’s very difficult humanly,” he said. “I’m not a robot.”  America’s Pandemic Politics
The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement in the U.S. It’s been stoked by Trump — who didn’t wear a mask during an appearance at a facility making them — and some other Republicans, who have questioned the value of masks. This month, pandemic politics shadowed Trump’s trip to Michigan as he toured a factory making lifesaving medical devices. He did not publicly wear a face covering despite a warning from the state’s top law enforcement officer that refusing to do so might lead to a ban on his return.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, meanwhile, wore a mask along with his wife, Jill, as they laid a wreath Monday at a Delaware veterans’ memorial — his first public appearance since mid-March. Trump later retweeted Fox News analyst Brit Hume’s criticism of Biden for wearing a mask in public.
Vice President Mike Pence was criticized for not wearing a mask  while on a visit to the Mayo Clinic.Netanyahu’s Passover Holiday
While the rest of Israel was instructed not to gather with their extended families for traditional Passover Seder in April, Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin hosted their adult children for the festive holiday meal, drawing fierce criticism on social media. Israeli television showed a photo of Avner Netanyahu, the premier’s younger son, attending the Seder at his father’s official residence.  
Benjamin Netanyahu later apologized in a televised address, saying he should have adhered more closely to the regulations.  The French Exception
French President Emmanuel Macron also has been inconsistent with masks, leaving the French public confused. Although Macron has sometimes appeared in a mask for visits at hospitals and schools, it’s a different story in the Elysee presidential palace and for speeches. During a visit to a Paris hospital on May 15, Macron initially wore a mask to chat with doctors but then removed it to talk with union workers.  
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner also faced criticism this month for huddling with dozens of mask-makers in a factory for a photo where everyone removed their masks.  
Putin’s Different Approach
The only time Russian President Vladimir Putin wore protective gear in public was on March 24, when he visited a top coronavirus hospital in Moscow.  Before donning a hazmat suit, Putin shook hands with Dr. Denis Protsenko, the head of the hospital. Neither wore masks or gloves, and a week later, Protsenko tested positive for the virus. That raised questions about Putin’s health, but the Kremlin said he was fine.
Putin has since held at least seven face-to-face meetings, according to the Kremlin website. He and others didn’t wear masks during those meetings, and Putin also didn’t cover his face for events marking Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II.
When asked why Putin doesn’t wear a mask during public appearances, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin has a different approach to protecting the president’s health.
“When it comes to public events, we ask medical workers to test all the participants in advance,” Peskov told reporters.  Puerto Rico Official’s Inconsistent Message
Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez was criticized for not always wearing a mask despite holding new conferences ordering people to cover their face outside their homes and inside businesses. A member of the opposition Popular Democratic Party also filed a police complaint last week against members of Vázquez’s New Progressive Party, alleging they violated a curfew by gathering to inaugurate the party’s new headquarters. Police are investigating the incident, which angered many Puerto Ricans.  Scottish Medical Official Takes The Low Road
Scotland’s chief medical officer, Dr. Catherine Calderwood, broke her own rules and traveled to her second home during lockdown in April. She faced blowback after photos emerged of her and her family visiting Earlsferry in Fife, which is more than an hour’s drive from her main home in Edinburgh. She apologized and resigned.
“I did not follow the advice I’m giving to others,” Calderwood said. “I am truly sorry for that. I’ve seen a lot of the comments from … people calling me a hypocrite.”  Japan’s Gambling Scandal
A top Japanese prosecutor was reprimanded and later resigned this month after defying a stay-at-home recommendation in a gambling scandal.
Hiromu Kurokawa, the country’s No. 2 prosecutor who headed the Tokyo High Prosecutors’ Office, acknowledged that he wasn’t social distancing when he played mahjong for money at a newspaper reporter’s home twice in May. Japan didn’t enforce a stay-at-home recommendation, but his case outraged the public because many were following social distancing measures.  Italian Press Conference Criticism
At a March news conference to open a COVID-19 field hospital in Milan’s old convention center, photographers and video journalists were pushed into corners that did not allow proper spacing. Only text reporters were given seating in line with regulations. The Codacons consumer protection group announced it would file a complaint with prosecutors in Milan.
“What should have been a moment of great happiness and pride for Lombardy and Italy was transformed into a surreal event, where in violation of the anti-gathering rules, groups of crowds formed,” Codacons said.  South Africa’s Rule-Breaking Dinner
In April, Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was placed on special leave for two months and forced to apologize by President Cyril Ramaphosa after she violated stay-at-home regulations. Ramaphosa directed police to investigate after a photo emerged on social media of Ndabeni-Abrahams and several others having a meal at the home of former deputy minister of higher education Mduduzi Manana.Spanish Hospital Ceremony Investigated
Madrid’s regional and city officials sparked controversy when they gathered on May 1 for a ceremony shuttering a massive field hospital at a convention center. Eager to appear in the final photo of a facility credited with treating nearly 4,000 mild COVID-19 patients, dozens of officials didn’t follow social distancing rules. Spain’s restrictions banned more than 10 people at events like the one that honored nurses and doctors. The central government opened an investigation, and Madrid regional chief Isabel Díaz Ayuso apologized. She said officials “got carried away by the uniqueness of the moment.”
Former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also defied strict stay-at-home orders, with a television station filming him power walking around in northern Madrid. The Spanish prosecutor’s office is investigating whether Rajoy, who was premier from 2011 to 2018, should be fined.Indian Cricket Game Criticized
In India, a top leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party drew flak last weekend after playing a game of cricket. Manoj Tiwari, also a member of India’s parliament, said he followed social distancing rules during the game. Videos circulating on social media showed Tiwati without a mask. He was also seen taking selfies with people.  Leaders Who Follow The Rules
Some leaders are setting a good example, including Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Media jokingly called him the most relaxed politician in the world after he was photographed queuing at a supermarket this month, wearing a mask and following social distancing measures. The photo was widely shared on social media.  
Another rule-follower is Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who did not visit his ill 96-year-old mother in a nursing home during the last eight weeks of her life because of coronavirus restrictions. He only came to her bedside during her final hours this month.  
“The prime minister has respected all guidelines,” according to a statement read by a spokesman. “The guidelines allow for family to say goodbye to dying family members in the final stage. And as such the prime minister was with her during her last night.” 
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Joe Biden said Tuesday that wearing a mask in public to combat the spread of the coronavirus is a sign of leadership and called President Donald Trump a “fool” who was “stoking deaths” for suggesting otherwise. Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his wife Jill Biden arrive to place a wreath at the Delaware Memorial Bridge Veterans Memorial Park, in New Castle, Delaware, May 25, 2020.The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s comments came a day after he wore a black face mask while making his first public appearance in more than two months. Biden has remained at his Delaware home amid a pandemic that has frozen the presidential campaign, but he marked Memorial Day by laying a wreath at a nearby veterans’ memorial with his wife, Jill. Trump later retweeted a post that appeared to make fun of a photo of Biden in his mask, though he later said he didn’t mean to be critical. In an interview with CNN, Biden responded, “He’s a fool, an absolute fool, to talk that way.” “He’s supposed to lead by example,” Biden said. The former vice president also noted that nearly 100,000 Americans have been killed by the virus and suggested that as many as half of those deaths were avoidable but for Trump’s “lack of attention and ego.”  Federal officials have recommended that people cover their nose and mouth in public when other measures, such as practicing social distancing of at least 6 feet (1.8 meters), aren’t possible. But the issue has become increasingly politically charged, with Trump refusing to wear a mask and polls finding that conservative Americans are more likely to forgo them as well. Biden didn’t wear a mask during the CNN interview, which was conducted outside his house, but he sat 12 feet (3.6 meters) from the reporter. “It’s just absolutely this macho stuff,” Biden said of Trump bristling at wearing a mask in public, a practice the former vice president called being “falsely masculine.” “It’s cost people’s lives.”  Biden added that the president is politicizing the issue and “it’s stoking deaths. That’s not going to increase the likelihood that people are going to be better off.”  U.S. President Trump hosts Rose Garden event on treating diabetes at the White House during coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Washington.After Biden wore the mask on Memorial Day, Trump retweeted a post by a political commentator that featured an image of a masked Biden over the comment, “This might help explain why Trump doesn’t like to wear a mask in public.” Asked about that during a subsequent event in the White House Rose Garden, the president responded, “Biden can wear a mask.”  “But he was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather,” Trump said. “They’re inside, they don’t wear masks and so I thought it was very unusual that he had one on. But I thought that was fine. I wasn’t criticizing him at all. Why would I ever do a thing like that?” Trump then asked the reporter who was following up with a second question to remove the mask he was wearing, complaining he couldn’t hear him. When the reporter instead said he would speak louder, the president replied: “Oh, OK, ’cause you want to be politically correct.” Federal guidance does not recommend that people wear masks when at home. Still, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany used the same line of argument on Tuesday. She noted that Biden has foregone a mask while appearing for frequent online events from his home, something he did during a virtual fundraiser held Tuesday night. “It is a bit peculiar,” McEnany said. “That in his basement, right next to his wife, he’s not wearing a mask. But he’s wearing one outdoors when he’s socially distant. So I think that there was a discrepancy there.” For his part, Biden changed his Twitter profile picture to one of him in the black face covering, and he tweeted Tuesday night: “Wear a mask.” Meanwhile, the former vice president has continued to face fallout from a remark he made Friday on “The Breakfast Club,” a radio program influential and popular in the black community. He had commented, “If you’ve got a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or for Trump, then you ain’t black.”  That sparked criticism from some African American activists, and Biden made a previously unscheduled appearance on a U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce conference call hours later to say that he “should not have been so cavalier.”  He went further Tuesday, telling CNN, “I shouldn’t have done that. It was a mistake.” “When I say something that is understandably, in retrospect, offensive to someone, and legitimately offensive — making it look like taking them for granted — I should apologize,” Biden said. “I don’t apologize for every mistake I make because a lot of them don’t have any consequences.”  
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The worldwide death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic has surpassed 350,000. The milestone comes as South Korea announced Wednesday its highest number of new cases in 49 days. Authorities are focusing on testing workers from e-commerce giant Coupang after dozens of cases were linked to a company site outside of Seoul. South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said all but four of its 40 new cases were in the Seoul area. The country was an early hotspot for the coronavirus outbreak, but now barely ranks in the top-50 in terms of confirmed infections, according to statistics compiled by the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.“We will do our best to trace contacts and implement preventive measures, but there’s a limit to such efforts,” KCDC head Jeong Eun-kyeong said. “There’s a need to maximize social distancing in areas where the virus is circulating, to force people to avoid public facilities and other crowded spaces.”  Brazil, India, Mexico are cause for concern
Brazil has emerged as a major source of concern, trailing only the United States in the number of infections. On Tuesday it reported the most single day deaths in the world, with 1,039, its fifth consecutive day atop the grim list. India posted its record high of 6,000 new cases reported Wednesday, pushing its total above 150,000. Mexico also reported troubling escalations in its coronavirus outbreak, with a new high of 501 deaths and 3,455 new confirmed cases.Like many governments around the world, Mexico is weighing continuing stay-at-home and social distancing orders against the desire to resume economic activity.   President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters his advisers were discussing possible reopening steps and could announce as early as this week plans to send kids back to school.  He also said he plans to tour different states and hold talks with local officials on easing restrictions. A child gets a meal from the mobile dining rooms program as people who have not been able to work because of the COVID-19 pandemic line up for a meal outside the Iztapalapa hospital in Mexico City, Wednesday, May 20, 2020.US easing restrictions
In the neighboring United States, governors continue to pull back on their lockdown orders, including in Nevada, where Governor Steve Sisolak announced casinos in Las Vegas can reopen June 4 after the key industry was shut down for 10 weeks. “We welcome the visitors from across the country to come here, to have a good time, no different than they did previously, but we’re gonna be cautious,” Sisolak said. No COVID patients in New Zealand
New Zealand reported a new milestone in its coronavirus recovery, saying Wednesday there were no more COVID-19 patients in the country’s hospitals. Health officials said there were only 21 active cases in New Zealand, which put in place a strict five-week lockdown before slowly easing the measures in late April. New Zealand and Australia are working on plans to amend their travel bans to allow people to move between the two countries, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a draft should be ready by early next month. And in Spain, a 10-day mourning period began Wednesday to honor the more than 27,000 people in the country who have died from COVID-19. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening unspecified retaliation against Twitter after the social media platform tagged a pair of his tweets on Tuesday with a fact-check warning.  The unprecedented alert on the @realDonaldTrump tweets about mail-in balloting prompted the president to accuse Twitter of interference in this year’s election and of “completely stifling” free speech.  “I, as President, will not allow it to happen,” he concluded.  .Fact checking needed, critics say
“Social media companies have been struggling with the spread of misinformation and the need for fact checking for years, most prominently in the last presidential election,” noted Marcus Messner, the  director of Virginia Commonwealth University’s school of media and culture.  “Twitter is right to flag incorrect information even when it involves tweets by President Trump,” Messner told VOA. The journalism professor noted the action “walks the fine between fact checking and being accused of censoring political speech through more drastic measures such as deleting posts and suspending accounts. But the question remains whether the fact tags with links to news articles will even be recognized by supporters of President Trump, who regularly dismiss all reporting from mainstream media. The effect of the fact tags in this heated partisan environment might be limited.”    Texas A&M Communications Assistant Professor Jennifer Mercieca, who refers to Trump as “an outrage president” who uses social media to “go around the news filter and speak directly with his supporters and set the nation’s news agenda” says Twitter’s strategy “allows Trump to communicate, but enables his audience to think more critically about the content of his message.” Mercieca, author of “2020: Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,” accuses Trump of using his Twitter account irresponsibly to spread “conspiracy, racism and misinformation.” The president’s response to the action by the platform “is to further use outrage to condemn Twitter for the policy while vaguely threatening that he would do something to stop them,” she told VOA. It is unclear what legal leverage Trump has over Twitter, which does not need any government licenses to operate as do radio or television stations.Twitter stands by decision A Twitter spokesperson said the company took the unprecedented action, based on its new policy announced earlier this month, because Trump’s tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.” During an exchange with reporters in the White House Rose Garden earlier Tuesday, Trump, responding to journalist’s questions about his mail-in ballot accusations, claimed the state of California — the most populous in the country — would be sending out “millions and millions of ballots to anybody,” including those who “don’t have the right to vote.”  California is planning to send every registered voter a ballot by mail for the November 3 election, a plan that prompted the Republican National Committee to sue California Governor Gavin Newsom.  The action by Twitter to flag Trump’s tweets “is a small step in the right direction. But we can all do our part to call out the lies,” California Secretary of State Alex Padilla tweeted on Tuesday evening. “The president is intentionally spreading false information about vote by mail and blatantly trying to suppress the vote.”  .@Twitter “fact-checking” @realDonaldTrump is a small step in the right direction. But we can all do our part to call out the lies. The president is intentionally spreading false information about vote by mail and blatantly trying to suppress the vote. RT the TRUTH. pic.twitter.com/oaJGH41K1I— Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) May 26, 2020Calls to delete some tweets
Twitter has also been facing calls to remove Trump’s tweets that push an old conspiracy theory about the death of a congressional staffer.  The president has stopped short of directly accusing Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, who hosts a morning program on the MSNBC cable channel of killing a woman in 2001 even though the politician was 1,300 kilometers away at the time and authorities ruled her death an accident. Scarborough was once friendly with Trump but has become a fierce on-air critic of the president.  “We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,” said a Twitter spokesperson on Tuesday. “We’ve been working to expand existing product features and features so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly.” Timothy Klausutis, widower of Lori Klausutis, has written to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey claiming the president has violated the social media company’s erms of service and “has taken something that does not belong to him-the memory of my dead wife-and perverted it for perceived political gain.” Questioned by reporters in the Rose Garden about the tweets on Tuesday, Trump did not prevaricate.  “I’m sure that, ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it and it’s a very serious situation,” the president said of the deceased woman’s relatives, calling for law enforcement to re-open the investigation. “As you know, there’s no statute of limitations. So, it would be a very good, very good thing to do.”    
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It was the most notorious moment in South Korea’s turbulent path to democracy: the May 1980 military crackdown on a student-led protest in the southwestern city of Gwangju.  The Gwangju Uprising, as it would later become known, began as a demonstration against South Korea’s brutal military leaders, who had recently expanded martial law.  Shortly after the protest began, elite paratroopers attacked the students with batons, rifles and bayonets. But as the crackdown escalated, so did the citizens’ resistance. Eventually Gwangju erupted into open rebellion, with residents raiding a local armory, seizing weapons and driving the military out of the city. A few days later, the military returned, crushing the civilian militia.  The Gwangju violence marked a pivotal moment in South Korean history. Not only did it rekindle a nationwide pro-democracy movement, the violence also unleashed a wave of anger at the United States, which had long backed the country’s military rulers as a way to counter North Korea. Though May 18, the day the protest began, is now celebrated as an unofficial memorial day in South Korea, the incident is still a major source of polarization. Far-right conservatives continue to insist, without providing evidence, that North Korea was behind the protests, which they characterize as riots.  But amid a leftward shift in South Korea’s political landscape, the country is making a fresh effort to find a common narrative about Gwangju.  Uncovering hidden truths Newly empowered after a landslide legislative election win last month, the left-leaning government of President Moon Jae-in has prioritized the Gwangju issue, especially during this month’s 40th anniversary of the movement. Standing in front of the former provincial government building in downtown Gwangju where the 1980 civilian militia made its final stand, Moon earlier this month promised full support for a new, independent fact-finding committee to look into the crackdown. Many details about the incident remain unknown, including the death toll (the official count at the time was around 200, but independent groups say the actual number is much higher), as well as who ordered the use of helicopters that eyewitnesses say fired on civilians. Moon is also pushing to recognize the “May 18 Democratization Movement” in the preamble of South Korea’s constitution, formally enshrining it as part of South Korea’s long fight for democracy.The Gwangju plaza that saw bloody battles between protesters and military forces in May, 1980. In the background is the former provincial government building where the civilian militia made its last stand. May 20, 2020. (W. Gallo)Conservative apology Some conservatives are even changing their tone. Ahead of the 40th anniversary, South Korea’s main conservative party apologized for its past members who “defamed” and “insulted” the Gwangju movement. “In the future, the May Uprising will no longer become a political issue, and it should not be the subject of social conflict,” said the Women whose families were killed, wounded, or arrested during the Gwangju Uprising sing songs at the May Mothers House community center in Gwangju, South Korea. May 20, 2020. (W. Gallo)Military strongman Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death in 1996, in part because of his role in the massacre, but was later pardoned. Now 89 years old and suffering from Alzheimer’s, Chun remains defiant and defends his actions. In 2018, South Korea’s defense ministry issued its first-ever apology for the massacre, following a five-month investigation.  US apology? But many in Gwangju also want an apology from the United States, which at the time had operational control of all South Korean military units.  Specifically, many Gwangju residents feel the U.S. could and should have done more to restrain their allies, especially after the South Korean military notified Washington it was moving an elite military unit away from U.S. control to deal with the unrest.  U.S. military and diplomatic officials have long insisted they did not have enough influence to stop South Korea from deploying the troops. Once the troops were deployed, U.S. officials say they did not have adequate real-time info about the crackdown.  “The U.S. government didn’t have a clear picture,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, then a 26-year-old junior foreign service officer at the U.S. embassy in Seoul. “And I don’t think (U.S. officials) had leverage sufficient to prevent the South Korean government from putting down an uprising they saw as an existential threat.”  At the time, Fitzpatrick served as an assistant to U.S. Ambassador William Gleysteen. The title of Gleysteen’s 1999 memoir – Massive Entanglement, Marginal Influence – concisely summarizes the challenges the U.S. faced in simultaneously supporting South Korea’s authoritarian leaders while also pushing for democracy.  “We were always encouraging reform, but there was a higher priority on deterring North Korea,” said Fitzpatrick, now retired after serving 26 years as a foreign service officer and later a U.S. nuclear policy expert. “Given the U.S. military presence and the overriding need to deter North Korea and to keep the South Korean military strong, human rights took a backseat.”  Since 2004, U.S. ambassadors to South Korea have occasionally visited Gwangju, where they praise South Korea’s democracy movement. But notably, they do not issue formal apologies.  “We have asked many times for the U.S. government to apologize … but they haven’t done that so far,” said Lee Jae-eui, who took part in the uprising and later co-authored an influential book on the uprising. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul did not release a statement on the 40th anniversary of Gwangju, and the State Department did not reply to VOA’s request for comment. But earlier this month, the State Department released a batch of newly declassified documents, many of which contain contemporary observations about Gwangju by Ambassador Gleysteen. Ben Engel, who researches U.S. policy in South Korea during the 1970s and 80s, said publicly available U.S. records don’t reveal a “smoking gun” that proves the U.S. knew and approved of what Chun was doing.  But Gleysteen clearly thought the protests needed to be subdued, even if he had reservations about using the military or violence to suppress the protests, Engel said. “It’s almost like he doesn’t want to admit to himself that he knew what Chun was doing,” Engel said. “He knew it was wrong, but that it would achieve the result that his government wanted.”  ‘Crucible’ for US policy Even four decades later, the incident stirs strong emotions among U.S. officials who were in Seoul during the time. Some still won’t talk about it on the record.  Kathleen Stephens, U.S. ambassador from 2008 to 2011, says the period surrounding the Gwangju Uprising served as a “crucible” for U.S. policy toward the South. “Those who were in Seoul during that period carried that with them for a long time,” said Stephens, who also served from 1983 to 1989 at the U.S. embassy in Seoul as a political officer.  “The experience led U.S. policymakers to take a somewhat different approach to South Korea” later in the 1980s, when the country moved decisively toward democracy, she said.  South Korea’s democracy may still be relatively young, but it is one of Asia’s healthiest. And while anti-U.S. sentiment still exists, it is largely confined to the fringes of South Korean politics and society. But many Koreans, especially in Gwangju, feel that a full accounting of the past is still necessary.  “Punishment is not the goal,” President Moon said on the Gwangju anniversary this month. “It is about documenting history accurately. If you have courage to confess the truth now, then the path of forgiveness and reconciliation will open.”  Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.
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The Pentagon is still several weeks away from returning most of the more than 20,000 people who work there back to their offices, defense officials said Tuesday, as the military prepares for some bases to start accepting transfers immediately.Last week, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper provided guidelines to local commanders about potentially easing stop movement orders should certain coronavirus conditions be met. His initial order restricted travel until June 30.FILE – Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, March 2, 2020.Lisa Hershman, the Pentagon’s chief management officer, said reopening at the Pentagon could start “phase one” of its plan once northern Virginia and the District of Columbia show a downward trend in coronavirus cases that continues for at least 14 days, a milestone that hasn’t been met yet.”That (downward trend) started on May 14,” Hershman said. “So far, we are counting about eight days of solid data and we are still in a downward progression. … But we’ve got a way to go.”Should no COVID-19 resurgence occur, most Pentagon workers could be back in their offices during phase three of four. Each phase is at least two weeks long.Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s stop movement order, which has halted several service member moves, will be lifted in stages, said Matt Donovan, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.Donovan did not name the installations that have been approved to accept service member transfers immediately, but said more details could be released later this week.In addition, the Pentagon is mandating all service members and encouraging all Defense Department civilians and contractors to undergo a mandatory 14-day restriction of movement prior to deployment outside the U.S.The Pentagon also said Tuesday that a third U.S. service member has died from complications after contracting the coronavirus.Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said that it did not appear the Army reservist had been actively working on the military’s response to the coronavirus pandemic when he contracted the virus. As of early Tuesday, 9,173 of the cumulative coronavirus cases around the globe were related to the U.S. military — 6,118 service members, 1,433 civilians, 1,042 dependents and 580 contractors — the Pentagon said. There have been 35 DOD-related COVID-19 deaths. 
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Walt Disney World is presenting its plans for reopening after being shuttered along with Florida’s other theme parks since mid-March because of the new coronavirus.Disney World and SeaWorld Orlando will present their proposals for phased reopenings before an Orange County task force on Wednesday, said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings. If Demings signs off on them, the plans will be sent to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for approval.With 77,000 workers, Disney World is central Florida’s biggest employer.Last week, Disney World allowed third-party businesses at its Disney Springs dining and shopping complex to open with new restrictions.All workers and visitors older than 2 at Disney Springs must wear masks, temperatures are checked at entrances to keep out anyone with a temperature 100.4 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) or higher, and a limited number of people are admitted to allow social distancing at the high-end outdoor shopping area with restaurants, movie theaters, a bowling alley and a Cirque du Soleil theater.Crosstown rival, Universal Orlando, presented its reopening proposal last week to county officials, saying it was aiming to reopen June 5. Officials approved those plans and sent them to the governor. Universal also has opened up its dining and entertainment complex with restrictions similar to Disney Springs.Earlier this month, Shanghai Disneyland became the first of Disney’s theme park resorts to reopen, with severe limits on the number of visitors allowed in, mandatory masks and temperature checks. 
 
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It may have been plagued with controversy after Oprah Winfrey pulled out as executive producer, but “On the Record” has moved on. The the new #MeToo documentary about rape accusations against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons is a powerful look at one woman’s agonizing decision to go public, and an exploration of misogyny and sexual harassment in the music industry. Most importantly, though, it shines a light on the unique burden faced by women of color, who are often not believed or accused of being traitors to their own community if they come forward with accusations. The film premieres Wednesday on the new streaming service HBO Max.  There’s an elegant, almost poetic silence to one of the most compelling scenes of “On the Record,” a powerful new documentary about sexual violence that knows just when to dial down to a hushed quiet.In the early morning darkness of Dec. 13, 2017, former music executive Drew Dixon walks to a coffee shop and buys the New York Times. On the front page is the story in which she and two others accuse the powerful hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, her former boss, of rape. Dixon examines the article, carefully folds the paper back up, puts on a wool cap as if for protection — and crumples into silent tears.They are tears of fear, surely, about the ramifications of going public — but also, clearly, relief. It feels as if the poison of a decades-old toxic secret is literally seeping out of her.  “It saved my life,” she now says of that decision.”On the Record,” by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, provides a searingly intimate portrayal of the agonizing process of calculating whether to go public. Beyond that, it shines an overdue light on the music industry, where sexual harassment is “just baked into the culture,” in the words of Sil Lai Abrams, another Simmons accuser featured in the film.Most importantly, it puts a spotlight on women of color, and the unique and painful burden they often face in coming forward.The project also has been associated with controversy, of course, due to Oprah Winfrey’s well-documented withdrawal as executive producer just before the Sundance Film Festival, scuttling a distribution deal with Apple. Winfrey later acknowledged Simmons had called her and waged a pressure campaign, but said that wasn’t why she bailed.But the film has moved on. It opened at Sundance anyway to cheers and two emotional standing ovations, and was soon picked up by HBO Max, where it premieres Wednesday.For Dixon, vindication at Sundance was sweet.”Just standing there, on our own, and realizing that we were enough,” she said in an interview last week along with Abrams and accuser Sherri Hines, of the premiere. “That our courage was enough. That none of us waffled. None of us buckled. That we were strong enough to defend ourselves and each other.”Less than two years earlier, Dixon had been plagued by doubt. She’d expected that the film, which began shooting before she decided to go public, would be a general look at #MeToo and the music industry. But then the directors wanted to focus more on her journey.”The idea of being blackballed by the black community was really scary,” she says. “But I also felt this pressure, this responsibility to be brave, to highlight the experience of black women as survivors. The opportunity might never come again.”Dixon was in her 20s when she got her dream job at Simmons’ Def Jam Recordings. The daughter of two Washington, D.C. politicians — her mother, Sharon Pratt, was mayor — she attended Stanford University, then moved to New York to join the exciting world of hip-hop.As her star rose at Def Jam, she assumed that would immunize her from what she describes as Simmons’ constant harassment. He would come into her office, lock the door and expose himself.  But he wasn’t violent. Until the night in 1995 when, she says, he lured her to his apartment with the excuse of a demo CD she needed to hear. He told her to get it from the bedroom, she says, and then came in wearing only a condom, and raped her.Simmons has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.The film weaves together Dixon’s and multiple other accusations against Simmons with key voices of women of color like Tarana Burke, who founded the #MeToo movement, and law professor Kimberle Williams Crenshaw.”A lot of black women felt disconnected from #MeToo initially,” Burke says. “They felt, ‘that’s great that this sister is out there and we support her, but this movement is not for US.'”When black women do seek to come forward, they risk not only not being believed, but being called traitors to their community, both Burke and Dixon explain.”There’s this added layer in the black community that we have to contend with, like, ‘Oh you’re gonna put THIS before race?'” says Burke. “You let this thing happen to you, now we have to pay for it as a race? And we’re silenced even more.’Dick and Ziering, who’ve made several films about sexual assault, say they saw it as essential to go beyond the current #MeToo discussion and focus on the experience of black women.”Now you can come forward — but what about women of color? What do they face?” asks Ziering. “There are so many impediments.”For Dixon, coming forward was clearly worth it. It’s more complicated for Abrams. Even as the audience was applauding at Sundance, Abrams, who attempted suicide after her alleged rape by Simmons, was weeping next to her young adult son, worrying about him as he learned the full details for the first time, she says.  Abrams also says that “as a result of coming forward, my career has stalled. Everything just dried up.”Dixon says it remains to be seen whether she will be punished within the music industry. She says she recently was up for a job, things were going well, and suddenly all went quiet. “They must have Googled me,” she says.But she feels, most importantly, like she rescued a part of herself: her creativity, her drive, her very sense of who she is.For more than 20 years, she says, “I had banished the young woman who came to New York City prepared to work really hard in a man’s game, to prove she could do it, but not expecting that she would be raped.””In order to banish the pain I banished part of her light,” she says. “When I said it out loud, those parts of me lit up again.”Her message to any other survivors out there — and she hopes they will come forward: “Facing it frees parts of yourself that you don’t even know you’ve missed.”  
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The FBI and other law enforcement authorities are investigating the case of an African American man who died after he was pinned to the ground while handcuffed and a white police officer kneeled on his neck as the victim pleaded he could not breath.
 
The death, which occurred in the Midwestern city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the latest of numerous instances of black men in America dying during or after encounters with white police.
 
A bystander shared the video of the incident online.
 
Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder said officers were called to investigate a report of a forgery at a business on Monday evening. Elder said the man “physically resisted” arrest and died at a local hospital.
 
A police department statement said the officers called for an ambulance after the victim “appeared to be suffering medical distress.”
 
The video shows that after several minutes of the victim pleading that he could not breathe, one of the officers is heard telling the man to “relax.” After several more minutes, the man becomes motionless while still under the officer’s restraint.
 
Mayor Jacob Frey took to Facebook to apologize to the black community, declaring that “Being Black in America should not be a death sentence.”
 
“For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a Black man’s neck,” added Frey. “Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you’re supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense.”
 
Monday’s death drew comparisons to Eric Garner, an unarmed black man in New York who died in 2014 after a white officer placed him in a chokehold while he begged for his life and said numerous times he could not breathe.  
 
The Minneapolis man’s death also follows that of Ahmaud Arbery, who was fatally shot in the southeastern state of Georgia February 23 by Gregory McMichael, a white former Glynn County police officer, who later was an investigator with the local district attorney’s office, and his son.  FILE – Demonstrators rally to protest the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, in Brunswick, Georgia, May 8, 2020.They were charged two months after Arbery’s murder, only after a video of it became public.  
 
Police in Minneapolis have come under scrutiny in recent years for fatal encounters with citizens. A white police officer killed a 24-year-old black man with a gunshot to the head in 2015 after a confrontation with two officers who responded to a reported assault.
 
A county prosecutor did not prosecute the officers, maintaining the victim, Jamar Clark, was trying to get one of the officer’s gun when he was killed.
 
In what became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement, a white police officer shot an unarmed black man in the back as he was running away on foot after a traffic stop in 2015.
 
As officer Michael Slager appeared in a South Carolina court before receiving a 20-year sentence for killing Walter Scott, Scott’s mother turned to Slager and told him “I forgive you.” Slager responded to Scott’s mother, Judy, by mouthing the words “I’m sorry” as she sat nearby.
 
The U.S. has a long history of deadly violence by police against blacks and other minorities.  
 
“About 1 in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by police,” according to a study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.  
 
The study found that “Black women and men and American Indian and Alaska Native women and men are significantly more likely than white women and men to be killed by police. Latino men also are more likely to be killed by police than are white men.” 
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The widower of a woman who died nearly two decades ago is asking Twitter to delete U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated tweets insinuating that her boss, a former Republican congressman-turned-TV-critic of Trump, murdered her.Research engineer Timothy Klausutis told Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, last week that “conspiracy theorists, including most recently the President of the United States, continue to spread their bile and misinformation on your platform disparaging the memory of my wife and our marriage.”“My request is simple: Please delete these tweets,” Klausutis wrote.Twitter did not promise to delete Trump’s tweets, but a company spokesman said Tuesday it was “deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family.”  Twitter said it was “working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly.”A 2001 autopsy concluded that 28-year-old Lori Klausutis, an aide to Congressman Joe Scarborough in one of his field offices in the southern state of Florida, had an undiagnosed heart condition, passed out and died when she fell and hit her head on her desk when no one else was in her office at the time.  FILE – MSNBC television anchors Joe Scarborough, right, and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of the show “Morning Joe,” take questions at a discussion forum on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Oct. 11, 2017.Trump was a frequent guest on Scarborough’s MSNBC show “Morning Joe” that he co-hosts with his wife, Mika Brzezinski, in the months leading up to his 2016 election to a four-year term in the White House.But Trump turned on the talk show hosts as they increasingly attacked his performance in office, suggesting as far back as 2017 that Scarborough played a nefarious role in his aide’s death even though he was in Washington hundreds of kilometers away at the time she died.  But as word of the widower Klausutis’s request to delete Trump’s tweets about the case spread across the Internet Tuesday, the president tweeted again about the case.“The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus,” the U.S. leader said.“In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing?“Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won’t bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will?” Trump suggested.The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus. In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020 ….about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing? Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won’t bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020Earlier in May, Trump tweeted, “When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so.”Then, last Saturday, Trump tweeted, “A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!”A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses! https://t.co/UxbS5gZecd— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020On Sunday morning, Trump added another tweet: “A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair? What about the so-called investigator? Read story!”The widower Klausutis told Dorsey, “There has been a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she died.“The frequency, intensity, ugliness and promulgation of these horrifying lies ever increases on the internet,” he said.“I am a research engineer and not a lawyer but reviewed all of Twitter’s rules and terms of service,” Klausutis told Dorsey. “The President’s tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered without evidence and contrary to the official autopsy is a violation of Twitter’s community rules and terms of service. An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed.”“I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong him – the memory of my dead wife – and perverted it for perceived political gain,” he added.“My wife deserves better,” Klausutis concluded.It was not immediately known whether Dorsey has responded to Klausutis. Brzezinski, who has called for a ban on Trump using Twitter, told viewers last week that she is trying to arrange to talk with Dorsey.Trump has long traded in debunked conspiracy theories.Perhaps his most discredited theory was that former U.S. President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. state of Hawaii and shouldn’t have been eligible to become the country’s leader, a claim Trump eventually acknowledged was wrong as he ran for the presidency in 2016.  Trump also claimed that he saw Muslims in a television report celebrating the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorist jetliner attack on the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center by dancing on the rooftop of a building in neighboring New Jersey. No such television report has ever been found. 
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First-term U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar has won the DFL endorsement to run in the August primary election for the Minneapolis congressional seat long held by Democrats.  
The party endorsement Sunday pits Omar against primary challenger Antone Melton-Meaux, an attorney and political newcomer.  
The 37-year-old Omar was elected to Congress in 2018 after a rapid rise through the state Legislature. She’s the first Somali-American elected to both a state Legislature and to Congress. She has been a target of conservatives in Washington where she has publicly sparred with President Donald Trump on Twitter.  
Melton-Meaux has collected some high-profile endorsements from Minneapolis-area DFLers, and has had some success in fundraising, the  Star Tribune  reported. The Republican-endorsed candidate is Lacy Johnson, a north Minneapolis businessman.  
The endorsement vote was done online over a nine-day period because of the coronavirus outbreak. Democrats have held the 5th District congressional seat since 1963.  
DFLers in northeastern Minnesota’s 8th District also voted to endorse health care advocate Quinn Nystrom to challenge Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber in November.
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A new U.S. ban on travelers from Brazil goes into effect Tuesday, two days earlier than the White House initially announced, in an added effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Officials did not provide any specific reasons for moving up the ban from its planned Thursday start date.   It applies to foreigners entering the United States who have been in Brazil at some point during the prior 14 days.  Health officials say it may take two to 14 days before symptoms appear in someone who contracts COVID-19. Brazil has emerged as a new coronavirus hot spot, trailing only the United States in the number of confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The Brazilian health ministry said Monday that COVID-19 killed 807 people in the previous 24 hours. The one-day U.S. death toll was 620.  The White House said the travel ban “will help ensure foreign nationals who have been in Brazil do not become a source of additional infections in our country.” U.S. President Donald Trump has similar travel bans in place on China, Iran, Britain, Ireland, and the 26 countries in Europe’s Schengen area. Seriousness of virus downplayed  Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, wearing a face mask amid the new coronavirus pandemic, stands amid supporters taking pictures with cell phones as he leaves his official residence of Alvorada palace in Brasilia, May 25, 2020.Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has for months played down the seriousness of the coronavirus, urging businesses to reopen and dismissing many social distancing recommendations.  He has brushed off the virus as nothing more than “a little flu” and says a wrecked economy will kill more people than the illness. He has called Brazilians worried about the coronavirus neurotic.  WHO halts hydroxychloroquine trialsThe head of the World Health Organization said Monday the agency is pausing the use of hydroxychloroquine in its trials to find effective treatments for the coronavirus while experts review its safety. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cited a study published last week in the medical journal Lancet in which the authors reported an estimated higher mortality rate among coronavirus patients who received the drug. Tedros stressed the drug is “accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria.” WHO emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, said there have been no problems with the drug in WHO trials so far, but that the pause was being done out of an abundance of caution. Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine as an effective coronavirus treatment and claims he has been taking it even though he has not tested positive for the virus. Saudi Arabia to ease lockdown
Saudi Arabia is set to relax some of its lockdown orders on Sunday, including lifting bans on domestic travel, holding prayers in mosques and dining in restaurants and cafes. A statement posted by the state news agency Tuesday said all restrictions will end June 21, except for the city of Mecca. Saudi Arabia has reported about 75,000 confirmed cases. Chile reported a record daily high of 4,895 new cases. Public Works Minister Alfredo Moreno announced on Twitter that he was among those who have tested positive, though he said he has so far had no symptoms. In Indonesia, soldiers and police are enforcing rules on wearing masks and social distancing. The country reported Tuesday its total number of confirmed cases had risen to 23,165 with 1,418 deaths. Britain eyes reopening outdoor markets
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to reopen outdoor markets on June 1, with all shops allowed to operate again June 15. He said it is important for the easing of restrictions to be carried out in a way “that does not risk a second wave of the virus.” 
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