Category: Aktualności

Some demonstrators in Louisville blocked traffic and threw a brick into a media car while police deployed pepper balls at them, the city’s interim police chief said in a joint news conference with the city’s mayor Monday night.
The statements from Chief Robert Schroeder came nearly three hours after police warned residents to avoid the city’s downtown area, and after a video posted on social media shows the brick being hurled into the window of a WLKY-TV camera crew’s car.
Some demonstrators created barricades on streets using road signs and rocks earlier in the evening while police monitored the scene from a helicopter and on the ground, news outlets reported.
 
“We can not have vehicles blocked from passing on roads safely,” Mayor Greg Fischer said.  
The demonstrators could be heard saying, “No Justice, No Peace,” and calling for three officers involved in the shooting of Breonna Taylor, a black woman gunned down by officers who burst into her Kentucky home in March, to be fired and charged, WLKY-TV reported.
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U.S. President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order Tuesday on some police reforms, the goal of which a senior administration official said is “to invest more and incentivize best practices.” Briefing reporters Monday ahead of the signing, a senior administration official said the main piece will be creating certification bodies to train officers on de-escalation techniques and use of force standards. “We’re leveraging our ability to execute discretionary grants and prioritizing those police departments that take the time to get that credentialing,” the official said. Another part would push for creating so-called co-respondent services, a system in which officers would pair with social workers when responding to nonviolent calls, especially those involving mental health concerns and drug addiction issues. More sweeping overhauls to the nation’s policing are under consideration in Congress. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the issue Tuesday with testimony from law enforcement and civil rights officials. The chamber’s Republican majority is crafting its package of proposals, which includes a ban on chokeholds and increased used of police body cameras. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the legislation “a serious proposal to reform law enforcement.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Republican effort does not go far enough, and that “now is the time to seek bold and broad-scale change.” The Democrat-led House of Representatives is expected to vote sometime this month on its own package that includes a provision that would make it easier to file civil lawsuits against officers who violate someone’s rights. The White House has signaled President Donald Trump would not endorse ending what is known as the qualified immunity doctrine.A person looks back as officials move closer during protests Saturday, June 13, 2020, near the Atlanta Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by police Friday evening following a struggle in the restaurant’s drive-thru line.Proposals for police reforms come after three weeks of nationwide protests renewed by the death in police custody of George Floyd, an African American man who died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd’s was the latest case to spark outrage at the use of force by police, especially against African Americans. Last Friday brought another with police shooting dead Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta. Protesters, organized by civil rights groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), gathered outside the Georgia Capitol where lawmakers were returning to work after a coronavirus shutdown. More than a thousand demonstrators demanded lawmakers take up criminal justice reform, as well as voting issues, after last week’s election was marred by long lines at the polls.    A few protesters came inside the Capitol, chanting in the building’s rotunda.    Several Democratic state lawmakers, who are in the minority in the Georgia House and Senate, joined the protest Monday and said they are ready to act on calls for reforms. Republican House Speaker David Ralston told lawmakers Monday he wants to pass a bill to further penalize hate crimes, saying its passage is “just as important” as passing a state budget. The House has previously passed a hate crimes bill, but it has stalled in the Senate.        Many Democrats are proposing an array of new legislation to reform policing practices, however Republicans, as well as some Democrats, say there is not enough time to pass a big legislative package with only 11 days remaining in the lawmakers’ session following a lengthy coronavirus shutdown.          Demonstrations also took place Monday evening in Washington’s Lafayette Park across the street from the White House to mark two weeks since law enforcement forcefully cleared a peaceful crowd shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump walked through the area for a photo opportunity at a nearby church.             Also Monday, the U.N. Human Rights Council agreed to hold an urgent debate on Wednesday “on the current racially inspired human rights violations, systematic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protesters.” 
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Law enforcement officials are trying to identify the people who dumped more than $2 million overboard during a boat chase off the coast of Puerto Rico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the money was found Monday in bags, near the popular tourist island of Vieques, just east of Puerto Rico’s main island. Last July, customs police seized more than $3 million dollars from an abandoned boat off the coast of Puerto Rico. Customs and Drug Enforcement agents spotted the boat heading toward the U.S. Virgin Islands with no lights, when it abruptly turned back to Puerto Rico, where police followed the boat and found people unloading duffel bags.  The unidentified people on the boat fled when police arrived, leaving their cargo. Both seizures have similarities to drug trafficking activity. 
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The pilot of a fighter jet that crashed into the North Sea, off the coast of northern England, has been found dead, the U.S. Air Force said Monday. In a statement hours after the crash, it said “the pilot of the downed F-15C Eagle from the 48th Fighter Wing has been located and confirmed deceased.”  It said this is a “tragic loss” for the 48th Fighter wing community and sent condolences to the pilot’s family.  The name of the pilot will not be released until all next of kin notifications have been made.  Earlier, rescuers found the wreckage of the jet that was on a routine training mission from RAF Lakenheath when it crashed at 9:40 a.m. The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately clear. Britain’s coast guard located wreckage from the downed fighter, and recovery efforts were under way, the U.S. Air Force said in a statement. Coast guard officials said in a statement that they received reports the plane went down 74 nautical miles off Flamborough Head on the Yorkshire coast. Lakenheath is a Royal Air Force base that hosts the U.S. Air Force 48th Fighter Wing, known as the Liberty Wing. The base is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of London. The wing has more than 4,500 active-duty military members.  
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Japan’s Defense Minister announced Monday the country will cancel plans to deploy a costly, land-based U.S. missile defense system designed to counter escalating threats from North Korea. Defense Minister Taro Kono told reporters he has decided to “stop the deployment process” of the Aegis Ashore missile system after discovering safety concerns regarding two communities near where the system would be based. Kono said the way the system was currently designed, they could not guarantee that the rocket booster from the missile system would not fall outside the Ground Self-Defense Force’s Mutsumi base in Yamaguchi, southwestern Japan.  The defense minister said he consulted with U.S. officials and realized it would take a hardware repair, as well as a software modification, to fix the problem, which he says would be too time-consuming and costly. The Japanese government had approved adding the $3.2 billion missile defense systems in 2017 to bolster the country’s current defenses — Aegis-equipped destroyers at sea and Patriot missiles on land. Defense officials said the two Aegis Ashore units could cover Japan entirely from one station at Yamaguchi in the south and another at Akita in the north. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government will now have to reconsider Japan’s missile defense program. 
 
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Voice of America Director Amanda Bennett and her top deputy, Sandra Sugawara, resigned Monday, saying that Michael Pack, the newly approved chief executive of VOA’s parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, has a right to replace them with his own VOA leadership.Bennett and Sugawara, both veteran journalists, have overseen VOA since 2016, sharply broadening the scope of news and features produced by the U.S. government’s independent news agency on television and radio shows aired in 47 languages around the world and digitally on the voanews.com website.In their resignation letter, Bennett and Sugawara told VOA’s hundreds of writers, broadcasters, editors and technical staff they had changed the agency for the better over the last four years.They cited VOA’s “compassionate and compelling quest to tell America’s story; your focus on pushing back on untruths and disinformation around the world; your attention to the stories of women, of refugees and of your press colleagues around the world.”Bennett and Sugawara told the VOA staff that “nothing about you, your passion, your mission or your integrity, changes” with Pack’s takeover of VOA and other U.S. government media organizations.“Michael Pack swore before Congress to respect and honor the firewall that guarantees VOA’s independence, which in turn plays the single most important role in the stunning trust our audiences around the world have in us,” Bennett and Sugawara said.FILE – U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Nominee Michael Pack is seen at his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 19, 2019.But Pack’s assumption of USAGM control with a recent Senate-approved three-year contract has been rocky.President Donald Trump named Pack, an associate of one of Trump’s most ardent ideological supporters, former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, to the VOA job more than two years ago. But his approval was blocked by Senate Democrats until recently, in part because of Democratic concerns about alleged financial self-dealing in his businesses.In recent weeks, Trump has criticized VOA for its news coverage of China during the coronavirus crisis. When asked about the Pack nomination on May 15th, Trump said, “Voice of America is run in a terrible manner. They’re not the Voice of America. They’re the opposite of the Voice of America.”At the time, Bennett defended the U.S.-funded news agency’s mission and reporting.“We export the First Amendment to people around the world who have no other access to factual, truthful, believable information,” she said.“That’s why more than 80% of our 280 million audience in 47 languages in more than 60 countries say they find our work credible,” she added.    
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The U.S. Embassy in Seoul has removed a “Black Lives Matter” banner and rainbow flag in support of LGBTQ rights, after President Donald Trump and senior State Department leaders complained about the displays, according to a U.S. news outlet.
 
Bloomberg News reported Monday that Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were displeased with the banners, which had hung for several days on the front of the main U.S. embassy building in Seoul, South Korea.  
 
In a statement late Monday, an embassy spokesperson said Ambassador Harry Harris had decided to display the Black Lives Matter banner “to communicate a message of solidarity with Americans concerned with racism, especially racial violence against African Americans.”  
 
“He wanted to highlight the enduring American values of racial equality, freedom of speech, and the right to peacefully protest. However, the Ambassador’s intent was not to support or encourage donations to any specific organization. To avoid the misperception that American taxpayer dollars were spent to benefit such organizations, he directed that the banner be removed,” the statement read.  
 
“This in no way lessens the principles and ideals expressed by raising the banner, and the Embassy will look for other ways to convey fundamental American values in these times of difficulty at home,” it added.  
 
The display was the latest example of U.S. government, military and other institutions expressing self-reflection and solidarity with the wave of global protests following recent U.S. police killings of African Americans.  
 
Although many of the U.S. protesters have been critical of Trump, the movement is largely focused on police violence, as well as the practices and allegations of racial bias in U.S. institutions.   
 
On Monday, the U.S. military in South Korea, which had already held a series of Black Lives Matter community events, went a step further, banning displays of the Confederate battle flag on its bases.  
 
“The Confederate battle flag does not represent the values of U.S. forces assigned to serve in the Republic of Korea,” read a memo by General Robert Abrams, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea.  
 
“While I acknowledge some might view it as a symbol of regional pride, many others in our force see it as a painful reminder of hate, bigotry, treason, and devaluation of humanity,” Abrams added.1/7
We should all be outraged and ashamed at the killing of George Floyd & others by police. I know I am.
We should be equally outraged against racism and bigotry that continues. To be clear—there is NO place for it in our country and NO place for it in our military. ZERO.
— Robert Abrams (@DogFaceSoldier) June 5, 2020The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have already moved to prohibit displays of the Confederate flag, which was carried during the U.S. Civil War by southern forces that wanted to preserve slavery.   
 
The U.S. Army has also said it was open to renaming nearly a dozen bases named after leaders of the Confederacy, which surrendered to Union forces in 1865. But the move to rename bases was criticized by Trump, who has long opposed the removal or destruction of Confederate displays.  
 
“These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom,” Trump tweeted last week. “Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.”  
 
Neither Trump nor Pompeo have publicly commented on the displays at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.In South Korea, US Diplomats, Military Show Black Lives Matter SolidarityEmbassy flies Black Lives Matter flag; US military bans Confederate flags on its bases Major shift
 
Polls have revealed widespread support for the protests, underscoring a major shift in U.S. public opinion since the previous rounds of Black Lives Matter demonstrations.  
 
“Something seems different this time,” says Daniel Pinkston, who teaches international relations in Seoul.  
 
Major U.S. institutions such as the military and diplomatic corps, which have diverse, multicultural workforces, now face significant pressure to confront racism, says Pinkston, a former Air Force linguist.   
 
Not dealing with those problems, especially in the military, “undermines productivity, effectiveness and morale,” he adds.  
 
For U.S. diplomats, who often criticize the rights abuses of foreign autocrats, part of the concern may also be about consistency in messaging – especially as international headlines condemn the heavy-handed U.S. police response to the protests.  
 
“I’ve never seen the U.S. reputation take this kind of hit in such a short time,” says Pinkston.  
 Making a statement
 
So far, the embassy in Seoul appears to have been the only U.S. diplomatic outpost to have prominently displayed a Black Lives Matter sign.  
 
“I was glad to see Ambassador Harris take a stand that black lives matter,” said Abraham Denmark, a former senior Pentagon official now with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “But ultimately he has to follow direction from his leadership.”
 
Harris, a Trump appointee and former Navy admiral, is planning to resign at the end of the year, according to a recent Reuters report which the U.S. embassy has not confirmed.  
 
It’s not the first time the embassy in Seoul has taken a stance on social issues.   
 
The embassy has for years flown a rainbow flag in solidarity with human rights and civil society organizations that push for LGBTQ rights in South Korea. Many U.S. embassies around the world fly such flags, especially during June, which is LGBTQ Pride Month.   
 
But the Trump administration last year demanded embassies submit a formal request to fly the flag on their flagpoles, according to NBC News. Many of those requests were denied, it said; instead, the embassies were told they could only fly the flags in other places, such as the side of their building or indoors.  
 
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that federal employment laws prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ workers, delivering a major victory to sexual minorities in America.  In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that that an “employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender” in in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservative Neil Gorsuch, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump, joined the majority opinion.The civil rights law says that employers cannot discriminate “because of sex.”In 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, under the Obama administration, ruled that the prohibition encompassed discrimination against LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning) people.However, the Trump administration sided with employers who were sued for discrimination in three cases that led to Monday’s ruling.  In two of the cases – Bostock v. Clayton County and Altitude Express v. Zarda – the question was whether Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibition on sex discrimination extends to sexual orientation. Gerald Bostock, a social worker, and Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor, claimed they were fired because they are gay.In the third case – R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – the justices were asked to determine whether Title VII’s ban on sex discrimination covers transgender people. The transgender woman at the center of the case, Aimee Stephens, says she lost her funeral director’s job because of her identity. 
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Protesters plan to greet a returning Georgia General Assembly on Monday morning, seeking in part an end to police brutality and changes to the state’s criminal justice system.
The session comes on the heels of the death of Rayshard Brooks, 27,  a black man who was shot and killed by a white officer following a confrontation with police outside a fast food restaurant in Atlanta on Friday. The city’s police chief resigned hours later and the officer who fired the fatal shot was terminated. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is handling the case and will forward its findings to the Fulton County District Attorney.
Democrats say they’re ready to act, with the minority party in both the House and the Senate rolling out extensive proposals last week.
But Republican leaders and even some Democrats say there’s not enough time to make a whole slate of changes, with only 11 working days left beginning Monday in a session disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. While lawmakers may consider giving Georgia a law imposing stiffer sentences for hate crimes, other proposals such as abolishing the state’s citizen’s arrest law, ending no-knock warrants or allowing people to sue police officers for misconduct seem unlikely to reach Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk this year.
Not that there won’t be a fight. House Minority Leader Bob Trammell, a Luthersville Democrat, said in an interview Friday that he believed lawmakers have “the opportunity and time to get it done. The question is do we have the political will for it.”
“For the General Assembly to turn a deaf ear to the cries that are occurring all over Georgia and throughout the country would be a tragic missed opportunity and a dereliction of responsibility,” Trammell said, referring to nationwide protests of recent weeks.
Those cries will arrive at the Capitol on Monday morning as the state NAACP marches across downtown Atlanta, demanding changes to criminal justice and voting systems after Tuesday’s election delays.
“It’s going to take real effort on the part of every elected official in the Georgia General Assembly to do their part to protect every single Georgian,” the organization said in statement last week announcing the march.
House Democrats say they’re backing 12 separate bills including the hate crimes bill. Senate Democrats are backing a package including 10 previously introduced bills plus seven new ideas. Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson said Friday that the recycled bills prove Republicans have been ignoring criminal justice problems.
“These are important issues that have been neglected by the majority party, that we haven’t been able to get a hearing on,” said Henson, a Stone Mountain Democrat.
Some Republicans also support ending Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law, a possible factor in the February shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man killed while running through a subdivision near Brunswick.
Both House and Senate Democrats want to abolish Georgia’s “stand your ground” law, which states people can use force without retreating.
“We need to literally revoke the license to kill in public spaces that is stand your ground,” Trammell said Thursday during an online news conference.
Other proposals shared by House and Senate Democrats include requiring police to announce themselves before serving a warrant, creating a registry of traffic stops to look for racial profiling, banning chokeholds, ending officers’ immunity from lawsuits if they’ve done something wrong, and requiring all officers to wear and use body cameras. The packages have some differences — House Democrats want an oversight commission for prosecutors, while senators want bans on rubber bullets and limits on police chases.
House Speaker David Ralston said Friday that Democrats are proposing far-reaching changes, and that anything beyond a hate crimes bill may be too much for the remaining time.
“I think the scope of the discussion expands when you throw in citizens arrest and other issues like that,” the Blue Ridge Republican said.
Ralston said he’ll send new bills to the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee and tell Chairman Chuck Efstration, a Dacula Republican, to hold hearings this summer, possibly setting up action when a new General Assembly convenes in January 2021.
“It would be aggressively looking at these issues rather than putting them in the corner and letting them gather dust,” Ralston said. “We would at least be letting the process keep moving with a view toward taking up these bills and acting on them next session.”
And at least some Democrats say that they may have to look toward next year.
“Many of the items we are bringing up will be hard to address in this session,” Henson said. “We’re not trying to purport that we’re going to pass everything we’re talking about.”
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A Russian court Monday sentenced a former U.S. marine to 16 years in prison on espionage charges. Paul Whelan, 50, was accused of spying for the United States after he was handed a flash drive by an acquaintance that allegedly contained classified information during a visit to Russia to attend a wedding in 2018. The Michigan resident was arrested at a hotel in Moscow in December of that year. Whelan’s Russian lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov said he planned to appeal the sentence. Zherebenkov said he believed “that there was a crime encouragement” by Whelan’ acquaintance, who has connections with Russian special services. Whelan had rejected the charges and called the case a sham trial and political charade. Whelan maintained throughout the trial he thought the flash drive he received contained holiday photos.   The U.S. Ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, called Whelan’s case a “mockery of justice” and his treatment as “shameful.”  Whelan’s brother David said in a statement on behalf of Whelan’s family “We had hoped that the court might show some independence but, in the end, Russian judges are political, not legal, entities. We look to the U.S. government to immediately take steps to bring Paul home.” Whelan had an “emergency hernia operation” at a Moscow hospital, after experiencing “severe abdominal pain” last month. “It is unacceptable that Paul Whelan has been denied necessary medical treatment until his condition became dire,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted on May 30. The U.S. Department of State had demanded Whelan’s immediate release. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Whelan was caught “red-handed.”  
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Protesters plan to gather Monday at the state capitol in the southern U.S. state of Georgia, demanding criminal justice reforms and measures to address election problems. The demonstrations were planned before an Atlanta police officer on Friday shot dead Rayshard Brooks outside a fast food restaurant.  The killing was the latest in a string of deaths of African American men that have prompted nationwide protests seeking to address police misconduct and systemic racism. A medical examiner in Fulton County, Georgia, has ruled Brooks’ death a homicide. Brooks was cooperating with police officers during a sobriety test, but then struggled with the officers as they tried to arrest him and ran. The medical examiner’s autopsy found that Brooks was shot in the back twice and died from organ damage and blood loss.  Officer Garrett Rolfe has been fired, and the Atlanta police chief, Erika Shields, has resigned. A second officer, Devin Brosnan, has been placed on administrative leave.  Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard told CNN his office will decide later this week what kind of charges, if any, Rolfe would face.     “(Brooks) did not seem to present any kind of threat to anyone, and so the fact that it would escalate to his death just seems unreasonable,” Howard said. “If that shot was fired for some reason other than to save that officer’s life or prevent injury to him or others, then that shooting is not justified under the law,” he added.  Shields resigned Saturday even as the investigation into the shooting had barely begun.   “I have served alongside some of the finest men and women in the Atlanta Police Department. Out of a deep and abiding love for this city and this department, I offered to step aside as police chief. … It is time for the city to move forward and build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.”    Police dash and body cam video shows the 27-year-old Brooks asleep in his car and blocking the drive-thru lane of a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant.    This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the parking lot of a Wendy’s restaurant, late Friday, June 12, 2020, in Atlanta.It took a few moments for Officer Rolfe to waken Brooks. The video shows the two having a cordial conversation, but Brooks didn’t seem to know what city he was in or what restaurant. At one point, Brooks told the officer “I know you’re just doing your job.”  When the second officer, Devin Brosnan, arrived, Brooks failed a breathalyzer, was handcuffed and appeared to resist arrest.   The officers wrestled him to the ground, demanded he stop fighting and warned Brooks that they would use a Taser on him. Brooks apparently grabbed one of the officer’s Tasers and pointed it at the police as he tried to run off. Rolfe opened fire and three shots could be heard as Brooks falls to the ground.    Fellow officers attempted to comfort Rolfe as an emergency team tended to Brooks, who was pronounced dead at a hospital.  The shooting set off a day of protests in Atlanta Saturday that started peacefully but turned violent. Demonstrators tried to block an interstate highway and the Wendy’s restaurant where Brooks was shot was burned to the ground.     Thirty-six people were arrested, and police are looking for the suspect who started the fire.  Fresh protests Sunday were largely peaceful.   A lawyer for the Brooks family, L. Chris Stewart, says he wants Rolfe to be charged with “an unjustified use of deadly force, which equals murder.”    “You can’t say a Taser is a nonlethal weapon … but when an African American grabs it and runs with it, now it’s some kind of deadly, lethal weapon that calls for you to unload on somebody,” Stewart said.    But the only African American member of the U.S. Senate, South Carolina’s Tim Scott, says more questions need to be asked.   “The question is when the suspect turned to fire the Taser, what should the officer have done?” Scott told CBS’s Face the Nation, adding that what happened in Atlanta “is certainly a far less clear one than the ones that we saw with George Floyd and several other ones around the country.” 
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A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention email released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) tells communications staff to ignore media requests from Voice of America, according to documents published by the Knight First Amendment Institute.Documents released under the FOIA include an April 30 email sent from Michawn Rich with the subject “Rundown.” The email describes a CDC media request process to help a co-worker named Rachael to “navigate [her] new role.”Rich, a Department of Agriculture spokesperson, was moved to the CDC to help handle communications related to the pandemic earlier this year, CDC guidance screenshotThe names of the other people mentioned in the document include the CDC’s acting director of public affairs and CDC public affairs officers.The CDC acknowledged receiving VOA’s request for comment and said a spokesperson would follow up. At the time of publication, VOA had not received a response.FILE – Vice President Mike Pence speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, in Washington, April 17, 2020.The Knight Institute said the lawsuit came in response to reports alleging that CDC experts were being prevented from speaking with the press or public and had been told to coordinate with the Vice President’s Office before speaking with journalists.“We brought this lawsuit because we were concerned about the politicization of public health messaging and we thought it was critical for the public to know if and how the administration was stage-managing CDC communications, so that the public was able to judge for themselves the accuracy of any statements,” Anna Diakun, staff attorney of the Knight First Amendment Institute, told VOA.“From the documents we’ve received so far, the Office of the Vice President’s role has been totally redacted, so it is impossible for us to know exactly what role that office is playing,” she said.The Knight Institute is to receive more documents on June 18 that Diakun said the center hopes will address what role if any the Vice President’s Office played.The Vice President’s Office declined VOA’s request for comment.“What may be unusual is that it’s been exposed, I don’t know if it’s unusual.” Van Susteren said of the alleged blacklisting.“No administration, whether it’s Obama, Bush 41, or Clinton or anybody going back has liked the media,” she said. “But I’ve been at all these news organizations and I have never had this happen to me before.”Trump’s VOA Criticism Shows US-Funded News Doesn’t Mean US-ApprovedPublic dispute highlights unique position of government-funded, editorially independent journalismVOA Director Bennett said it was difficult to determine the effect the CDC ban may have had on the international broadcaster’s coverage of the pandemic.“Efforts such as those outlined in the CDC memo can result in the kind of chilling effect on our journalism that we regularly see in the markets we broadcast to that have no free press – including in China and Russia,” she said in a statement.Diakun said the Knight Institute was concerned to see from the FOIA request that CDC staff were told to ignore press queries from VOA. “It is imperative that the CDC ensures steady and timely access to information, especially in the midst of a public health crisis,” she told VOA.
 
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Seven Minneapolis police officers have quit as the future of the city’s entire police department is uncertain after the death of George Floyd.  It is unclear if their leaving has anything to do directly with Floyd.The department sent a statement to Minneapolis radio station WCCO saying “People seek to leave employment for a myriad of reason. The MPD is no exception. Due to these employment separations, we have not noted any indicators that would impact public safety.”But several officers have told the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper that they are upset by Mayor Jacob Frey’s decision to abandon the city’s third precinct during the Floyd protests two weeks ago.Officers were ordered to leave that section of the city and their precinct house was burned.  “If we decided to continue to hold the 3rd Precinct there very likely would have been hand-to-hand combat, likely serious injury and maybe death, and in the decision between a building and life-or-death we decided to evacuate,” Frey has said.FILE – Onlookers inspect the burnt ruins of the Minnehaha Liquor store near the Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2, 2020.All 12 city council members said in a resolution last week that they intend to dismantle the city’s police department and replace it with “a transformative new model for cultivating safety” in the city — the details of which are unclear.  Fourteen police officers, who say they are speaking for the hundreds in the department of officers, have written an open letter to the people of Minneapolis, condemning the policeman who kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, which allegedly contributed to Floyd’s death.“We wholeheartedly condemn Derek Chauvin. We Are With You in the denouncement of Derek Chauvin’s actions on Memorial Day, 2020. Like us, Derek Chauvin took an oath to hold the sanctity of life most precious. Derek Chauvin failed as a human and stripped George Floyd of his dignity and life. This is not who we are,” the letter states.  Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and three other officers with aiding and abetting.Also in Minneapolis, the city’s parks department says they have no plans to fix a sign at a city park which an anonymous person altered to pay tribute to George Floyd.The sign at the entrance to George Todd Park – named for a former city alderman – now reads “George Floyd Park” with a large decal plastered over the name Todd.The city park is about five kilometers south of where Floyd died.People fill a street June 14, 2020, inside what has been named the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) zone in Seattle, Washington. Protesters calling for police reform and other changes have taken over several blocks near the city’s downtown area.In Seattle, Police Chief Carmen Best says she hopes officers can move back into a section of the city taken over by peaceful protesters without resorting to “something that devolves into a force situation.”Chief Best appeared on CBS television’s Face the Nation Sunday.Anti-racist protesters have peacefully occupied a four-block part of the city which they’ve named “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.” Organizers say they want a neighborhood without police. A huge “Black Lives Matter” mural covers the area’s main thoroughfare.U.S. President Donald Trump has called the occupiers “ugly anarchists” and said the city should “take back” the zone.  But Mayor Jenny Durkan last week likened the zone to “a block party atmosphere” and no threat to the public but said it will be restored to the city at some time.  A Chicago Sun Times newspaper report says 75% of those arrested for violating a citywide curfew imposed over the Floyd protests were African American. The curfew ended June 7.A Chicago police spokesman denies any implication that race had anything to do with the arrests, saying curfew enforcement was “universal” and equally enforced in all neighborhoods.Anti-racism marches inspired by George Floyd’s death continued all weekend in some large European cities.  Demonstrators in Berlin formed a nine-kilometer long chain that began at the Brandenburg Gate.Demonstrators attend a ‘This Is Solidarity’ rally organized by the Unteilbar (Indivisible) movement, in Berlin, Germany, June 14, 2020.Protesters in Milan painted the words “rapist” and “racist” on a statue honoring the late Italian journalist Indro Montanelli who had once admitted marrying a 12-year-old girl in Eritrea when it was an Italian colony more than 80 years ago.In Paris, it was the police who protested against what they say are unfair accusations of racism and brutality.Shortly after 15,000 people demonstrated in the French capital, about 50 officers and their police cars surrounded the Arc de Triomphe.  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday “racist thuggery” has no place in British streets after right-wing extremists attacked protesters against racism. About 100 people were arrested.London Mayor Sadiq Khan blamed the violence solely on the right-wingers and he thanked police for doing a “fantastic job” in restoring order.  Also Sunday, hundreds marched through Tokyo, holding banners reading “Black Lives Matter”.“I think it is so wrong to discriminate based on appearance, and I wanted to relay the message that the American people have allies in Japan,” said one young marcher, condemning what some Japanese say is occasional police harassment of dark-skinned foreigners.  Thousands also demonstrated Sunday in New Zealand and took a knee for a moment of silence for George Floyd in front of the U.S. consulate.
 
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The thousands of people expected to attend next Saturday’s political rally for President Donald Trump in Oklahoma “probably” ought to wear a face mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday. The Trump campaign, however, has not said whether it plans to enforce guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control calling for face coverings at large gatherings such as the Trump rally in in Tulsa. As many as 19,000 people could crowd into the city’s BOK Center to take part in the president’s first large-scale rally in three months. Kudlow told CNN that as U.S. workers return to their jobs after being laid off because of the spread of the coronavirus, they should continue to observe social distancing guidelines calling for people to stay two meters away from others and to wear face masks. Asked whether his suggestion for workers to wear a face mask also applied to people at the Trump rally, Kudlow said, “Well, OK. Probably so.”   Asked how the rally can be held safely, one of the president’s biggest supporters, Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford told ABC’s “This Week” show, “I don’t know how they’re going to handle that.” But he said he plans to go. Trump has repeatedly ignored suggestions that he wear a face mask in public to set an example for Americans to prevent the spread of the pandemic that has infected more than 2 million people and killed more than 115,000 in the U.S., both figures by far the most in any nation around the world. Asked about wearing a face mask, Trump at one point said, “I don’t think I’m going to be doing it.” But liability for the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, is worrying the Trump campaign. It claims that 200,000 to 300,000 people have requested tickets for the Tulsa rally in one of the biggest Trump-supportive states in the country. FILE – President Donald Trump walks onstage to speak at a campaign rally, Feb. 28, 2020, in North Charleston, S.C.But anyone requesting a ticket must agree to a disclaimer saying they acknowledge the “inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present” and agrees to relinquish any right to sue the Trump campaign or the arena if they subsequently contract the virus. Trump, believing large-scale rallies are a crucial political lifeline leading up to his November national re-election contest against former Vice President Joe Biden, has made it clear he does not want to speak to a two-thirds-empty arena to accommodate social distancing or a sea of faces wearing face masks.
Trump campaign chairman Brad Parscale said last week, “Americans are ready to get back to action and so is President Trump. The Great American Comeback is real and the rallies will be tremendous.” But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, voiced deep concerns last week about the crowd expected to hear Trump, saying that the pandemic is far from over. “Oh my goodness,” Fauci said. “Where is it going to end? We’re still at the beginning of really understanding.” Some Americans have equated wearing a face mask as a sign of weakness, but U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Sunday on Twitter, “Some feel face coverings infringe on their freedom of choice — but if more wear them, we’ll have MORE freedom to go out.” He said that with face coverings, there would be “less asymptomatic viral spread, more places open, and sooner! Exercise and promote your freedom by choosing to wear a face covering!” According to the Centers for Disease Control guidelines, the Trump rally would fall into the “highest risk” category, defined as “large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet (two meters) apart and attendees travel from outside the local area.” The CDC guidance also says that “cloth face coverings are strongly encouraged in settings where individuals might raise their voice (e.g., shouting, chanting, singing)” — all of which is typical of a political rally.  
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Tim Scott, the only black Republican member of the U.S. Senate, said on Sunday he is open to exploring whether to enact a new law that would decertify bad police officers as part of a larger law enforcement reform package.Speaking on CBS “Face the Nation,” Scott said a new policy to decertify police who engage in misconduct could be a compromise as he negotiates with Democrats, who have called more drastic measures such as ending the “qualified immunity” legal doctrine which helps shield officers from liability.”I think there’s a way for us to deal with it,” he said. “Decertification would be a path that I would be interested in looking at.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week tapped Scott to oversee the drafting of new policing reform legislation in response to public outrage over high profile police killings of African Americans including George Floyd, who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck.Floyd’s death has led to protests in cities and smaller communities nationwide, as well as rallies in countries around the world, with demonstrators demanding legislative change to combat racial injustice and hold police more accountable.In the latest case to trigger anger among activists, protesters shut down a major highway in Atlanta on Saturday and burned down a Wendy’s restaurant where a black man was shot dead by police as he tried to escape arrest.Democrats who control the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled their own draft legislation last week which would allow victims of police misconduct to sue officers for damages, ban chokeholds, require the use of body cameras by federal law enforcement officers, and restrict the use of lethal force. Scott is due to unveil his own draft this week.On Sunday he said the Republican party viewed eliminating qualified immunity as a “poison pill” but he still felt optimistic that a compromise could be reached.He also cited other areas of reform he is considering, including requiring police departments to provide the Justice Department with more data on excessive use of force, mandated de-escalation training and provisions to deal with police misconduct.”If we could blend those three together, we might actually save hundreds of lives and improve the relationship between the communities of color and the law enforcement community.” 
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White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday the U.S. economy, the world’s largest, is “now in a recovery stage” from the debilitating effects of the coronavirus pandemic that closed thousands of businesses, even as forecasters say unemployment figures will remain high for months. Kudlow told CNN, “I think we are on our way back. 2021 is going to be a solid, solid year.” He indicated the $600-a-week unemployment compensation supplement the federal government has been paying more than 40 million unemployed workers in addition to state jobless benefits is likely to end as scheduled at the end of July. “We’re paying people not to work,” he said. “It’s better than their salaries” in some instances. He said a such a boost for unemployed workers might have made sense in the early stages of the coronavirus-caused business shutdowns, but not as the economy recovers.  FILE – White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow talks to reporters about the economic impact of the coronavirus, at the White House, March 16, 2020, in Washington.However, he said the Trump administration is envisioning “some kind of bonus to return to work” for those who have been laid off, although not as much as the weekly federal unemployment compensation supplements that have been paid for 2 ½ months. Some lawmakers have suggested a one-time $1,200 stipend might be paid to returning workers. “We want people to go back to work,” Kudlow said. “I think people want to go back to work. We don’t want to interfere with that.” He said state unemployment compensation benefits would not end, They, however, typically only amount to somewhat less than half of what workers are paid and vary widely among the 50 U.S. states. Despite Kudlow’s upbeat assessment of the U.S. economy, he said the continuing number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the U.S. “is a concern” in impeding the economic recovery. The U.S. far and away leads all countries across the world in the number of infections, more than 2 million, and the number of deaths, more than 115,000, with tens of thousands of more people expected to die in the coming months. Kudlow said, “People must observe the [coronavirus] safety guidelines” by maintaining social distancing of at least two meters from other people and wearing face masks “in key places.” The official U.S. jobless rate was 13.3% in May, although officials say that when a survey error was accounted for, the rate should have totaled 16.4%.  Another 1.5 Million US Workers Seek Jobless BenefitsIn all, 44 million workers have filed for unemployment compensation since mid-March, more than a quarter of the US labor force The Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, predicted Wednesday that the U.S. unemployment will fall to 9.3% by the end of this year and to 6.5% by the end of 2021, a rosier advance than some economists are forecasting.  Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the continuing employment hardship for millions of Americans.  “Unemployment remains historically high,” he said at a news conference. “The downturn has not fallen equally on all Americans. The rise in joblessness has been especially severe for lower wage workers, women, African Americans and Hispanics.”  The Fed, at the end of a two-day policy meeting, said, “The ongoing public health crisis will weigh heavily on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term.”  
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An Atlanta police officer was fired following the fatal shooting of a black man and another officer was placed on administrative duty, the police department announced early Sunday.         FILE – Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields attends a news conference in Atlanta, Jan. 4, 2018. On June 13, 2020, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that Shields was resigning following a fatal shooting by an officer the night before.The moves follows the Saturday resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields, who stepped down as the Friday night killing of Rayshard Brooks, 27, sparked a new wave of protests in Atlanta after turbulent demonstrations following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police had simmered down.         The terminated officer was identified as Garrett Rolfe, who was hired in October 2013, and the officer placed on administrative duty is Devin Brosnan, who was hired in September 2018, according to a release from police spokesperson Sgt. John Chafee.         The police department also released body camera and dash camera footage from both officers.         More than 40 minutes elapses between the time Brosnan first knocks on Brooks’ car door while he’s in Wendy’s drive-thru and when gunshots ring out; Rolfe arrives on scene about 16 minutes in. The shooting is audible in footage from Rolfe’s dash camera and both officers’ body cameras but wasn’t captured on any of the four recordings provided by police. Both body cameras fall off during the struggle that ensues when Rolfe moves to handcuff Brooks after speaking to him for about 20 minutes, although Brooks is briefly glimpsed being Tased before he’s shot.         A protester holds a sign in front of police, near the Wendy’s restaurant in Atlanta where Rayshard Brooks was fatally shot by police the night before, June 13, 2020.Protesters on Saturday night set fire to the Wendy’s restaurant where Brooks was fatally shot the night before and blocked traffic on a nearby highway. The fire was out by 11:30 p.m., but video from local news stations showed it again aflame around 4 a.m. Sunday. Atlanta police said 36 people were arrested at protests as of midnight.         Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the police chief’s resignation at a Saturday afternoon news conference and had called for the immediate firing of the officer who opened fire.         “I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force,” Bottoms said.       She said it was Shields’ own decision to step aside and that she would remain with the city in an undetermined role. Interim Corrections Chief Rodney Bryant will serve as interim police chief.         The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the shooting, said the deadly confrontation started with a complaint that a man was sleeping in a car blocking the restaurant’s drive-thru lane. The GBI said Brooks failed a field sobriety test and then resisted officers’ attempts to arrest him.         Rolfe is seen on body camera video administering the field sobriety test, followed by a Breathalyzer test with Brooks’ permission. He moves to arrest Brooks after the Breathalyzer test; while he doesn’t tell Brooks the result, the machine displays a 0.108 in video captured by Rolfe’s own body camera.         The GBI released security camera video of the shooting Saturday, which does not show Brooks’ initial struggle with police. The footage shows a man running from two white police officers as he raises a hand, which is holding an object, toward an officer a few steps behind him. The officer draws his gun and fires as the man keeps running, then falls to the ground in the parking lot.         This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the parking lot of a Wendy’s restaurant, late Friday, June 12, 2020, in Atlanta.GBI Director Vic Reynolds said Brooks had grabbed a Taser from one officer and appeared to point it at the officer as he fled. The officer fired an estimated three shots.         L. Chris Stewart, an attorney for Brooks’ family, said the officer who shot him should be charged for “an unjustified use of deadly force, which equals murder.”          “You can’t have it both ways in law enforcement,” Stewart said. “You can’t say a Taser is a nonlethal weapon … but when an African American grabs it and runs with it, now it’s some kind of deadly, lethal weapon that calls for you to unload on somebody.”         He said Brooks was a father of four and had celebrated a daughter’s eighth birthday Friday before he was killed.          The shooting came at a time of heightened tension over police brutality and calls for reforms across the U.S. following the May 25 death of Floyd in Minneapolis.         Demonstrators, including members of Brooks’ family, gathered Saturday outside the restaurant where he was shot.          Among those protesting was Crystal Brooks, who said she is Rayshard Brooks’ sister-in-law.          “He wasn’t causing anyone any harm,” she said. “The police went up to the car and even though the car was parked they pulled him out of the car and started tussling with him.”         She added: “He did grab the Taser, but he just grabbed the Taser and ran.”         Shields, Atlanta’s police chief for under four years, was initially praised in the days following Floyd’s death. She said the officers involved should go to prison and told demonstrators she understood their frustrations and fears. She appeared at Bottoms’ side as the mayor made an impassioned plea for protesters to go home when things turned violent with smashed storefronts and police cruisers set ablaze.         Days later, Shields fired two officers and benched three others caught on video in a hostile confrontation with two college students whose car was stuck in traffic caused by protests. The officers fired Tasers at the pair and dragged them from the vehicle. When prosecutors later charged six of the officers involved, however, Shields openly questioned the charges.         The shooting of Brooks two weeks later raised further questions about the Atlanta department.          “It is time for the city to move forward and build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” Shields said in a statement.         Reynolds said his agents will turn over results of their investigation to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, whose office will decide whether criminal charges are warranted against either officer.         Howard said Saturday his office “has already launched an intense, independent investigation of the incident.”         Brooks died after being taken to an Atlanta hospital. One of the officers was treated and released for unspecified injuries.       
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Videographer John Oliva is used to shutting down his video production company at a moment’s notice. It’s usually when a hurricane is about to slam the South Florida coast. But in March, his business was hit with a different disaster: the coronavirus pandemic.“Everybody was pretty much ordered to stop operating, stay home. It was devastating,” said Oliva, owner of Digital Cut Productions in Fort Lauderdale.  Almost overnight, he didn’t have new business coming in, his projects were canceled, and he worried about the future of the 17-year-old company.“We weren’t very prepared to be operating one day, shut down the next because of the coronavirus,” the 55-year-old Oliva told VOA.After the initial shock, he and his wife, Lauri, decided they couldn’t sit around as people suffered from isolation and mounting economic hardship.“Even if we weren’t making money, we wanted to do what we could to help our community. So we said, ‘Why don’t we use our talents and find a way to do some good?’” said the veteran videographer.Videographer John Oliva, owner of Digital Cut Productions in Fort Lauderdale, volunteers his company’s services to help others during the COVID-19 epidemic. Here, they shoot a video on a horse farm for a fellow small-business owner.Oliva’s first volunteer project took him to a horse farm, a perfect location for his small production crew to practice social distancing.  They produced a home décor commercial for a fellow small-business owner whose retail store shut down in March.“It was a wonderful and kind gesture,” said Caroline Giraud, owner of La Vie En Blanc in Fort Lauderdale. “My store reopened in late May but business has been slow. This beautiful video is being used on social media to drive traffic to our website and hopefully attract new clients,” Giraud told VOA.Helping to heal a communityOn a bright Sunday morning, Oliva, his wife and two daughters would normally attend Mass at their Catholic church. But with in-person religious services canceled because of the coronavirus, Oliva set up equipment and with his priest at the altar and video-streamed online worship services.“We know the importance of worshipping during these difficult times especially for Good Friday and Easter. We wanted to do what we could to allow people to be safe and celebrate Mass at home,” said Oliva.The health crisis also forced South Florida schools to close and cancel high school graduation ceremonies. “It was heartbreaking for students not having a graduation, so we came up with the idea of producing a virtual graduation video for the students,” Oliva said.Students from The Sagemont School in Weston, Florida, sent Oliva clips which were edited into a colorful video.“They really appreciated it. It’s not as good as a real-life graduation, but it’s something they can keep as a keepsake,” he said.As many small businesses begin to reopen, Oliva said, “It could be six months to a year before things get back to normal.” Until then, his production crew is now working on fundraising videos for a charity that gives away food to those in need.“I feel South Florida is a strong community that’s seen its share of adversity, but we will bounce back,” he said.  “In the meantime, we will keep the cameras rolling to help other businesses, to help our church, to help our community.”  
    
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Idaho police say the two sets of remains found last week have been identified as those of two children missing since September.The police said Saturday the remains of 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow were found at the home of Chad Daybell who is married to Lori Vallow, the children’s mother.“It is not the outcome we had hoped; to be able to find the children safe,” the Rexburg, Idaho, police department said in a statement.Vallow and Daybell married late last year after the suspicious deaths of their previous spouses and after the children were last seen. The police say the couple refused to participate in the missing children investigation.The newlyweds were found and arrested in Hawaii in February. They were extradited to Idaho, where they are facing multiple charges.  
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Atlanta’s police chief resigned Saturday hours after a black man was fatally shot by officers in a struggle following a field sobriety test. Authorities said the slain man had grabbed an officer’s Taser but was running away when he was shot.Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the resignation of Police Chief Erika Shields at a news conference as roughly 150 protesters marched outside the Wendy’s restaurant where Rayshard Brooks, 27, was fatally shot late Friday. The mayor also said she called for the immediate firing of the officer who opened fire at Brooks.“I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force and have called for the immediate termination of the officer,” Bottoms said.FILE – Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields attends a news conference in Atlanta, Jan. 4, 2018. On June 13, 2020, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that Shields was resigning following a fatal shooting by an officer the night before.She said it was Shields’ decision to step aside as police chief and that she would remain with the city in an undetermined role. Interim Corrections Chief Rodney Bryant will serve as interim police chief until a permanent replacement is found.The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, said the confrontation started with officers responding to a complaint that a man was sleeping in a car blocking the restaurant’s drive-through lane. The GBI said Brooks failed a field sobriety test and then resisted officers’ attempts to arrest him.The GBI released security camera video of the shooting Saturday. The footage shows a man running from two police officers as he raises a hand, which is holding some type of object, toward an officer a few steps behind him. The officer draws his gun and fires as the man keeps running, then falls to the ground in the parking lot.Taser apparently pointed at officerGBI Director Vic Reynolds said Brooks had grabbed a Taser from one of the officers and appeared to point it at the officer as he fled, prompting the officer to reach for his gun.“In a circumstance like this where an officer is involved in the use of deadly force, the public has a right to know what happened,” GBI Director Vic Reynolds told a news conference.The security camera video does not show Brooks’ the initial struggle with police.The officers involved in the shooting were not identified.Officers stand by a City of Atlanta Corrections bus near protesters, June 13, 2020, near a restaurant where Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by police the night before, in Atlanta, June 13, 2020.Brooks died after being taken to an Atlanta hospital. One of the officers was treated and released for unspecified injuries.The shooting came at a time of heightened tension over police brutality and calls for reforms across the U.S. following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Atlanta was among U.S. cities where large crowds of protesters took to the streets.A crowd of roughly 150 demonstrators, including members of Brooks’ family, gathered Saturday outside the restaurant where he was shot. Police shut down streets for several blocks around the restaurant as protesters marched peacefully in the streets.Among them was Crystal Brooks, who said she was Rayshard Brooks’ sister-in-law.“He wasn’t causing anyone any harm,” she said. “The police went up to the car and even though the car was parked they pulled him out of the car and started tussling with him.”She added: “He did grab the Taser, but he just grabbed the Taser and ran.”’The people are upset’Gerald Griggs, an attorney and a vice president of Atlanta’s NAACP chapter, estimated there were 150 people protesting at the scene as he walked with them Saturday afternoon.A Georgia State Patrol official hugs a protester, June 13, 2020, near the restaurant where Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by police the night before, in Atlanta.“The people are upset,” Griggs said. “They want to know why their dear brother Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed when he was merely asleep on the passenger side and not doing anything.”Even though Brooks struggled with officers, Griggs said, “they could have used nonlethal force to take him down.”Reynolds said his agents worked through the night interviewing witnesses and reviewing video. He said their findings showed that Brooks tried to fight off two officers when they tried to arrest him and at one point managed to take a Taser away from one of them.A security camera recorded Brooks “running or fleeing from Atlanta police officers,” Reynolds said. “It appears that he has in his hand a Taser.”During a short foot chase, Brooks “turns around and it appears at that time he points a Taser at an Atlanta officer,” Reynolds said. That’s when the officer drew his gun and shot Brooks, he said, estimating the officer fired three times.Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Timothy Peek told reporters late Friday that both officers deployed their Tasers in an attempt to subdue the suspect but were unable to “stop the aggression of the fight.”District attorney’s involvementReynolds said his agents would turn over results of their investigation to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, whose office will decide whether criminal charges are warranted against either of the officers.Howard said Saturday his office had already gotten involved.“My office has already launched an intense, independent investigation of the incident,” Howard said in a statement, saying members of his staff “were on scene shortly after the shooting, and we have been in investigative sessions ever since to identify all of the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident.”
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Some members of Poland’s government on Friday denied a Reuters report saying talks over a U.S.-Polish defense deal known as Fort Trump were crumbling amid disputes over how to fund the deployment of additional U.S troops and where to garrison them.“This is fake news,” Krzysztof Szczerski, a top aide to the Polish president, told public radio on Friday.The U.S. ambassador to Poland, Georgette Mosbacher, reacting on Twitter to the report, said negotiations remained on track.“President Trump @POTUS & @Prezydentpl Duda’s vision for increased US presence in Poland will be even greater than originally outlined. Announcement coming soon.”Mosbacher and the U.S. Embassy in Poland were not immediately available for comment to elaborate on the timing of the announcement and what the new plans would look like.A U.S. State Department spokesperson said in an email to Reuters on Saturday that talks were productive and on track.A spokesperson for Reuters said the company stood behind its reporting which accurately reflected the situation at the time.Reuters was unable on Friday to determine what fresh efforts, if any, had been made since Wednesday’s report to advance the negotiations and resolve major outstanding issues such as funding.A year ago, Polish President Andrzej Duda and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed that an additional 1,000 U.S. troops would be stationed in Poland. Six locations were shortlisted for the troops when Vice President Mike Pence visited Warsaw in September.The Reuters report published on Wednesday cited government officials in Washington and Warsaw saying they still could not agree where the troops should be stationed, and how much of the multibillion-dollar deployment Warsaw should fund.In that story, Polish deputy foreign minister Pawel Jablonski told Reuters complex issues remained to be ironed out. “There’s the question of financing, of the placement, of legal rights, under what principles these soldiers will function here,” he said.“I do think we will come to a final decision, but this will still take some time.”But Poland’s defense minister said the deal was going ahead.“We are currently agreeing the last details and discussions are taking place in a good atmosphere,” Mariusz Blaszczak said in a tweet on Thursday. 
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President Donald Trump, facing criticism in recent days for plans to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Germany, told West Point’s graduating class on Saturday that their job will be to defend “America’s vital interests” and not fight “endless wars” in faraway lands.
 Trump’s reported plans to withdraw 9,500 troops from Germany, one of America’s strongest allies, and relocate them to Poland and elsewhere has drawn the ire of German officials and raised concerns in the U.S. Congress about a retreat from the world stage.
 At West Point, Trump Stresses Unity, Nation’s Core ValuesHis commencement speech at the US Military Academy emphasized unity at a time when the commander in chief’s relationship with military leaders has become strained and questions have arisen about the role of soldiers in a civil societyIn his commencement address to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Trump told more than 1,000 graduating cadets, arrayed in a social-distancing pattern, that the job of the American soldier is not to rebuild foreign nations but “defend, and defend strongly, our nation from foreign enemies.”“We are ending the era of endless wars,” Trump said. It is not the job of American forces “to solve ancient conflicts in faraway lands that many people have not even heard of,” he said.
 
As president, Trump has pulled troops from Syria and pushed U.S. allies worldwide to pay more for the commitment of American forces to defend them.
 In relatively rare criticism from his own party, 22 Republicans on the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee wrote to Trump saying a troop cut in Germany would hurt national security and could encourage Russian Aggression.
 Trump came to West Point at a time of tension with U.S. military leaders over whether the military should be used to quell nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by police on May 25.
 U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley said on Thursday he should not have joined Trump as he walked from the White House to a nearby church for a photo opportunity after authorities cleared the way of protesters using tear gas and rubber bullets.
 Defense Secretary Mark Esper also split with Trump over whether active duty troops should be deployed to gain control of cities convulsed by protests.
 Trump has since expressed confidence in Esper and brushed off Milley’s comments.
 In his remarks on Saturday, Trump only touched obliquely on the debate over racial injustice in the United States, saying the cadets were examples of America’s diversity. 
“You have come from the farms and the cities, from states big and small, and from every race, religion, color, and creed. But when you entered these grounds, you became part of one team and one family, proudly serving one American nation,” he said.
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Sunday is Flag Day in the United States, an unofficial holiday commemorating the adoption of the American flag 243 years ago by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777.While the day passes without many Americans realizing its significance, some residents proudly display the stars-and-stripes outside their homes. The U.S. flag has gone through many iterations over the years, with Congress ordering changes in its design up until 1960, including the addition of stars whenever a new state joined the union. Today’s flag has 13 horizontal stripes, representing the original 13 colonies and 50 stars representing the 50 states. First U.S. President George Washington described the flag: “We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her. And the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty.” The Betsy Ross flag is an early design of the U.S. flag, named for Pennsylvania flag maker Betsy Ross. The pattern is 13 alternating red-and-white stripes with stars in a field of blue in the upper left corner canton. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)American tradition has it that Pennsylvania seamstress Betsy Ross sewed the first official U.S. flag. Ross often mended the clothes of Washington before he became president.In 1812, the American flag that flew at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland during the War of 1812 inspired Francis Scott Key’s poem-turned anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”Flag day was first recognized during World War I when President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation in 1916 for a nationwide observance. However, it wasn’t until after WWII that Congress passed legislation signed by President Harry Truman in 1949 officially approving a national Flag Day on June 14.   Many Americans do not realize the significance of the day or mark it in any way, likely because June 14 is not an official holiday and people do not have time off from work. 
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President Donald Trump on Saturday highlighted the diversity of West Point’s graduating class and appealed for America’s newest officers to uphold the country’s core values, a speech emphasizing unity at a time when the commander in chief’s relationship with military leaders has become strained and questions have arisen about the role of soldiers in a civil society.Trump also told them that under his administration, American soldiers no longer will be responsible for rebuilding foreign nations.”It is not the duty of U.S. troops to solve ancient conflicts in faraway lands that many people have never even heard of,” he said. “We are not the policeman of the world, but let our enemies be on notice: If our people are threatened, we will never, ever hesitate to act. And when we fight, from now on, we will only fight to win.”Trump Threatens Wide Use of Military Force Against ProtestersDeclaring ‘acts of domestic terror’ have been committed by violent demonstrators, president vows to end ‘riots and lawlessness’ that has spread throughout countryTrump’s commencement speech came as arguments rage over his threat to use American troops on U.S. soil to quell protests stemming from the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.To an audience of more than 1,100, he said members of the Class of 2020 “come from the farms and the cities, from states big and small, and from every race, religion, color and creed. But when you entered these grounds, you became part of one team, one family, proudly serving one American nation.:The president said they “became brothers and sisters pledging allegiance to the same timeless principles, joined together in a common mission: to protect our country, to defend our people, and to carry on the traditions of freedom, equality and liberty that so many gave their lives to secure.”  Tensions between the White House and the military have escalated since nationwide protests began over the death of Floyd, a black man who was pinned by the neck by a white police officer for several minutes despite saying he couldn’t breathe.Trump seemingly alluded to the protests, saying: “What has made America unique is the durability of its institutions against the passions and prejudices of the moment. When times are turbulent, when the road is rough, what matters most is that which is permanent, timeless, enduring and eternal.”He said that from the U.S. Military Academy came “the men and women who fought and won a bloody war to extinguish the evil of slavery within one lifetime of our founding.”Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, the West Point superintendent and the first African American to hold the post, told the cadets that their “challenges ahead will require moral and physical courage.”In the past two weeks, Trump yelled at Defense Secretary Mark Esper for publicly opposing Trump’s call to use active-duty troops to crack down on the demonstrations. Trump then shut down Esper’s attempt to open a public debate on removing the names of Confederate Army officers from military bases.Gen. Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, further risked Trump’s ire Thursday by declaring it had been “a mistake”  for him to accompany Trump on a June 1 walk through Lafayette Square. The trip ended with the president holding up a Bible and posing for the news media outside St. John’s Church, which was damaged by fire during the unrest.Milley’s comments amounted to an extraordinary expression of regret by Trump’s chief military adviser, who said his appearance led to the perception of the military becoming embroiled in politics, which in his view — one shared by Esper — is a threat to democracy.The events have stirred debate within the military and among retired officers. More than 500 West Point graduates from classes spanning six decades signed an open letter reminding the Class of 2020 of its commitment to avoid partisan politics.The letter, published this week on Medium, also alluded to the problems Esper and Milley encountered at the White House after Floyd’s death.Esper, who did not attend the graduation, told cadets in a video address that he expects them “to remain committed to our core values — loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. These principles will guide you in challenging times and in the face of new and emerging threats.”Trump’s appearance had been criticized as a political move that would put the graduates at risk in order to put Trump on a grand stage in a picturesque part of New York, the one remaining military service academy where he had yet to give a graduation address. Historic West Point is located 40 miles (65 kilometers) up the Hudson River from New York City, the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak.  Army officials defended the move, saying the cadets would have had to brave the health risks of traveling back to campus anyway for their final medical checks, equipment and training.  The cadets had been home since spring break in early March, just before the coronavirus was declared a pandemic and Trump announced a national emergency. They returned to campus in late May.  A group called Veterans For Peace announced a protest outside West Point’s main gate Saturday against what it called “Trump’s dangerous narcissistic Photo-Op Stunt at the West Point Graduation.”The recently commissioned second lieutenants wore masks as they marched onto West Point’s parade field, instead of into Mitchie Stadium, the longtime commencement venue. They sat 6 feet (1.8 meters) apart, in keeping with federal guidelines to practice social distancing during the outbreak. They removed the masks when the ceremony began.  Instead of shaking hands with the president, graduates stepped up on a platform before the main dais and saluted. Guests were not allowed; family and friends had to watch online.The graduating class immediately underwent coronavirus testing when they returned to campus in late May. More than 15 class members who tested positive were isolated for two weeks before they were allowed to rejoin their classmates.
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Health systems around the world have been drained by COVID-19 pandemic, leaving few resources for anything else.  As a result, World Health Organization Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday, women may face a “heightened risk of dying from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.”Migrant workers from Bihar state, wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus, wait for buses to catch home bound train in Kochi, southern Kerala state, India, June 12, 2020.India reported its largest surge in new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period Saturday.  The 11,458 new infections surpassed the previous record of 10,956 cases reported Friday.  The surge comes as India has reopened stores, shopping malls, manufacturing plants and places of worship. The country’s two-month lockdown that began in March has been eased, with restrictions remaining largely intact in high-risk areas. India’s record surge of new cases propels the massive South Asian nation to fourth place worldwide, surpassed only by the U.S., Brazil and Russia. China’s National Health Commission reported 11 new cases Saturday.  The agency said five of the new infections were detected in people who had traveled overseas, while the remaining six were locally transmitted in Beijing.  The coronavirus emerged in China late last year. U.S. President Donald Trump is delivering the commencement address at the West Point Military Academy Saturday.  The graduation ceremonies will be held on the academy’s parade grounds instead of the football stadium so the cadets can be seated six feet apart, in keeping with COVID-19 distancing guidlines.  Family and friends will not be allowed to attend. The cadets may remove their masks, if they want, once they are seated.  Trump does not like to wear a mask. A woman wears a protective mask as she walks past a Primark store in Oxford Street, ahead of the reopening of the non-essential businesses on Monday, June 15, as some of the coronavirus lockdown measures are eased, in London, June 12, 2020.Norway said Friday it would maintain travel restrictions for visitors from Sweden. Unlike other European countries, Sweden did not impose lockdown measures, opting only to advise social distancing and banning gatherings of more than 50 people. While new infections are slowing in most of Europe, the European Union’s health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, said Friday that countries should be prepared to reimpose restrictions if they see a rise in infections. A major study forecasts millions sinking into extreme poverty because of the coronavirus pandemic.  A report by the United Nations University says the economic fallout could plunge 395 million people into conditions in which they are forced to live on $1.90 a day or less – the definition of extreme poverty. A separate World Bank report this week put that number between 70 million and 100 million people.  “The outlook for the world’s poorest looks grim unless governments do more and do it quickly and make up the daily loss of income the poor face,” one of the U.N. report’s authors, Andy Sumner, said. “The result is progress on poverty reduction could be set back 20-30 years and making the UN goal of ending poverty look like a pipe dream.”   The U.N. report says South Asia – India in particular – will see the largest number of people sinking into extreme poverty, followed by sub-Saharan Africa.  Experts are appealing to economically powerful nations, such as the United States, to forgive the debts of developing countries that take a strong hit from the pandemic.  
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Emily Brown was stretched thin.As the director of the Rio Grande County Public Health Department in rural Colorado, she was working 12- and 14-hour days, struggling to respond to the pandemic with only five full-time employees for more than 11,000 residents. Case counts were rising.She was already at odds with county commissioners, who were pushing to loosen public health restrictions in late May, against her advice. She had previously clashed with them over data releases and control and had haggled over a variance regarding reopening businesses.But she reasoned that standing up for public health principles was worth it, even if she risked losing the job that allowed her to live close to her hometown and help her parents with their farm.Then came the Facebook post: a photo of her and other health officials with comments about their weight and references to “armed citizens” and “bodies swinging from trees.”The commissioners had asked her to meet with them the next day. She intended to ask them for more support. Instead, she was fired.”They finally were tired of me not going along the line they wanted me to go along,” she said.In the battle against COVID-19, public health workers spread across states, cities and small towns make up an invisible army on the front lines. But that army, which has suffered neglect for decades, is under assault when it’s needed most.FILE – This March 2019 photo provided by the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials shows Emily Brown, director for the Rio Grande County Public Health department in rural Colorado.Officials who usually work behind the scenes managing tasks like immunizations and water quality inspections have found themselves center stage. Elected officials and members of the public who are frustrated with the lockdowns and safety restrictions have at times turned public health workers into politicized punching bags, battering them with countless angry calls and even physical threats.On Thursday, Ohio’s state health director, who had armed protesters come to her house, resigned. The health officer for Orange County, California, quit Monday after weeks of criticism and personal threats from residents and other public officials over an order requiring face coverings in public.As the pressure and scrutiny rise, many more health officials have chosen to leave or have been pushed out of their jobs. A review by Kaiser Health News and The Associated Press finds at least 27 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 13 states.From North Carolina to California, they have left their posts because of a mix of backlash and stressful, nonstop work, all while dealing with chronic staffing and funding shortages.Some health officials have not been up to the job during the biggest health crisis in a century. Others previously had plans to leave or cited their own health issues.But Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said the majority of what she calls an ”alarming” exodus resulted from increasing pressure as states reopen. Three of those 27 were members of her board and well known in the public health community — Rio Grande County’s Brown; Detroit’s senior public health adviser, Dr. Kanzoni Asabigi; and the head of North Carolina’s Gaston County Department of Health and Human Services, Chris Dobbins.Asabigi’s sudden retirement, considering his stature in the public health community, shocked Freeman. She also was upset to hear about the departure of Dobbins, who was chosen as health director of the year for North Carolina in 2017. Asabigi and Dobbins did not reply to requests for comment.FILE – In this Feb. 27, 2020, photo Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton holds up a mask as she gives an update on the state’s COVID-19 preparedness and education efforts.”They just don’t leave like that,” Freeman said.Public health officials are “really getting tired of the ongoing pressures and the blame game,” Freeman said. She warned that more departures could be expected in the coming days and weeks as political pressure trickles down from the federal to the state to the local level.From the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, federal public health officials have complained of being sidelined or politicized. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been marginalized; a government whistleblower said he faced retaliation because he opposed a White House directive to allow widespread access to the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment.In Hawaii, Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard called on the governor to fire his top public health officials, saying she believed they were too slow on testing, contact tracing and travel restrictions. In Wisconsin, several Republican lawmakers have repeatedly demanded that the state’s health services secretary resign, and the state’s conservative Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that she had exceeded her authority by extending a stay-at-home order.With the increased public scrutiny, security details — like those seen on a federal level for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert — have been assigned to top state health officials, including Georgia’s Dr. Kathleen Toomey after she was threatened. Ohio’s Dr. Amy Acton, who also had a security detail assigned after armed protesters showed up at her home, resigned Thursday.In Orange County, in late May, nearly 100 people attended a county supervisors meeting, waiting hours to speak against an order requiring face coverings. One person suggested that the order might make it necessary to invoke Second Amendment rights to bear arms, while another read aloud the home address of the order’s author, the county’s chief health officer, Dr. Nichole Quick, as well as the name of her boyfriend.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 20 MB720p | 45 MB1080p | 83 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioQuick, attending by phone, left the meeting. In a statement, the sheriff’s office later said Quick had expressed concern for her safety following “several threatening statements both in public comment and online.” She was given personal protection by the sheriff.But Monday, after yet another public meeting that included criticism from members of the board of supervisors, Quick resigned. She could not be reached for comment. Earlier, the county’s deputy director of public health services, David Souleles, retired abruptly.An official in another California county also has been given a security detail, said Kat DeBurgh, the executive director of the Health Officers Association of California, declining to name the county or official because the threats have not been made public.Many local health leaders, accustomed to relative anonymity as they work to protect the public’s health, have been shocked by the growing threats, said Theresa Anselmo, the executive director of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials.After polling local health directors across the state at a meeting last month, Anselmo found about 80 percent said they or their personal property had been threatened since the pandemic began. About 80 percent also said they’d encountered threats to pull funding from their department or other forms of political pressure.To Anselmo, the ugly politics and threats are a result of the politicization of the pandemic from the start. So far in Colorado, six top local health officials have retired, resigned or been fired. A handful of state and local health department staff members have left as well, she said.”It’s just appalling that in this country that spends as much as we do on health care that we’re facing these really difficult ethical dilemmas: Do I stay in my job and risk threats, or do I leave because it’s not worth it?” Anselmo asked.In California, senior health officials from seven counties, including Quick and Souleles, have resigned or retired since March 15. Dr. Charity Dean, the second in command at the state Department of Public Health, submitted her resignation June 4. Burnout seems to be contributing to many of those decisions, DeBurgh said.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 18 MB720p | 36 MB1080p | 72 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIn addition to the harm to current officers, DeBurgh is worried about the impact these events will have on recruiting people into public health leadership.”It’s disheartening to see people who disagree with the order go from attacking the order to attacking the officer to questioning their motivation, expertise and patriotism,” said DeBurgh. “That’s not something that should ever happen.”Some of the online abuse has been going on for years, said Bill Snook, a spokesperson for the health department in Kansas City, Missouri. He has seen instances in which people took a health inspector’s name and made a meme out of it, or said a health worker should be strung up or killed. He said opponents of vaccinations, known as anti-vaxxers, have called staffers “baby killers.”The pandemic, though, has brought such behavior to another level.In Ohio, the Delaware General Health District has had two lockdowns since the pandemic began — one after an angry individual came to the health department. Fortunately, the doors were locked, said Dustin Kent, program manager for the department’s residential services unit.Angry calls over contact tracing continue to pour in, Kent said.In Colorado, the Tri-County Health Department, which serves Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties near Denver, has also been getting hundreds of calls and emails from frustrated citizens, deputy director Jennifer Ludwig said.Some have been angry their businesses could not open and blamed the health department for depriving them of their livelihood. Others were furious with neighbors who were not wearing masks outside. It’s a constant wave of “confusion and angst and anxiety and anger,” she said.Then in April and May, rocks were thrown at one of their office’s windows — three separate times. The office was tagged with obscene graffiti. The department also received an email calling members of the department “tyrants,” adding “you’re about to start a hot-shooting … civil war.” Health department workers decamped to another office.Although the police determined there was no imminent threat, Ludwig stressed how proud she was of her staff, who weathered the pressure while working round-the-clock.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 27 MB1080p | 56 MB Embed” />Copy Download Audio”It does wear on you, but at the same time, we know what we need to do to keep moving to keep our community safe,” she said. “Despite the complaints, the grievances, the threats, the vandalism — the staff have really excelled and stood up.”The threats didn’t end there, however: Someone asked on the health department’s Facebook page how many people would like to know the home addresses of the Tri-County Health Department leadership. “You want to make this a war??? No problem,” the poster wrote.Back in Colorado’s Rio Grande County, some members of the community have rallied in support of Brown with public comments and a letter to the editor of a local paper. Meanwhile, COVID-19 case counts have jumped from 14 to 49 as of Wednesday.Brown is grappling with what she should do next: Dive back into another strenuous public health job in a pandemic or take a moment to recoup?When she told her 6-year-old son she no longer had a job, he responded: “Good, now you can spend more time with us.”This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and Kaiser Health News, which is a nonprofit, editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. 
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