Month: August 2020

U.S. President Donald Trump visits Gulf of Mexico coastal areas of Louisiana and Texas Saturday that were ravaged by Hurricane Laura, leaving them without power and water as clean-up efforts continue in seasonally hot and humid conditions.
 
Fourteen people were killed when the Category 4 storm devastated the area early Thursday, with more than half of them succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning due to the improper use of power generators.
 
Trump will first travel to Lake Charles, Louisiana, a city of some 80,000 residents that was hard-hit by Laura. More than 220,000 people in Lake Charles are estimated to be without water, according to the Louisiana Department of health.
 
Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said water treatment plants “took a beating” and warned there was no timetable for restoring electricity.Buildings and homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, Aug. 27, 2020, near Lake Charles, Louisiana.Trump also will visit nearby Orange, Texas, a city of more than 18,000 people in an area where the economy is dependent on chemical plants. Texas Governor Greg Abbot said the area is extremely fortunate after Laura turned slightly east, averting an “unsurvivable” storm surge forecasters had predicted.
 
One day before his trip to survey the damage, Trump issued a disaster declaration for Louisiana, a move that makes federal money available to the five parishes that were in Laura’s direct path.
 
After the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers applauded nearly 20,000 line workers Friday for joining power restoration efforts in hurricane-damaged areas, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted, “Times of crisis often bring out our best as Americans — and we’re seeing that right now in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura.”
 
“Thank you to all of our emergency responders who are working around the clock to help people get back on their feet,” Biden added.
 
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The U.N. human rights office has condemned the shooting of African American man Jacob Blake and said the use of force by police may violate international law.
 
Riots broke out in the city of Kenosha in the U.S. state of Wisconsin in the wake of Sunday’s police shooting of Blake, which has left the 29-year-old African American man partially paralyzed.  
 
The U.N. human rights office views the shooting as a painful reminder of the heightened risk African Americans run when engaging with law enforcement in the United States.  Agency spokesman Rupert Colville said the episode reaffirms the need for urgent action to eradicate links between structural racism and policing.  
 
“From the images available that we have seen at this point, the police appears to use force against Jacob Blake that would seem to be excessive and it does not appear the law enforcement officers abided by the international standards of the intentional use of lethal force with a firearm,” Colville said.
    
A statement from the Kenosha police union said that based on officers’ inability to gain compliance and control from Blake after using verbal, physical and less lethal means, the officers drew their firearms.  
 
Colville said it seems highly possible the force used against Blake could have been discriminatory in nature.   
 
The human rights spokesman also said he was aghast at the presence of vigilantes at the protests in Kenosha that followed the police shooting of Blake. He said he found the killing of two people and injury of others by a 17-year-old gunman of particular concern. Police push back protesters outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, Aug. 24, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Protesters converged on the courthouse during a second night of clashes after the police shooting of Jacob Blake a day earlier.The teen who took a rifle to the protest of Blake’s shooting told an online news site before going to the demonstration that it was his job “to protect people.”  First-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide are among the criminal charges the young man is now facing.“We would see this as yet another unfortunate example of the insufficient and lax gun control measures in the United States, which is something we have spoken about several times before,” said Colville. “It should be inconceivable that you have a 17-year-old running around with an automatic rifle in a position to shoot people in this way in such a tense situation.”  
    
Colville added the events of the past few days in Kenosha are not only recurrent, but preventable. He warned against the U.S. government sending federal troops into Kenosha to restore law and order. He said their presence would likely make things worse rather than better.  
 
In a tweet Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the National Guard had successfully quelled violence and rioting in Kenosha.   
 
He said “Since the National Guard moved into Kenosha, Wisconsin, two days ago, there has been NO FURTHER VIOLENCE, not even a small problem. When legally asked to help by local authorities, the Federal Government will act and quickly succeed,” the president said.
 
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As first responders continue a second day of search, rescue and support efforts in southwest Louisiana, a clearer picture of the damage caused by Hurricane Laura is emerging.The state breathed a sigh of relief that the loss of life was not more severe — the death toll is now 11 — but the damage to population centers such as Lake Charles, a city with a population of 80,000, is devastating. Downtown buildings have been demolished, entire neighborhoods left in ruins and almost 900,000 homes and businesses are without power.Residents are trickling in to assess the loss of personal property, but it may be days, weeks or months until many Louisianians can return home for good.Finding temporary housing after a disaster is never easy, but some victims of the storm are saying the coronavirus pandemic has made the situation even more difficult.“My husband and I are both in our 60s,” said Mary Gutowski, a retiree who moved to Lake Charles from Austin, Texas, less than a month ago. “I’ve been in the hospital three times in the last year, and we’re both very worried about being out in crowds and getting the virus. But we couldn’t stay home with a Category 4 hurricane coming at us. What are we supposed to do?” she asked.Flooding surrounds damaged homes Aug. 28, 2020, in Cameron, La., after Hurricane Laura moved through the area Thursday.Gutowski and her husband packed a bag with a few days’ worth of clothes and their face masks and decided to drive north in hopes of sidestepping the worst of the storm. They were able to avoid the most damaging wind and flooding but evacuating their home during a global pandemic has also produced challenges they did not anticipate.Getting out“It’s been a lot of worrying and a lot of crying,” Gutowski told VOA as she fought to hold back tears.She said that when they left their home the day before the storm, they had no place to go. Gutowski and her husband began driving and immediately noticed many gas stations had been shuttered due to coronavirus, as well as a lot of rest stops where they could normally buy supplies or food.“We were lucky to have a full tank of gas before we left or we might not have made it very far,” she said.Typically, during natural disasters, cities set up emergency shelters. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, however, there are fears the virus would spread in such close quarters. Instead, state governments attempted to set aside thousands of hotel rooms across Texas and Louisiana for evacuees. Individuals, however, have reported having a difficult time finding available hotel rooms.“I needed to stay somewhat close for work,” said Ashley Watkins, whose job is related to natural disasters, “and I still ended up hundreds of miles away in Alabama at the nearest pet-friendly hotel.”Watkins said she sent her 6-year-old son to a slightly closer hotel in Texas with her parents and her other siblings.A damaged home is shown Aug. 28, 2020, in Hackberry, La., after Hurricane Laura move through the area Thursday.To make matters worse — in what’s become an all-too-common ritual for southwestern Louisianians over the last two days — she received photos from friends confirming she no longer had a home to go back to.“The house is destroyed down to the frame,” Watkins said. “Most of it ended up in some trees.”Staying safe“Costs are already adding up. I can’t keep paying for lodging like this,” Watkins said.Gutowski and her husband agreed. They said they were finally able to find a hotel attached to a casino in Shreveport, Louisiana, for a few nights.“If I didn’t have a discount from a player’s card, there’s no way I could have afforded this. I’m retired,” Gutowski said.When the Gutowskis arrived at their hotel, they said it was filled to capacity — something unheard of due to coronavirus protocols.Many evacuees said they were afraid to risk their health with so many people around, so they have holed up in their hotel rooms for three straight days.“The only room they could give us was up on the 21st floor and we can’t walk up and down those stairs,” Gutowski said. “You’re only supposed to have four people in the elevator at a time because of the virus, but people don’t follow the rules and they’re putting the rest of us at risk. So we just stay in our room. It’s suffocating.”Next stepsHowever, Gustowski said, her biggest worry is what they’ll do next.Their reservation ends Saturday, and as of Friday afternoon, they didn’t know where they would go. She said they cannot go back to Lake Charles. Fallen trees and other debris have made it impossible for friends to reach their neighborhood and check on the status of the Gutowski home. Every hotel she has called said they are full.Buildings and homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura on Aug. 27, 2020, near Lake Charles, La.“I’ve spent hours trying to get in touch with anyone who can help,” she said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency “said they can’t do anything yet, and I couldn’t get through to the United Way or Red Cross,” she said, “So we’re on our own and we don’t know what to do.”Some affected Louisianians will find family nearby they can stay with until they can go home or rebuild.Watkins said she is hopeful this will be the case for her and her son. First, however, she said she plans to return to Lake Charles this weekend to see the damage to her home herself.Those who can’t afford a hotel and don’t have family to stay with will either remain in their homes — many damaged, and even more without electricity and water — or will head to large emergency shelters that some fear will become coronavirus breeding grounds.Officials hope large-scale screenings will ensure that isn’t the case.“For everything that’s happened to us over the last few days, I still know there are people much worse off than we are,” Gustowski said. “I can’t imagine having to do this with young children or having to try to wait it out in your home without electricity.”Friday evening, the Gustowkis got a little luckier. A hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi, called and said they had a room available for them for at least a couple of weeks.“So that’s where we’ll head tomorrow, then,” she said. “It’s not close and we’d rather not stay in a hotel during a pandemic, but at least we have a place to stay. Relieved is an understatement.”
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A maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) center for Taiwan’s fleet of F-16 fighter jets has officially opened on the island amid growing tensions between Taiwan and China.Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday inaugurated the facility, which is the first of its kind in the Indo-Pacific region. It is part of a strategic alliance between Taiwan aircraft manufacturer Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, AIDC, and U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin.Taiwan will boast the largest fleet of advanced F-16 fighter jets in Asia after its procurement of 66 F-16V additional jets from Lockheed Martin, slated for delivery by 2026 – a deal that will take the island’s fleet to more than 200 aircraft. 
There was no immediate comment from the company.No groveling to ChinaInaugurating the F-16 MRO center, President Tsai said its establishment will help boost the island’s air force combat capabilities and beef up its defense autonomy while marking a milestone for developing indigenous defense industries to go global.“It takes strengthened defense capabilities, not groveling [to China], to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty and maintain regional peace and stability,” she said at the ceremony.“With the center in place, the time needed for jet maintenance will be greatly curtailed and mission-capable rates will be boosted significantly to ensure [Taiwan’s] air superiority at the front line,” she added.According to Tsai, AIDC will join with local vendors, to be certified by Lockheed Martin, to sustain the facility’s operation.That is estimated to create more than 600 jobs each year and herald an output value of $271 million over the next three decades, according to Tsai.Deepening military collaborationTwo analysts, who spoke with VOA said the facility, unveiled amid escalating cross-strait tensions, takes the U.S.-Taiwan military collaboration and mutual trust to another level even as China last month said it would sanction Lockheed Martin for involvement in arms sales to Taiwan.It is also expected to bring in economic benefits to the local aerospace industry, which has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic since early this year, they added.“On the political and diplomatic front, the facility, authorized by Lockheed Martin of the U.S., showcases the level of mutual trust between Washington and Taipei,” Su Tzu-yun, an analyst at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told VOA.Su said that in the next few years, the center will focus on servicing the island’s fleet of more than 200 F-16 jets, which he said is already a lucrative deal.Saving maintenance costsAccording to Su, an F-16 fighter jet averages a life cycle of 40 years and, during its years in service, an additional 30% cost will be incurred for maintenance and repair work.With a repair site at home, two-fifths of that cost can be saved in addition to time spent, he estimated.Looking ahead, Su said that domestic vendors, which are certified to work with the center, should aim higher to tap into the defense contractor’s global supply chain to help support its 3,400 F-16s in service worldwide.Or, he said, the center should next grow into a regional hub for Lockheed Martin to service all F-16 fleets in the Indo-Pacific region, which currently total 470 jets in service. He said the chance for pro-Beijing countries such as Pakistan or Thailand to fly their F-16 fleets to Taiwan for repair work will be slim.All those niches, however, will present a number of commercial opportunities for the domestic industry, Su added.Industrial upgradeTung Wan, professor of aerospace engineer at TamKang University, said he believes that with the help of Lockheed Martin, the island’s aerospace sector will be given an opportunity to upgrade itself.“If [the sector] can transcend itself from being engaged in [the center’s] maintenance work to [next] becoming a supplier of components [for the jets], its overall output value, competitiveness and integration with global practices will be greatly enhanced,” the professor told VOA.“This will be the kind of opportunity we welcome the most even if [a small percentage of the jet’s] components can be made [and supplied] by Taiwan,” he said, adding that a fighter jet has more than 100,000 types of components.The professor said that the domestic aerospace industry, which is already qualified to support the operation of commercial airplanes, had had some experience repairing military aircraft or developing an indigenous fighter jet of its own.The professor, who formerly chaired the city of Tainan-based Air Asia Co., noted that, during the Vietnam War, the U.S. often flew its fighter jets to Air Asia, the island’s first aircraft maintenance company, for MRO work.Hence, it will also be in the U.S. interest to outsource its maintenance work or parts of its jet supply chain to Taiwan, where labor and cost are lower, he said.Military officials and some politicians in Taiwan say they expect the latest development to further strengthen U.S. involvement in the island’s buildup of air defense in fending off any Chinese attack. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that belongs under its control.China has conducted numerous sea and air exercises near Taiwan in recent years and has been angered over U.S. naval exercises near the island and the Trump administration’s strong support for Taipei.Du Wenlong, a military commentator on China Central Television, or CCTV, told the Chinese state-run broadcaster on Friday that Taiwan is buying up the United States for its protection. He urged Taiwan not to “throw good money after bad,” calling Taiwan a “fool” in procuring weapons sales from the U.S. Li Li, an associate professor from China’s PLA National Defense University, also told CCTV that “the U.S. has taken an even more dangerous step toward bolstering the military development and buildup in Taiwan.” She was referring to both the creation of the F-16 MRO hub and the U.S. approval of the 66 advanced F-16V fighter jets to Taiwan.
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More than 20 states sued the Trump administration on Friday over its plan to curtail environmental regulations in permitting infrastructure projects that can take years to complete and have long-lasting consequences on land and communities.Led by California and Washington, the lawsuit seeks to block changes the administration has proposed to how the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is implemented. It was filed in federal court in San Francisco against the White House Council on Environmental Quality and its chairman, Mary Neumayr.NEPA requires that prior to permitting a project, federal agencies assess its environmental effects, a process many industries have criticized as lengthy and onerous.FILE – President Donald Trump speaks on proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, at the White House, Jan. 9, 2020, in Washington.U.S. President Donald Trump announced the finalized NEPA rule last month. It is intended to expedite permitting for projects like oil pipelines and road expansions, but critics say it would reduce public input, especially from low-income and minority communities.The lawsuit seeks to vacate the final rule on the basis that the administration failed to justify its revisions to the long-standing law.”NEPA may not be a household word around dinner tables across the United States, but it is foundational,” Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said during a virtual press conference with reporters. “To gut that law would truly have significant consequences.”Friday’s lawsuit marks the 100th time California has sued the Trump administration, Attorney General Xavier Becerra said during the press conference. About half of those lawsuits relate to environmental rollbacks.”I honestly don’t believe that what we are having to do is normal,” Becerra said.The White House was not immediately available for comment on the lawsuit.California and Washington were joined in the lawsuit by 19 other Democratic-led states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the city of New York, Harris County, Texas, and the environmental oversight agencies of Connecticut and New York.
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One rainy night in 2012, he fled the ancient village of Linyi, in China’s Shandong province, where he was under house arrest. Eight years later, he stood on the podium of the Republican National Convention, telling the world that the Communist Party of China is an enemy of humanity.Chen Guangcheng, a prominent blind rights lawyer living in exile in the United States, was one of the featured speakers during this week’s RNC. Wearing his trademark sunglasses and reading Braille, he said, “Standing up to tyranny is not easy. I know.”Although the speech lasted less than three minutes, it was one of the biggest public platforms given to a dissident from China, which Chen used to warn the world about human rights abuses in China and the danger of those who prefer “appeasing” the Chinese Communist Party.Chen praised U.S. President Donald Trump’s leadership in the fight against the CCP and urged the rest of the world to join the fight.”The U.S. must use its values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law to gather a coalition of democracies to stop CCP’s aggression,” he said.’State terrorism’ fearedA day after he addressed the convention, Chen told VOA that he believed he was chosen to speak to warn about how he said the Communist Party threatens everyone’s freedom. He also said he thought he was selected because the Trump administration wanted to send the message that “the days of appeasing China are gone.”In an interview Friday with VOA, Chen accused China’s ruling Communist Party of hijacking the government and the people and using high-tech “state terrorism” to make people too afraid to speak. Overseas, Chen said, China practices infiltration and bribery to undermine the world’s liberal order and democratic values. He said the spread of the coronavirus pandemic is one example of how the “evil regime” of the CCP impacted the world.FILE – Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng gestures as he speaks to lawmakers and human rights supporters at the legislature in Taipei, Taiwan, June 25, 2013.”It’s going to be too late if we don’t wake up now,” Chen said. “If America’s appeasement policy to CCP comes back, not only China’s democracy but the world will be doomed.”U.S. foreign policy on China has evolved over the years as both Republican- and Democratic-led administrations have weighed economic engagement with China’s government against what many see as Beijing’s human rights abuses, censorship and lack of political freedoms.For many years, U.S. officials maintained that economic engagement with China would bring about political change. That has not happened. As China has grown richer, rights activists say, the government in recent years under Xi Jinping has curtailed already limited rights even further.Chen said that for him, this issue should transcend differences between the two main U.S. political parties.”If I had received an invitation from the Democratic Party, I would have given the same speech,” he said. ” I support whoever is anti-communist.”‘Universal values,’ not party politicsOnline, some have taken issue with Chen’s speaking at the Republican convention, because he was freed from detention in China during the Obama administration.Chen said that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s effort to facilitate his rescue had nothing to do with party politics, but was instead guided by “the foundation of the United States —universal values and the right to freedom and human rights.””It was the American people and American values who saved me, for this is the land of freedom and heroes,” Chen said.Because of the limited time at the RNC, Chen’s speech was shortened by the convention organizers. He posted a full version of his speech on the internet. In it, he discussed the disappearance of countless activists, Uighurs in concentration camps, and human rights abuses in Hong Kong. He also mentioned the Chinese Communist Party’s threat to Taiwan and the Chinese government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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The former hurricane known as Laura has so far been the most intense and dangerous storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, according to the U.N.’s weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization.Laura is now just a tropical depression, spreading heavy rain and thunderstorms across the east-central United States, forecasters said. But as the storm crossed the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, it strengthened from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 4 in less than 24 hours. Forecasters recorded wind speeds as high as 240 kph.As Laura came ashore early Thursday in southern Louisiana, the National Hurricane Service was predicting an “unsurvivable storm surge.” That didn’t materialize, but damaging winds and heavy rains did. The system destroyed property, downed trees and led to power outages throughout the state. The WMO said that since Laura began moving through the Caribbean last week, it had caused more than 20 deaths, most in Haiti.FILE – Benjamin Luna helps recover items from the children’s wing of the First Pentecostal Church that was destroyed by Hurricane Laura, Aug. 27, 2020, in Orange, Texas.Speaking from U.N. headquarters in Geneva, WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis said Laura had now generated more accumulated cyclone energy, or ACE, the metric used to measure storm intensity and duration, than the four other storms in August combined. Nullis said there was still a long way to go this year. The Atlantic hurricane season began in June and ends in November.Nullis said climatologists predict that strong storms – in the Category 4-to-Category 5 range of hurricane intensity – will become more common, primarily because of global warming.Citing laws of physics, Nullis said, “Storms feed on warm water; higher water temperatures mean higher sea levels, which in turn increase the risk of flooding during high tides, and so the circle goes on.”
 
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A judge agreed Friday to delay for a month a decision on whether a 17-year-old from Illinois should be returned to Wisconsin to face charges accusing him of fatally shooting two protesters and wounding a third during a night of unrest following last weekend’s police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha.
The judge in Waukegan, Illinois, postponed Kyle Rittenhouse’s extradition hearing to Sept. 25 during a brief video conference that was streamed online. Rittenhouse asked for the delay in order to have time to hire a private attorney. He faces five felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide, and a misdemeanor charge for possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor.
Rittenhouse did not appear during the livestreamed hearing. His current attorney, Lake County, Illinois, assistant public defender Jennifer Snyder, said Rittenhouse had spoken by phone with his mother since his arrest Wednesday.  
Lee Filas, spokesman for the Lake County state’s attorney, said Rittenhouse plans to hire Los Angeles-based attorney John Pierce and that Rittenhouse’s presence at Friday’s hearing had been waived. Filas said the Sept. 25 hearing will look similar to Friday’s, in that Rittenhouse will have the opportunity to either waive his right to an extradition hearing or proceed with one.
Filas declined to comment on whether other charges were being considered for anyone who may have acted as an accomplice to Rittenhouse by driving him to the protest.
Rittenhouse, a white teen who was armed with a semi-automatic rifle as he walked Kenosha’s streets with other armed civilians during this week’s protests, would face a mandatory life sentence if convicted of first-degree intentional homicide. Under Wisconsin law, anyone 17 or older is treated as an adult in the criminal justice system.
He was taken into custody on Wednesday in Antioch, Illinois, the city about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Kenosha where he lives.
The shootings late Tuesday were largely caught on cellphone video and posted online. The shooting by police on Sunday of Blake, a 29-year-old Black father of six who was left paralyzed from the waist down, was also caught on cellphone video. That shooting made Kenosha the latest focal point in the fight against racial injustice that has gripped the country since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
Three nights later, Rittenhouse was armed and on the streets of Kenosha, saying that he was protecting businesses from protesters, according to widely circulating cellphone footage.
The criminal complaint said that Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha, following Rittenhouse into a used car lot, where he threw a plastic bag at the gunman and attempted to take the weapon from him. The medical examiner found that Rosenbaum was shot in the groin and back — which fractured his pelvis and perforated his right lung and liver — and his left hand. He also suffered a superficial wound to his left thigh and a graze wound to his forehead.  
Rittenhouse then ran down the street and was chased by several people shouting that he just shot someone before he tripped and fell, according to the complaint and video footage. Anthony Huber, 26, of Silver Lake, was shot in the chest after apparently trying to wrest the gun from Rittenhouse, the complaint said.FILE – Protesters raise their fists during a demonstration against the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Aug. 26, 2020.Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, who appeared to be holding a gun, was then shot in the left arm after approaching Rittenhouse, the complaint said.
Another Rittenhouse attorney, Lin Wood, said Thursday that the teenager was acting in self-defense.
“From my standpoint, it’s important that the message be clear to other Americans who are attacked that there will be legal resources available in the event false charges are brought against them,” he said. “Americans should never be deterred from exercising their right of self-defense.”
Kenosha police faced questions about their interactions with the gunman on Tuesday night.
According to witness accounts and video footage, police apparently let the gunman walk past them and leave the scene with a rifle over his shoulder and his hands in the air, as members of the crowd yelled for him to be arrested because he had shot people.
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said the gunman likely slipped away because the scene was chaotic, with lots of radio traffic and people screaming, chanting and running — conditions he said can cause “tunnel vision” among law officers.
Video taken before the shooting shows police tossing bottled water from an armored vehicle and thanking civilians armed with long guns walking the streets. One of them appears to be Rittenhouse.
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on Thursday decried how Rittenhouse, whom he described as a vigilante accountable to nobody, could walk away while police talked about finding a knife inside Blake’s vehicle after he was shot in the back.
He said the fact that Rittenhouse and others came to Kenosha to take matters into their own hands “was completely horrifying.”
The state Department of Justice on Friday released new information, including the names of two other officers on the scene when Blake was shot in the back seven times Sunday as he leaned into his SUV, in which three of his children were seated.
State authorities earlier identified the officer who shot Blake as Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department. The other two officers were Vincent Arenas, who has been with the department since February 2019 and previously served with the U.S. Capitol Police Department, and Brittany Meronek, who joined the Kenosha police force in January.
Authorities said the officers were responding to a call about a domestic dispute when they attempted to arrest Blake, though they didn’t explain why. Sheskey shot Blake while holding onto his shirt after he and Arenas unsuccessfully used Tasers on him twice, the department said in a Friday news release. State agents later recovered a knife from the floor on the driver’s side of the vehicle, the department said. State authorities did not say Blake threatened anyone with a knife.
Blake’s father told the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday that he was upset to learn his son was handcuffed to the hospital bed.  
“He can’t go anywhere. Why do you have him cuffed to the bed?” said his father, also named Jacob Blake.
Online court records indicate Kenosha County prosecutors charged Blake on July 6 with sexual assault, trespassing and disorderly conduct in connection with domestic abuse. An arrest warrant was issued the following day.  
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that all hospitalized patients in police custody are restrained unless undergoing medical procedures, and that it was working “to ensure a safe and humane environment for Mr. Blake.
 
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Perry Porikos sat in the street outside one of his five businesses, in a makeshift patio area that didn’t exist before the COVID-19 pandemic  sent his best customers — University of Michigan students — back home in mid-March.
The Greek immigrant arrived here more than four decades ago as a 20-year-old soccer player for the Wolverines and part-time dishwasher at The Brown Jug Restaurant, which he now owns. He nonchalantly dropped names of sports stars like Tom Brady and Michael Phelps, two of the many former Michigan students he counts as friends, and recalled hustling enough to own more than 10 businesses at one time.
“Living the dream that people talk about, especially if you live in Europe and you come here,” Porikos said, “I am the dream.”
Lately, though, it has been difficult for Porikos to rest easy. And he’s not alone.
Both the stress and the stakes are high for all the small business owners near Michigan’s campus on and around South University Avenue, which winds through the city of about 120,000 residents — about one-third of them students.
The fall term will begin Monday  with at least some in-person classes on campus, which has generated equal parts of hope and anxiety for those who need students to return to pay the bills.
A big part of the worry: Will students take the measures essential to keep infections from surging? The early signs aren’t promising. Alarmed by pictures of unsafe partying, the Ann Arbor City Council this week enacted an emergency ordinance that reinforces the state’s requirement to wear masks and also places restrictions on gatherings.
Across the country, business owners in college towns share the fear that student support could dry up almost entirely, and many are scrambling for survival strategies.  
Nick Ducoff, co-author of “Better Off After College,” said businesses catering primarily to students might be able offset some losses through delivery and e-commerce, but that many could find the effects devastating.
“Smaller town-and-gown communities will suffer if students stay with their parents and don’t return to campus, but colleges in cities with larger populations and more diversified economies like Austin and Boston will be less affected,” Ducoff said.
In Ann Arbor, Espresso Royale Coffee — just steps from an arched walkway on The Diag, a collection of diagonal sidewalks in the middle of campus — already has its windows covered by brown paper. The once-successful shop closed and is not coming back due to the pandemic, according to its website.
“Espresso Royale is the first place that you see when you come through that arch,” 22-year-old University of Michigan graduate Chris Young said as he dined with friends at Good Time Charley’s patio. “To hear that was gone was really, really surprising to me. Also, just really sad because it shows the impact that all of this has had on something that’s so central and personal to so many students.”  
About two blocks down, a sports bar and a nightclub that Porikos owns are at least temporarily shuttered due to an executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because alcohol accounts for at least 70% of their gross receipts.
Others who own businesses on or near the three-block stretch known as South U are praying they can hang on long enough to still be standing whenever it becomes business as usual again.
“This is going to be an unprecedented time that we’re entering into to see if this street can survive,” said Justin Herrick, the co-owner of Good Time Charley’s, a neighborhood staple since the late 1970s.
When the pandemic sent many of the school’s 40,000-plus students back to all parts of the globe earlier this year, the center of the college town’s small-business district became eerily quiet.
“It was like a three-foot blizzard without snow,” recalled Richard Schubach, who owns Replenish, a small grocery store across the street from campus, on the ground floor of a high-end apartment complex that caters to students.
Whitmer lifted Michigan’s stay-at-home order after more than two months in early June, letting restaurants reopen for dine-in customers with capacity limits.
While The Brown Jug and Porikos’ Backroom Pizza have been open and are expected to survive, the doors at the nearby Blue Leprechaun and Study Hall Lounge that he also owns may stay closed for good.
“If I don’t have higher capacity, I cannot make it,” the 62-year-old Porikos said between drags of a cigarette. “Couples have to stay six feet apart? Instead of having 50 people dancing, you got 12. Who’s going to come and enjoy themselves and not be able to dance with their friends? What kind of club is that?”
Earlier this summer, Porikos popped up out of the only occupied chair on the Brown Jug’s patio to greet a reporter, apologizing in advance if he had to get up again to seat customers. Sadly, that wasn’t necessary. He was uninterrupted by business over the next hour at his bar and restaurant, which has been a go-to destination for University of Michigan students since 1936.
“It’s going to take a long time to recover from my losses,” he said softly.
As the summer wore on, many business owners across the U.S. didn’t even know what to brace for as colleges considered whether to hold in-person classes or make all learning remote. And even then, decisions changed: Some schools had planned to provide at least some in-person instruction, only to reverse course and move classes online amid outbreaks linked in some cases to student housing and parties.
The University of North Carolina, Michigan State and Notre Dame were among the colleges announcing recently that they were making a switch to teach remotely.  
Purdue, Syracuse and other schools have suspended students for gathering in large groups at parties, as colleges crack down on the kind of socializing that can spread the coronavirus. And the Tuscaloosa mayor said he would close bars for two weeks after what University of Alabama officials called an unacceptable rise in COVID cases on campus.  
The University of Michigan, meanwhile, is attempting to stick to its plan to pack people in dorms while students off campus move into high-rise apartments and single-family homes.
Two blocks off South U on a sun-splashed afternoon, 20-year-old Ethan Ruwe from Edina, Minnesota, took a break from moving into his rented house to share his feelings about fellow students socializing upon their return.
“I really, really hope people adhere to the guidelines, but I’m not sure if that’s going to happen,” said Ruwe, a junior studying neuroscience, adding that “my more realistic self says here for a month or two and then cases spike and things kind of get shut down again.”Owners share that apprehension.
“We love the students. They’re the lifeblood of the business,” Good Time Charley’s co-owner Adam Lowenstein said. “But having them manage their social behaviors is the big concern. If they can do that and we don’t see a big spike in numbers, then we can stay open.”
If not, some businesses in this and other college towns may not last much longer.
Porikos, who was born and raised near Athens, came to the United States in 1978. Outside of a brief semi-pro soccer career, he has made Ann Arbor his home, marrying a local woman and raising a son who also played hockey for the Wolverines.
“We lost already quite a few businesses that had been around for a long time,” he lamented. “And I hate to say that — it might include me — but I think there are a lot more to come.”
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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered around the White House for a “noise demonstration and dance party” in an attempt to drown out President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.
 
And later, a crowd enveloped U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky as he left the convention, yelling for him to say the name of police shooting victim Breonna Taylor, who was killed in his state, but there was no indication the protesters were the same.
 
“I hope you hear us, Trump,” the leader of the popular local band TOB shouted near the site of Trump’s speech. The band blared Go-Go music, a distinctive D.C. variant on funk, as it moved in the direction of the White House, where Trump delivered his acceptance speech to a crowd of more 1,500 people on the South Lawn.
 
One protester held up a sign, “Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue” — the street where the White House is located.  
 
There was no indication that Trump heard the protesters, but there were a few points when a mix of sirens, music and blowhorns could be heard in the background and spectators in the back turned to see where the sounds were coming from.
 
Acknowledging the coronavirus pandemic, the demonstrators wore masks but there was no social distancing.  
 
“Make some noise if you want to drown out Trump,” protest organizer Justin Johnson said.
 
After the convention concluded, there were skirmishes as protesters yelled and threw water bottles at police at the historic St. John’s Church near Black Lives Matter Plaza. There were some arrests.
 
Video posted online showed dozens of people confronting Senator Paul and his wife, who were flanked by police officers, on a street after midnight. Protesters shouted “No Justice, No Peace” and “Say Her Name” before one appears to briefly clash with an officer, pushing him and his bike backward, sending the officer into Paul’s shoulder.
 
Paul later tweeted that he had been “attacked” by a “crazed mob” a block from the White House. The senator and his wife kept walking and did not appear to have been touched by any of the protesters or to have suffered any injuries.
 
Videos showed other attendees also being confronted by protesters after leaving Trump’s event.
 
There was a robust police presence, but the noise demonstration outside the White House was generally peaceful. There was a moment of levity at the end.
 
“You guys gotta get some rhythm,” a protester told Secret Service officers.
 
“Would you have rhythm if you were wearing 30 pounds of gear,” one responded.
 
The demonstration was significantly smaller than the protests that rocked the nation’s capital this past spring after George Floyd died at police hands in Minneapolis.  
 
Floyd’s family and the families of other Black Americans who were victims of police violence were expected to participate Friday in a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington that is being led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III.  
 
Before Trump spoke, there was a brief standoff between police and demonstrators, who shouted anti-police slogans. “Free the people, fight the power,” they chanted. Nearby protesters set up a small guillotine, with the District of Columbia flag as the blade.  
 
Lafayette Park, a traditional site of demonstrations across from the White House, was sealed off and there were some street closures.  
 
The groups ShutdownDC and Long-Live Go-Go had put out word in advance about the planned “noise demonstration and dance party” to coincide with Trump’s speech.  
 
“We’ll be at the White House on Thursday to drown out (Trump’s) racist rhetoric with another vision for the future of our country,” the groups said in a statement.
 
A longtime D.C. signature sound, Go-Go music emerged last year as a battle anthem for activists fighting fast-moving gentrification in the nation’s capital. The music has been a regular presence in recent protests against racial injustice and rolling Go-Go trucks with live bands have appeared frequently at the epicenter of the protests, which was renamed by the city as Black Lives Matter Plaza.
  
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Remnants of Hurricane Laura unleashed heavy rain and twisters hundreds of miles inland from a path of death and mangled buildings along the Gulf Coast, and forecasters warned an eastern turn would again make the storm a looming threat, this time to the densely populated Eastern Seaboard.Trees were down and power was out as far north as Arkansas, where remnants of the storm that killed at least six people in the United States were centered. The once-fearsome Category 4 hurricane packing 240-kph winds weakened to a depression after dark.New tornado warnings were issued after nightfall in Mississippi and Arkansas, hours after one of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the United States barreled across Louisiana on Thursday.A reported tornado tore part of the roof from a church in rural northeastern Arkansas as the remnants of Hurricane Laura crossed the state. No injuries were reported as the system still packed a punch after smashing into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast near the line with Texas.A full assessment of the damage could take days. By then, the storm could re-energize and pose a threat to several Northeast states by Saturday, forecasters said.Despite demolished buildings, entire neighborhoods left in ruins and almost 900,000 homes and businesses without power along the coast, a sense of relief prevailed that Laura was not the annihilating menace forecasters had feared.Benjamin Luna helps recover items from the children’s wing of the First Pentecostal Church that was destroyed by Hurricane Laura, Aug. 27, 2020, in Orange, Texas.“It is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute, catastrophic damage that we thought was likely,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “But we have sustained a tremendous amount of damage.”He called Laura the most powerful hurricane to strike Louisiana, meaning it surpassed even Katrina, which was a Category 3 storm when it hit in 2005.The hurricane’s top wind speed of 241 kph put it among the strongest systems on record in the U.S. Not until 11 hours after landfall did Laura finally lose hurricane status as it plowed north and thrashed Arkansas, and even up until Thursday evening, it remained a tropical storm with winds of 65 kph.The storm crashed ashore in low-lying Louisiana and clobbered Lake Charles, an industrial and casino city of 80,000 people. On Broad Street, many buildings had partially collapsed. Windows were blown out, awnings ripped away and trees split in eerily misshapen ways. A floating casino came unmoored and hit a bridge, and small planes were thrown atop each other at the airport.In front of the courthouse was a Confederate statue that local officials had voted to keep in place just days earlier. Laura knocked it down.“It looks like 1,000 tornadoes went through here. It’s just destruction everywhere,” said Brett Geymann, who rode out the storm with three relatives in Moss Bluff, near Lake Charles. He described a roar like a jet engine as Laura passing over his house around 2 a.m.“There are houses that are totally gone,” he said.Buildings and homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura Aug. 27, 2020, in Cameron, La.As the extent of the damage came into focus, a massive plume of smoke visible for miles began rising from a chemical plant. Police said the leak was at a facility run by Biolab, which manufactures chemicals used in household cleaners and chlorine powder for pools. Nearby residents were told to close their doors and windows, and the fire smoldered into the night.The fatalities included a 14-year-old girl and a 68-year-old man who died when trees fell on their homes in Louisiana, as well as a 24-year-old man who died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator inside his residence. Another man drowned in a boat that sank during the storm, authorities said.No deaths had been confirmed in Texas, which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called “a miracle.” Chevellce Dunn considered herself among the fortunate after a night spent huddling on a sofa with her son, daughter and four nieces and nephews as winds rocked their home in Orange, Texas. Left without power in sweltering heat, she wondered when the electricity might come back.“It ain’t going to be easy. As long as my kids are fine, I’m fine,” Dunn said.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 6 MB480p | 8 MB540p | 11 MB720p | 24 MB1080p | 46 MBOriginal | 50 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIt was unclear when the journey home would be complete for more than 580,000 coastal residents who evacuated under the shadow of a coronavirus pandemic. Although not everyone fled, officials credited those who did leave with minimizing the loss of life.A lower-than-expected storm surge also helped save lives. Edwards said ocean water rose as much as 4 meters rather than the 6 meters that was predicted.Finishing search and rescue efforts was a top priority, Edwards said, followed by efforts to find hotel or motel rooms for those unable to stay in their homes. Officials in Texas and Louisiana both sought to avoid traditional mass shelters for evacuees over fears of spreading COVID-19.Bucky Millet, 78, of Lake Arthur, Louisiana, considered evacuating but decided because of the coronavirus to ride out the storm with family. A small tornado blew the cover off the bed of his pickup. That made him think the roof of his house was next.“You’d hear a crack and a boom and everything shaking,” he said.Laura’s winds blew out every window of the living room in the Lake Charles house where Bethany Agosto survived the storm with her sister and two others. They huddled in a closet, where she said, “it was like a jigsaw puzzle…we were on top of each other, just holding each other and crying.”Laura was the seventh named storm to strike the U.S. this year, setting a new record for U.S. landfalls by the end of August. Laura hit the U.S. after killing nearly two dozen people on the island of Hispaniola, including 20 in Haiti and three in the Dominican Republic.President Donald Trump planned to visit the Gulf Coast this weekend to tour the damage. 
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President Donald Trump said Thursday the U.S. will have a vaccination for the coronavirus “before the end of the year or maybe even sooner.”The announcement was part of Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, delivered from the South Lawn of the White House as part of the party’s national convention.   Experts say vaccines can sometimes take decades to develop, test, and be proven safe before they are administered to patients. However, hope has been high that a concerted international effort will produce an effective vaccine sometime next year. “In recent months our nation and the entire planet has been struck by a new and powerful invisible enemy,” Trump told the South Lawn audience whose mostly mask-less members were not sitting six feet apart, a measure generally practiced to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The U.S. has 5.8 million COVID-19 cases, roughly one-fifth of the world’s more than 24 million infections, according to Johns Hopkins University. The president has rarely been seen in public wearing a mask, another practice done to stop the spread of the virus. WATCH: How coronavirus vaccines being tested work Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 8 MB480p | 11 MB540p | 15 MB720p | 29 MB1080p | 62 MBOriginal | 410 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioWorld leader in coronavirus cases
The U.S. has more COVID-19 cases than anywhere else.  Brazil follows the U.S. with 3.7 million cases and India comes in third with 3.3 million. India said early Friday that it had recorded 77,266 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hour period, the highest daily total ever recorded in the South Asian nation. Wearing masks in public in Paris became mandatory for everyone on Friday. The new measure follows a French public health report that more than 6,000 new infections were recorded Thursday, while 5,000 were recorded Wednesday. Spain says all school children six years of age and up must wear masks while in school.  The announcement comes just days before the beginning of Spain’s school year. South American vaccine effort
A group of South American leaders has agreed to share information and coordinate access to any vaccine one of them might develop or acquire. “A joint effort would bring benefits, particularly in terms of access, quantities and guaranteed prices,” Chile’s foreign minister, Andres Allamand, said after Thursday’s virtual meeting of presidents and foreign ministers.”We in Chile are following the evolution of at least five projects and we have been in contact with some of those laboratories and countries specifically to be able to get access to those vaccines at reasonable prices and as quickly as possible,” he said.Lockdown blues
London zookeepers say the animals under their care are suffering from what they call the lockdown blues.  The zoo had been closed because of the coronavirus and has just started admitting limited numbers of visitors. “The Pygmy goats were so used to seeing children during the day that during lockdown they would miss them,” Assistant Curator of Mammals Teague Stubbington told Reuters. “They were actually lining up at the gate to meet people and then at 10 o’clock, when no one was there, they were disappointed.”  He says the zoo is badly in need of funds, adding this is the longest period it has been closed since World War II.  
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During his White House address Thursday accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, President Donald Trump said the November election “will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.”Trump, who faces a strong challenge from former Vice President Joe Biden, told a large crowd on the White House South Lawn “this is the most important election in the history of our country.”The 1,000-plus invited attendees, including many Republican members of Congress, were seated close to each other and most did not wear face masks, defying public health advice amid the coronavirus pandemic.Trump, who trails Biden in national polls and political battleground state surveys, devoted much of his speech to a blistering attack on his Democratic opponent, denouncing him at one point as a “Trojan horse” for far left radicals and anarchists who want to destroy the country.To rousing cheers from the audience, Trump said the former vice president “is not a savior of America’s soul. He is the destroyer of America’s jobs. And if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness.”“For 47 years, Joe Biden took the donations of blue-collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses,” Trump said. “And told them he felt their pain. And then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship our jobs to China and many other distant lands.”The president, in his 70-minute speech, emphasized what he called his tough approach toward China, in terms of the economy and blaming Beijing for allowing the coronavirus to escape its borders.President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.In fact, Trump enjoyed good relations with China leader Xi Jinping early in his administration while the two leaders engaged in major trade talks, and later, after the coronavirus began to spread, Trump praised Xi for his handling of the crisis. Once the relationship soured and Trump began blaming China for U.S. public health and economic woes, the president stepped up his criticism of Biden as a dupe of China.“Joe Biden’s agenda is made in China. My agenda is made in the USA,” Trump said.If reelected, Trump promised, “We will go right after China. We will not rely on them one bit.”Just before the president’ speech, Biden’s campaign attacked Trump as “the weakest president that we’ve ever had when it comes to China.”“He has failed again and again to stand up for American interests to the Chinese government,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.The Democratic Party nominee’s campaign contended that “when coronavirus was emerging, Trump spread Xi’s lies. And his tariff war with China has devastated American farmers, businesses, consumers, and workers. He even begged President Xi to bail out his reelection campaign.”In his speech, Trump said Biden “has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history.”The president also sought to draw a philosophical and moral contrast between the two parties.“In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just and exceptional nation on Earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sin.”Trump declared that “Joe Biden is weak. He takes his marching orders from liberal hypocrites.”Biden, at a virtual campaign event earlier Thursday, criticized the president as “totally irresponsible” for holding a purely political event on the White House lawn, “virtually throwing every major rule in the dustbin.”Ivanka Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.A fireworks display, which spelled out the name “Trump” and “2020” above the Washington Monument and the National Mall, immediately followed the president’s speech.Aside from his speech live in front of the crowd at the White House, and one Wednesday night in Baltimore by Vice President Mike Pence, the Republicans’ four-day convention was mostly a virtual affair, similar to the Democratic conclave a week ago.By turning to virtual conventions, both parties were attempting to limit the spread of the coronavirus that, according to Johns Hopkins University, has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S. and infected 5.8 million.“We’ll produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner,” Trump predicted Thursday evening.The president’s key advisers believe he improved his political standing this week with speakers praising his 3½-year tenure in the White House and lambasting Biden, most of them standing on a stage at the empty Mellon Auditorium a short distance from the White House.Trump was introduced by one of his daughters, Ivanka, who is also a White House adviser.“Dad, people attack you for being unconventional, but I love you for being real,” she said. “And I respect you for being effective.”During the Republican convention, racial turmoil erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the police shooting Sunday of a Black man, Jacob Blake, touched off street protests against police. Buildings were also set afire in the Midwestern city of 100,000 residents. A 17-year-old youth from the neighboring state of Illinois has been arrested and charged in the killing of two protesters and the wounding of a third.Trump, in his acceptance speech did not mention the wounding of Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down, his father said. He reemphasized his law-and-order approach, condemning agitators, looters and anarchists in several Democrat-run cities.Trump and Pence, along with numerous convention speakers, portrayed their administration as a staunch supporter of law enforcement, standing against protests, some of which have turned violent, that have erupted since the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.The president’s lengthy address kept fact-checkers busy.Some of the president’s comments were false or misleading, according to PolitiFact, which is run by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school and research organization.The New York Times also attempted a comprehensive running fact check during the address and gave the president mixed reviews in terms of adhering to the truth.There were more than 20 false or misleading claims made by Trump in his speech, according to CNN’s Daniel Dale.”This President is a serial liar.”In a lengthy acceptance speech delivered almost entirely from a teleprompter, CNN’s @ddale8 says President Trump made at least 20 false or misleading claims https://t.co/qKSEhb8N6dpic.twitter.com/RfqWW2epYS— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 28, 2020Polls show Biden leading Trump by about 7 percentage points, according to an aggregation of surveys by the Real Clear Politics website. However, Biden’s edge is thinner in several key battleground states that could once again prove decisive in the election.Only two U.S. presidents have lost reelection contests after a single term in office in the past four decades: Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992. 
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Republicans have their turn this week holding their convention to renominate Donald Trump to run for a second term as president of the United States. As with the Democrats last week, the coronavirus pandemic forced Republicans to rethink holding a convention while remaining socially distant. VOA’s Steve Redisch examines how it is working.
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Former directors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the world-renowned American agency that has long taken the lead in fighting communicable diseases, are voicing unusual criticism of the U.S. handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the CDC’s limited role in that effort.COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S., and those are only the confirmed cases. The CDC says the actual number of COVID-19 deaths is much higher and that the virus will be a leading cause of deaths in the U.S. in 2020.Five former CDC directors, appointed by both Republican and Democratic administrations, say the agency should be doing more to lead the effort to contain the pandemic.FILE – Dr. Richard Besser, May 8, 2013, in New York.Among them is Dr. Richard Besser, who as acting director of the CDC held daily televised news conferences during the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2008-09, which infected more than 60 million people in the U.S. and killed 12,469 people. Globally, the World Health Organization estimated that a half-million people died.During the current pandemic, however, the White House Coronavirus Task Force is being led not by the CDC, but by Vice President Mike Pence, prompting questions about the extent to which the task force’s advice may be seen as politically motivated.“It really concerns me that we’re not hearing from CDC every day. We’re not hearing from them about what they consider to be the best practices in terms of isolation and quarantine, what needs to be done,” Besser said in a recent interview with STAT, a health publication run by the publishers of the Boston Globe newspaper.“We’re seeing so much that’s being presented to us by political leaders, and when that’s the case, half the country says, ‘Great, I’m on board,’ and the rest rejects things out of hand because of the messenger. …  The more you can depoliticize the response, the more successful you’re going to be.”FILE – Dr. David Satcher, May 31, 2012, in Atlanta.That concern is shared by Dr. David Satcher, who was appointed to lead the CDC by Democratic President Bill Clinton. “I think it was obvious during the time that we were having daily reports about the pandemic that CDC was being sidelined,” Satcher said in an interview, regarding the task force’s late afternoon briefings earlier this year.He contrasted that with the prestigious role the agency held when he was director. “What I remember is that whenever there was a major issue in the world, people called the CDC before they called the World Health Organization, even though there was a very good working relationship between the CDC and WHO.”The former directors acknowledge shortcomings in the performance of the agency itself, which in the early days of the pandemic rolled out a defective test and advised the public against wearing face masks – advice that was later reversed when the extent of asymptomatic transmission became understood.But medical professionals have learned a lot about the coronavirus since then, according to Dr. Julie Gerberding, who became director of the CDC under Republican President George W. Bush. She is now an executive vice president at the pharmaceutical giant Merck.FILE – Merck Executive Vice President and Chief Patient Officer Julie Gerberding is seen on a screen as she gives a statement during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, June 23, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Gerberding recently told ABC News that she would love to turn back the clock because so much has been learned about the virus since it first appeared. “We know it is incredibly transmissible,” she said, “and we know that most people are still susceptible.”When Dr. Tom Frieden headed the CDC, after his appointment by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, the CDC was highly involved in the Ebola crisis in West Africa, from 2014 to 2016. Frieden now heads a global public health initiative called Resolve to Save Lives.He has been among the most outspoken of the former directors in accusing the Trump administration of dictating health policy to the CDC.FILE – Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), speaks at the New America think tank in Washington, D.C., July 13, 2016.“I don’t think there’s ever been a time before when people from the White House or HHS are dictating what goes on technical documents on the CDC website,” he said Thursday during a webinar sponsored by Vital Strategies, a global health organization. “This is dangerous. This is a big problem. It’s a big problem for a lot of reasons, as some of you know the CDC.”Satcher and the others are critical of President Donald Trump’s push to open schools and businesses when, they say, the virus is not yet under control. They say rushing to get things back to normal will only spread the virus.A number of universities have had to close after the virus spread when students returned to campus for the fall semester. A judge in Florida ruled that public schools don’t have to abide by the state’s requirement for in-person instruction because it “arbitrarily disregards safety” and denies local school boards the ability to decide when students can safely return.Besser, now president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest health philanthropy in the U.S., says CDC guidance needs to be followed for the public good and that it should not be seen as “a barrier to getting children back into school instead of a road map for doing it safely.”Satcher, who founded the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, told VOA that “the priority in any pandemic ought to be prevention.” He also said fighting a pandemic requires leadership from the president.The former directors have been critical of what they called misleading information coming from the White House. Trump has touted the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which the health specialists say does not cure COVID-19 and may be harmful.Although Trump later said he was being sarcastic, a remark he made about injecting disinfectants as a means to treat the virus prompted companies that produce them to run televised advisories warning people that their products could be deadly if injected or ingested.FILE – Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, August 29, 1999.Dr. Jeffrey Koplan spent 26 years at the CDC. He was the director from 1998 to 2002, and later established the Atlanta-based Emory Global Health Institute.”We need to feed truth back to the American public and to use those truths with our scientific evidence to control this disease,” he said.All agree that pulling together and following the science is the best course. They also recommend following standard disease prevention methods like avoiding crowds, practicing good hand hygiene, staying at least two meters from others, and wearing masks when in public.Trump has been seen wearing a mask in public only twice. An audience at the White House Rose Garden did not wear masks during first lady Melania Trump’s speech during the Republican National Convention.When VOA asked for a response from the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told VOA, “The White House and CDC have been working together in partnership since the very beginning of this pandemic to carry out the president’s highest priority: the health and safety of the American public.”The CDC is the nation’s trusted health protection agency and its infectious disease and public health experts have helped deliver critical solutions throughout this pandemic to save lives,” Deere said. “We encourage all Americans to continue to follow the CDC’s guidelines as we responsibly continue to open up America.”The CDC has reversed its recommendations on testing for COVID-19. The agency had been recommending that those who have been exposed to the virus get tested, even if they did not have symptoms. On August 25, the CDC said people who don’t have symptoms “do not necessarily need a test,” even though it’s known that people without symptoms can pass the virus to others.Several U.S. news organizations claim the CDC was pressured to revise its testing guidelines by Trump administration officials.The American Medical Association issued a statement saying “COVID-19 is spread by asymptomatic people. Suggesting that people without symptoms, who have known exposure to COVID-positive individuals, do not need testing is a recipe for community spread and more spikes in coronavirus.”The leading U.S. doctors group also asked the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services to provide the scientific justification for this change in testing guidelines.In an email to VOA, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said the agency is placing emphasis “on testing individuals with symptomatic illness”; those “with a significant exposure,” such as people in nursing homes, health care workers and first responders; or people “who may be asymptomatic when prioritized by medical and public health officials.”Redfield said, “Testing may be considered for all close contacts of confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients.”Redfield’s statement said the new guidelines were “coordinated in conjunction with the White House Coronavirus Task Force.”
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Hurricane Laura pounded the U.S. Gulf Coast with torrential rain and ferocious wind of up to 241 kph as the Category 4 storm roared ashore Thursday in Louisiana near the Texas border. At least six deaths are reported. VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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Protests against perceived racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of another police shooting of a Black man spread to the National Football League Thursday, one day after players from the National Basketball Association’s Milwaukee Bucks opted not to take part in a playoff game.
 
The NFL’s Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, the New York Jets and the Washington Football Team canceled practices in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in midwestern U.S. state of Wisconsin.  
 
The shooting happened three months after George Floyd, another Black man, died in police custody in the midwestern city of Minneapolis, sparking nationwide protests.
 
The Jets did not immediately disclose why practice was canceled, but the Lions tweeted they called off practice “in response to the police shooting of Jason Blake” and added that, “We won’t be silent.”
 
The Packers tweeted: “Enough is enough. It’s time for a change.”Enough is enough.It’s time for change. pic.twitter.com/AS7wP9qz2x— Green Bay Packers (@packers) June 4, 2020And the Colts said: “THE TEAM WILL USE THE DAY TO DISCUSS AND WORK TOWARD MAKING A LASTING SOCIAL IMPACT AND INSPIRING CHANGE IN OUR COMMUNITIES.”pic.twitter.com/SZlH4eQDvb— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) August 27, 2020Washington Football Team coach Ron Rivera said in a statement that “the players, coaches and football staff will meet as a football family and we’ll continue our open dialogue on the issues of racism and social injustice in our country.”Players for the Bucks opted not to play Wednesday night in order to call attention to perceived injustices against the African American community and call for lawmakers and law enforcement to institute meaningful changes.The decision had wide-ranging reverberations throughout the country, and by the end of the night the other two scheduled NBA games were postponed, as were all three Women’s National Basketball Association games, three Major League Baseball games and five Major League Soccer Games as players expressed the importance of protesting injustice over playing games. Tennis player Naomi Osaka also announced she would not play her Thursday semifinal match at the Western & Southern Open, and officials later postponed all tournament play for Thursday.
The Milwaukee Bucks’ action came in direct response to the police shooting of Blake in the city of Kenosha, about 60 kilometers away, as well as ongoing  frustrations about the history of police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.
 
“The past four months we’ve witnessed multiple injustices regarding the African American community,” the players said in a statement. “Citizens around the country have used their voices and platforms to speak out against these wrongdoings. Over the last few days in our home state of Wisconsin, we’ve seen the horrendous video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, and the additional shooting of protesters. Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball.”NBA referees march in support of players seeking an end to racial injustice, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Aug. 27, 2020.The Bucks called for the officers involved in Blake’s shooting to be held accountable, and for the Wisconsin legislature to take action to address “police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform.”“When we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to play at a high level, give maximum effort and hold each other accountable. We hold ourselves to that standard, and in this moment, we are demanding the same from our lawmakers and law enforcement,” the players said.Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, among the most high-profile players in the league, tweeted: “WE DEMAND CHANGE. SICK OF IT.”Players from the WNBA joined to kneel, lock arms and raise their fists in a show of solidarity on the night they chose not to play.“We stand in solidarity with our brothers in the NBA, and will continue this conversation with our brothers and sisters across all leagues and look to take collective action,” Atlanta Dream player Elizabeth Williams read in a statement from all of the players.The WNBA players urged fans to use their voting power and to become engaged on the issues in order to make a difference.“Your voice matters. Your vote matters. Do all you can to demand that your leaders stop with the empty words and do something,” the players said.
 
Senior White House adviser and U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, weighed in on the actions taken by the NBA players, telling CNBC they are “very fortunate that they have the financial position where they’re able to take a night off from work.”
 
Later in an interview with Politico, Kushner added that “It’s nice that they’re standing up for the issue, but I’d like to see them start moving into concrete solutions that are productive.”  He said he planned to call Los Angeles Laker star James about the matter.Former U.S. President Barack Obama said he commends the Milwaukee Bucks “for standing for what they believe in,” as well Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers and the rest of the NBA and WNBA “for setting an example.”“It’s going to take all our institutions to stand up for our values,” Obama said.Wednesday marked four years since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick gained national attention for not standing during the playing of the national anthem before his team’s preseason game. FILE – San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, middle, kneels during the national anthem before the team’s NFL preseason football game against the San Diego Chargers, Sept. 1, 2016.“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said after the 2016 game.  His teammate, Eric Reid, said that in the weeks that followed, after consideration and speaking with a former player who had served in the U.S. Army, the two decided to kneel during the anthem as their form of protest.
 
Other football players joined, as did those in other leagues, and the protests took altered forms including players not coming onto a field or court during the anthem or locking arms with teammates.  There has been sharp criticism from those who say the protests taking place during the anthem are disrespectful to the country and the military, including from President Donald Trump.
 
Players have repeatedly stressed that what they are doing is raising awareness of police brutality and racial inequality.
 
Some athletes have also decided to forgo playing at all in order to focus their time on reform efforts.  WNBA star Maya Moore is skipping her second consecutive season as she works on criminal justice reform.  Natasha Cloud of the Washington Mystics took this season off to focus on social reform as well.
 
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