| ‘I just don’t understand how any of them can sleep’: Parents of seven-year-old allegedly maced at Seattle protest speak out against police Posted: 15 Jun 2020 08:42 AM PDT  The parents of a seven-year-old child who was allegedly sprayed with mace by police at a peaceful protest in Seattle have spoken out about the traumatising incident.Footage of the protest that showed the boy screaming in pain while protesters attempt to help by using a milk-like substance to wash the child's eyes went viral online at the beginning of June.
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| U.S. presidential candidate Biden scores best fundraising month ever in May Posted: 15 Jun 2020 10:44 AM PDT  Biden, who raised significantly more than April's $60.5 million, has built a lead over Republican President Donald Trump in national opinion polls, amid the twin crises of the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest over police brutality in many U.S. cities. The campaign said it had tripled its online donors since February and recorded an average online donation of $30 in May. But Trump still holds a massive cash advantage, after three years of fundraising efforts. On Monday night, one of those former rivals, Senator Elizabeth Warren, helped Biden raise $6 million from 620 donors for an online fundraiser featuring both politicians - the most for any Biden event thus far.
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| Two experts say use of deadly force against Rayshard Brooks unwarranted Posted: 14 Jun 2020 08:14 PM PDT  But a police union president outside Atlanta called it "legitimate."
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| Philippine American journalist Maria Ressa convicted in cybercrime case Posted: 14 Jun 2020 08:04 PM PDT  Ressa's conviction was seen as a severe blow to press freedom in the Philippines under strongman President Rodrigo Duterte.
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| China's enormous response to a localized coronavirus outbreak at a market shows it's taking COVID-19 far more seriously than the rest of the world Posted: 15 Jun 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Brazil, Mexico, and many US states are reopening despite reporting record new daily cases of the coronavirus.
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| At least 7 Minneapolis cops have quit since George Floyd's death Posted: 15 Jun 2020 12:42 PM PDT  Officials didn't specify if the departures are specifically due to Floyd's death, but the decisions to leave were made recently.
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| House GOP Report Finds WHO ‘Complicit’ in Beijing’s COVID Coverup, Calls for Director Tedros’s Ouster Posted: 15 Jun 2020 10:12 AM PDT  China violated the International Health Regulations (IHR) of the World Health Organization in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee allege in a new report on the origins of the pandemic.The interim 50-page report, a copy of which was obtained by National Review, also raises new questions about the complicit role the WHO played in allowing the Chinese Communist Party to delay crucial information about the novel virus. It recommends that WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus be removed from his position for his "full-throated defense of the CCP's response and embrace of their revisionist history," and calls for an international investigation into the CCP's failure to slow the spread of the disease."It is highly likely the ongoing pandemic could have been prevented," it states. "As such, it is incumbent upon the United States and likeminded WHO Member States to ensure the accountability and reforms necessary to prevent the CCP's malfeasance from giving rise to a third pandemic during the 21st century."One study has found that China could have prevented 95 percent of coronavirus infections if it had immediately implemented travel restrictions, containment measures, and social distancing after Wuhan laboratories sequenced the novel virus and discovered its resemblance to SARS by December 27. Instead, health officials ordered the labs to hand over or destroy the samples.The House Foreign Affairs Minority, led by Representative Michael McCaul (R., Texas) — leader of the China Task Force — claims that, despite reports to the contrary, the CCP never told the WHO of the outbreak, in direct violation of Article 6 of the IHR, which requires a member country to inform the WHO of all events occurring within their borders that may constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The argument that China violated the IHR was first raised by Representative Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of McCaul's China Task Force who asked the State Department and Department of Justice in April to bring a case to the United Nations International Court of Justice.Based on the fact that the initial outbreak in Wuhan was "caused by an unknown agent and from an unknown source," Republicans argue that the WHO's guidance criteria for reporting potential incidents was not met. A timeline of the virus's early days shows that Wuhan doctors noticed a "cluster of pneumonia cases with an unknown cause" on December 21."In sum, as early as mid-December, and no later than December 27th, the CCP had enough information to assess it was legally obligated to inform the WHO that the outbreak in Wuhan was an event 'that may constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern,'" the report argues. "Had the CCP not been committed to covering up the outbreak, it would have answered YES to all four of the criteria and notified the WHO. The CCP failed to do so."The report points to comments made by Dr. Michael Ryan, the Executive Director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, who said in an April press conference that the organization learned of the new disease from "our epidemic intelligence from open-source platform partners PRO-MED" — not the CCP — on December 31. It also points to the WHO's COVID-19 Technical Lead, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, who said on April 13 that "right from the start, from the first notification we received on the 31st of December" she believed "that of course there may be human-to-human transmission.""It is hard to reconcile the WHO's own Technical Lead saying that on December 31st she knew that 'of course' human-to-human transmission could be occurring with the WHO's January 13th statement that 'there has been no suggestion of human-to-human transmission,'" the report states. "Either the WHO willfully ignored their experts, or they deferred to CCP pressure."
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| 'Disinfecting non-stop' as Italy faces two new virus outbreaks Posted: 14 Jun 2020 09:20 AM PDT  Yellow police tape -- a familiar sight across Italy since the coronavirus began sweeping the country in March -- reappeared at the weekend outside a Rome squat where around 15 new cases have emerged. Health workers insist the outbreak among squatters including a Peruvian family is under control, at a time when Italy is cautiously relaxing measures to contain the disease that has claimed more than 34,000 lives. A second outbreak was far bigger and occurred at a hospital on the western edge of Rome, with 109 cases and five deaths.
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| Woman apologises for telling man he was illegally defacing his own home with ‘Black Lives Matter’ slogan Posted: 15 Jun 2020 03:16 AM PDT  A San Francisco woman who questioned a man writing "Black Lives Matter" on his own home has apologised for assuming he did not live there and calling the police on him."I want to apologise directly to Mr Juanillo," Ms Alexander said in a statement. "There are not enough words to describe how truly sorry I am for being disrespectful to him last Tuesday when I made the decision to question him about what he was doing in front of his home. I should have minded my own business."
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| U.S. fighter jet crashes into North Sea during training exercise Posted: 15 Jun 2020 06:17 AM PDT  A U.S. fighter jet has crashed into the North Sea on the east coast of England while on a routine training mission.
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| U.S. General Throws Mike Pompeo’s Iran Policy Under the Bus Posted: 15 Jun 2020 09:59 AM PDT  "There's actually no military component of what's known as the maximum pressure campaign."
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| Record spikes in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations sweep parts of U.S. Posted: 14 Jun 2020 07:46 AM PDT  Alabama reported a record number of new cases for the fourth day in a row on Sunday. Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma and South Carolina all had record numbers of new cases in the past three days, according to a Reuters tally.
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| Australia voices concern over man sentenced to die in China Posted: 15 Jun 2020 02:04 AM PDT  Australia's prime minister said Monday that his government is "very sad and concerned" by China's sentencing of an Australian man to death for drug trafficking, and that he had repeatedly raised with China the case of the 56-year-old former actor and motivational speaker. Karm Gilespie was arrested in 2013 at Baiyun Airport in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on charges of attempting to board an international flight with more than 7.5 kilograms (16.5 pounds) of methamphetamine in his check-in luggage. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Foreign Minister Marise Payne and other Australian officials had raised his case with their Chinese counterparts on a number of occasions.
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| Reconsider reparations. We need them morally and economically, and we can afford them. Posted: 14 Jun 2020 05:38 AM PDT  Money alone can't right the monumental wrong of slavery. But reparations are justifiable and affordable, and they'd give the economy a needed jolt.
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| First Covid-19 lawsuit filed against Chinese government in latest sign of bubbling unrest Posted: 14 Jun 2020 08:46 AM PDT  When Zhang Hai checked his father into a hospital in Wuhan mid-January, he had no idea a novel coronavirus was sweeping through the city. Chinese authorities had yet to sound the alarm, despite mounting evidence the virus was fatal and transmitting quickly – at least two were dead, and infections had spread abroad. But police pressured doctors to stay silent, and hospitals wouldn't allow extra protective gear, even as medical staff fell ill. So Mr Zhang never imagined his father, a 76-year-old veteran, would be infected with Covid-19 at the hospital while having a thigh fracture repaired, and die within a week. "If the government didn't cover up the disease in the early stages, my father wouldn't have died," Mr Zhang, 50, told the Telegraph. "I am furious... so many people lost their lives during this pandemic. What they did amounts to murder." On Wednesday, Mr Zhang filed the first lawsuit in China against the government that seeks restitution for its cover-up of the pandemic, according to lawyers and documents reviewed by the Telegraph.
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| Indian embassy staff arrested over 'hit-and-run' in Islamabad Posted: 15 Jun 2020 11:25 AM PDT  Reports say a pedestrian was critically injured and the two High Commission employees tried to flee.
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| Earth's Core: We Now Have An Idea of What Is Down There Posted: 14 Jun 2020 10:00 PM PDT  Structures made of hot, dense materials that wrap around our planet's core are much more widespread than previous research suggests.
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| A picture and its story: Black personal trainer carries suspected far-right protester to safety Posted: 15 Jun 2020 06:27 AM PDT  Protests have erupted across British cities and around the world after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
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| Coronavirus Cases, Hospitalizations Spike in States across U.S. Posted: 15 Jun 2020 05:12 AM PDT  Several states across the country saw record spikes in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations as many continue to reopen their economies.Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, and South Carolina all saw record highs of coronavirus cases last week, while Alabama saw its fourth straight day of record cases on Sunday. Cases have also been on the rise in Texas and Louisiana.More than 25,000 new cases were reported across the country on Saturday. State health officials have partly attributed the spikes to the Memorial Day gatherings that took place at the end of last month. The rising number of positive cases of the virus is affected by the increased availability of testing, but many states have also seen increased hospitalizations, a measure not influenced by increased testing.Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah all had record hospitalizations due to the coronavirus as of Saturday.President Trump plans to hold his first campaign rally in months in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday, a plan that has sparked concern among health officials. Tulsa has seen the number of coronavirus cases on the rise in recent days."I think it's an honor for Tulsa to have a sitting president want to come and visit our community, but not during a pandemic," Dr. Bruce Dart, the Tulsa City-County Health Department's director, told Tulsa World. "I'm concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event, and I'm also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well."Oregon and Utah are pausing their reopening processes as coronavirus cases spike within their borders, their governors announced Thursday.
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| Thai PM warns against criticism of the monarchy Posted: 15 Jun 2020 04:27 AM PDT  Thailand's prime minister on Monday warned political activists not to criticize the monarchy, saying doing so could damage their job prospects even though the king had asked him not to make prosecutions under a law protecting the royal family. Insulting the monarchy is a crime under Article 112 of Thailand's criminal code, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The suspected kidnapping of a Thai democracy activist in Cambodia this month ignited small protests by university students, with some questioning in online comments the "lese majeste" law.
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| Muslims join to demand police reforms, back black-led groups Posted: 15 Jun 2020 06:00 AM PDT  In the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody, dozens of American Muslim organizations have come together to call for reform to policing practices, and to support black-led organizations. "The victimization of unarmed Black Muslims has a long and troubling history," said a coalition statement signed by more than 90 civil rights, advocacy, community and faith organizations. "As American Muslims, we will draw on our diversity, our strength, and our resilience to demand these reforms because Black lives matter."
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| Trudeau says in talks to extend Canada-US border closure Posted: 15 Jun 2020 11:01 AM PDT  Ottawa and Washington are in talks to extend the closure of the Canada-US border, as concerns persist over the spread of the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday. "It is clear that there is broad consensus across the provinces that we need to continue to keep our current border measures in place," Trudeau said after consulting with provincial leaders. The world's longest international frontier -- at 8,900 kilometres (5,500 miles) -- was closed to all non-essential travellers on both sides on March 21 in response to the coronavirus crisis.
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| Who is Paul Whelan, the ex-US Marine jailed in Russia? Posted: 15 Jun 2020 02:07 AM PDT  The former US Marine has been sentenced to 16 years of hard labour in Russia on suspicion of spying.
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| Japan suspends Aegis Ashore deployment, pointing to cost and technical issues Posted: 15 Jun 2020 06:52 AM PDT  The decision drastically alters the country's plans for defending itself against ballistic missiles.
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| America’s Social Unrest Is About to Get Much Worse, Congress Fears Posted: 15 Jun 2020 01:30 AM PDT  With uncharacteristic speed, Congress is responding to a historic moment on issues of race in America by crafting legislation to reform police forces—proposals aimed at changing the culture and conditions that have led to the repeated killings of unarmed black Americans at the hands of police.But increasingly, lawmakers are concerned that Capitol Hill's response to protesters' demands for racial justice will be severely limited if it doesn't include measures to address another powerful undercurrent of the nationwide protests: pervasive economic inequality that's left black communities behind.That long standing inequality has been put into an even starker light by the circumstances of George Floyd's death—his killer, Derek Chauvin, stopped him over an allegedly fake $20 bill—and by the coronavirus outbreak, which has put low-wage workers of color on the front lines of the pandemic, ravaged minority-owned businesses, and sparked massive levels of unemployment in their communities. Many of the economic relief measures that Congress approved in response to the outbreak—expanded unemployment insurance, a one-time economic stimulus, moratorium on rent payments in public housing—have lapsed or are set to lapse by the end of July. Failing to address those, said Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), could be a powerful factor that sustains and intensifies protests around the country, as job opportunities stagnate and families face eviction from housing. Beyer, chairman of Congress' Joint Economic Committee, said policymakers have to understand that the protests ignited in an environment where "people are suffering greatly from the recession, the coronavirus, the general systemic sense that things are far from fair in the U.S.""If you look at coronavirus, all the strife in our streets right now over police brutality, the impact of the recession," continued Beyer, "all are connected to the systemic racism that's expressed in our economy."'All of a Sudden It Blows Up': Arkansas' COVID Problem Is Just Getting StartedThe dual push to address both social and economic racial inequality presents Congress with a historic opportunity to enact sweeping legislative reform. But while Republicans, including Trump himself, seem inclined to tackle problems with policing, the appetite for action on economic measures doesn't seem widespread at the moment. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been slow to embrace even the notion that additional COVID-19 relief is necessary; and he's been backed by close advisers to the president. For those concerned about lingering social discord, that's proved worrisome. In a June 2 statement before the Senate Banking Committee, on which he is the top Democrat, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sought to connect the issues gripping the country: "Our job is to show victims of systemic racism at the hands of their own government that the same government will protect them from this pandemic—that we hear them, that we see them, that we are fighting for them," said Brown. "And that their lives matter."Asked in an interview if a failure to further extend economic relief could impact protests, Brown said he didn't want to predict anything. "What I will predict is, if we don't move until July, the economic damage is going to broaden and deepen, and the hole to climb out of will be much harder to ascend," he told The Daily Beast. "Everything that's happening now makes it more urgent."Leading Democrats, like former presidential candidate and Obama Cabinet member Julián Castro, say all of these things are "inseparable.""So much of the frustration that people feel, I think, stems not only from the loss of life we've seen… This is a moment where those two frustrations have met," Castro told The Daily Beast. "There may be more frustration, there may be more people that get out there," if lawmakers don't consider broader economic relief. "The question is, how does that turn into policy changes that make a difference for people?"Bernie Sanders Goes Off on 'Grotesque' Republicans Over Coronavirus Stimulus BillHouse Democrats have already approved legislation that they believe provides at least part of the answer. That bill, dubbed the Heroes Act, was conceived as a successor to the $2.2 trillion CARES Act and prior COVID-19 relief bills, which provided each American with a one-time $1,200 stimulus check and enacted temporary relief measures like a $600 per-month boost to unemployment benefits, a moratorium on evictions in public housing, expansions in food stamps, and other initiatives designed to help the poorest Americans manage the coronavirus outbreak and its effect on the economy. The $3 trillion Heroes Act includes extensions of unemployment benefits from the end of July to January 2021, a more generous stimulus check for every household, $100 billion in rent assistance and some student loan forgiveness.But that legislation was sold more as a statement of Democratic priorities on a future round of COVID relief and is dead on arrival in the GOP-controlled Senate. Some Republicans, like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), have pushed for more forceful government intervention to support workers during the pandemic, seeing a clear connection between economic and social strife currently gripping the country. "I don't think we can ignore the fact that this civil unrest is happening against the backdrop of 20 percent unemployment," Hawley said in an interview, three days before the latest unemployment report was released. "You do have people who are peaceably assembling and who are saying that there needs to be some fundamental change. Part of that is, we have got to create more opportunities for meaningful work in our urban centers."Some Republicans and White House advisers have pointed to the newest employment figures as proof that Congress' next steps for COVID-19 relief should be minimal, if taken at all. The government's report for May indicated that unemployment rates fell to 13.3 percent—an extraordinarily high number, but less than the historically high, near-Great Depression level numbers that many economists had expected. That report, said White House economic adviser Stephen Moore, "takes a lot of the wind out of the sails of any phase four. We don't need it now."But the 2.5 million jobs gained were spread unevenly across the economy. And the unemployment rate among black Americans actually increased over the month, now sitting at 16.8 percent. Experts caution that Congress will need to take action to address persistent unemployment in communities of color due to the economic challenges they face. Unemployment rates for blacks approaching 17 percent, said Donna Pavetti, an analyst at the left-leaning Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, are "nothing to be celebrating about.""People are struggling," she said. "You could have this confluence of high rates of unemployment, things shifted to give people less room to breathe, all happening simultaneously… Many of those discussions that weren't framed around race before but are about race differences, that may become much more vivid and explicit in conversations going forward."That has some lawmakers, like Brown, hopeful that the confluence of a pandemic and racial strife could present an opportunity to address long standing systemic inequalities in the economy. "This is the great revealer, coronavirus," said Brown. "The only thing good to come out of the pandemic is that America recognizes this more and maybe, maybe, maybe we will finally have the political will to do something."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Atlanta police chief resigns following fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks Posted: 13 Jun 2020 08:21 PM PDT  Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the resignation of Police Chief Erika Shields after Rayshard Brooks was killed by an Atlanta officer in a struggle following a field sobriety test.
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| Couple apologizes after confronting man over 'Black Lives Matter' chalk in front of his home Posted: 15 Jun 2020 05:53 PM PDT  Lisa Alexander, founder and CEO of LaFace Skincare, apologized and her husband was fired after questioning a neighbor's Black Lives Matter chalk.
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| Trump news – live: President responds to accusations in John Bolton's new book as he dismisses rise in US coronavirus cases Posted: 15 Jun 2020 12:00 PM PDT  Donald Trump is complaining he is being "Covid Shamed" after facing pressure to cancel his upcoming election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, since the city's health director, Dr Bruce Dart, expressed anxiety over the spread of coronavirus and the president's own adviser, Larry Kudlow, admitted that attendees would be well advised to wear a face mask."Covid is here in Tulsa, it is transmitting very efficiently," Dr Dart said over the weekend. "I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn't as large a concern as it is today."
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| Russia accuses scientist of treason for passing secrets to China: lawyer Posted: 15 Jun 2020 01:53 AM PDT |
| Argentine bishop resumes work as Vatican abuse probe wraps Posted: 15 Jun 2020 07:52 AM PDT  An Argentine bishop close to Pope Francis has gone back to work at the Holy See's financial administration office while under investigation in his native Argentina and at the Vatican for alleged sexual abuse. The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, confirmed Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta had resumed work at the APSA patrimony office but said it in no way interferes with the investigations. The developments came as Francis on Monday named a new No. 2 at the office, an Italian layman and auditor, Fabio Gasperini.
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| Mars: Green glow detected on the Red Planet Posted: 15 Jun 2020 11:50 AM PDT  A joint European-Russian satellite observes a light in Mars' atmosphere that's generated by oxygen.
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| I was a police chief stopped by my own officer. After Floyd, we need change at all levels. Posted: 15 Jun 2020 11:10 AM PDT  At 14, the more I screamed, the more the police beat me. That day, I promised myself I would become a Detroit police officer and change the force.
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| Israel army says targets Hamas infrastructure after rocket fire Posted: 15 Jun 2020 01:17 PM PDT  Israel retaliated by air and tank fire Monday against Hamas positions after rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, the army said. The tensions came after Gaza rulers Hamas called for unity among Palestinians and "resistance" against Israeli plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
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| What We Actually Know About Child Abuse and the COVID-19 Pandemic Posted: 15 Jun 2020 01:37 AM PDT  This story was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletter here.As the coronavirus pandemic continues to overtake America, dozens of headlines are suggesting that social distancing and lockdowns could be causing a surge in child abuse.Here's the theory: Americans are losing their jobs at a rate unseen since the Great Depression, intensifying the strains on low-income families at risk of abusing or neglecting their children. During months of closed schools and shelter-in-place orders, such parents have also been tasked with full-time child care, a recipe for conflict in the home. Meanwhile, investigators and reporters of child maltreatment, such as teachers, are trying to monitor kids' safety over Zoom, which is hardly adequate if their abuser is hovering just off-screen.This all makes intuitive sense. And there is frightening reporting that at some hospitals, there have been more cases than usual of the most severe types of child abuse—including head injuries—in recent months, causing profound concern.For most Americans, it is nothing short of horrific to think of even a single child being so injured by his or her own parents or family members as to require emergency medical treatment. Why Are There So Many Empty Beds in Domestic Violence Shelters?Yet family advocates, child welfare experts and state agency officials told The Marshall Project in interviews that any assumption of a significant spike in abuse may be premature—or overblown. And they are concerned, they say, that amid a national discussion about the over-policing of Black and Brown people, it is mostly poor families of color who will be increasingly policed and stigmatized as a result of such hypothesizing. "We have a child welfare system that is particularly, extremely sensitive to the media, so we should be very sure of narratives before we put them out there," said Emma Ketteringham, managing director of the family defense practice at the Bronx Defenders in New York City, an organization that provides free legal services for low-income people. Historically, sensationalized rhetoric about child abuse has led to more children being removed from their parents—"and it is a really, really big deal to separate a child from his or her family," Ketteringham said.It's an even bigger deal these days. Ongoing social distancing rules mean that once a family is pulled apart, they will have less opportunity for in-person visitation, and with many courts still closed, less ability to fight to get their child back.Experts say it could be months before we have solid statistics on these trends, but for now, here is what we do and do not know about child abuse amid the COVID-19 pandemic.There is no statistical evidence of a spike in child abuse. But that could just be because teachers and others haven't been able to monitor kids.Many journalists and child advocates have noted that there may be a lack of data showing the purported increase in child abuse because, due to school closures and stay-at-home orders, there have been fewer "eyes on children" to report what is happening to kids. Teachers and educators, for instance, who like nurses and social workers are mandated by law to report any signs of child maltreatment, normally make the most calls to child abuse hotlines, according to federal child maltreatment data.To be sure, while stuck at home, young people have clearly been less able to tell a teacher, pediatrician, neighbor or other trusted adult what they are experiencing. But before the pandemic, reports by teachers and school staff were not substantiated 90 percent of the time, according to federal data—raising questions about whether losing these reports is actually a major problem.Hotline calls made by teachers, who even in normal times can only guess at what is going on in their students' homes, just do not turn out to be validated very often, according to data from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect.One 2017 study in the American Journal of Public Health on the system of mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse, including by teachers, found that it has no effect on detecting the physical abuse of children.Elizabeth Bartholet, faculty director of the child advocacy program at Harvard Law School, says that such findings may be misleading—they may simply reflect the inability or unwillingness of under-resourced child protection agencies to actually respond to, investigate, and substantiate the allegations that come in.Still, many child welfare experts and officials told The Marshall Project that losing hotline reports amid the pandemic is not the catastrophic problem it has been made out to be in news reports—because they do not identify and prevent most child abuse anyway. In other words, we don't catch the majority of child abuse in America even in normal circumstances.Multiple studies of child maltreatment indicate that the majority of child abuse in this country is not actually identified and addressed. And roughly 90 percent of children who are killed as a result of abuse or neglect did not have cases with a child protective services agency, according to federal data.Experts give conflicting answers as to why this is. "That's a gaping hole in our knowledge," said Andy Barclay, statistical expert at the child welfare research organization Fostering Court Improvement.Possible reasons include the obvious: child abuse typically happens in private, behind closed doors. Some children's rights advocates reiterate that some child maltreatment also gets missed because child welfare agencies too often opt to triage or not to investigate allegations, both because of a lack of funding and caseworkers and also because of the ideological priority that many place "on keeping children, at some or great risk, with their families," said Bartholet of Harvard Law School.Others say the excess of hotline calls may itself be the issue."There may be a 'needle in a haystack' problem," said Josh Gupta-Kagan, an expert on child welfare at the University of South Carolina School of Law. "The more reports (especially for low-level stuff) there are, the harder it is for [Child Protective Services] to identify and respond appropriately to the serious stuff, and that creates a negative feedback loop" in which people who actually know about severe child abuse "see calling CPS as likely to do nothing." Now, with lower caseloads, child welfare workers may be able to focus on actual abuse, because the reports coming in are more likely to be accurate.Pre-coronavirus, state child protection agencies spent their time and taxpayer funds investigating "hunches, vague suspicions, better-safe-than-sorry beliefs" and false reports often having to do with families simply being poor, wrote Jane M. Spinak, an expert on family law at Columbia Law School, in an essay in a new e-book published by the university. Not getting as many of those calls, she wrote, "will give investigators more time to scrutinize when children are actually in danger."In Florida, for example, child abuse reports were down in the spring but verifications of abuse reports jumped by more than 10 percent, according to state data.But in other states where there isn't complete data yet, this too is largely speculation at this point.Meanwhile, poor parents of color are being monitored and investigated less.According to interviews with nearly a dozen parents as well as child welfare experts and attorneys, low-income mothers and fathers have for these past few months no longer been subjected to as many child welfare calls stemming from their poverty—nor to the invasive, scary visits from government agents that follow.Sarah Harris is a subway train conductor in New York City—she says she usually works midnights—as well as a single mother of two boys, ages 9 and 3. In the past, she says, teachers have called child-services on her for not providing her older son with the proper ADHD medicine. She also worried that catching up on sleep during the day would subject her to calls about not supervising her kids.Harris says that like many parents, she is feeling the stresses of coronavirus. She works all night then has to help home-school her children. She can't de-stress by taking the kids to the wax museum or by going out to have a cocktail.But for once she does not feel like she is getting reported all the time for her parenting mistakes. "Poor people are usually constantly inspected by all these agencies," she said. "Now there is kind of a peacefulness."Yet the speculation about increasing child abuse, advocates worry, is already creating new kinds of surveillance of these vulnerable families. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva in April announced that due to the drop in child abuse reports, police officers there would begin doing regular door-knocks at what he called at-risk homes. (The city's child protection agency then nixed this plan on the grounds that it would be harmful, not helpful, to marginalized families.) In dozens of states, public service ads on TV and Facebook have been encouraging untrained members of the public to look for signs of abuse among struggling families—which could be distorted by their class and race biases, parent advocates say. It's not clear yet whether reports of this sort are occurring.Trump Told Rallies May Give Fans COVID But He's Still Demanding Jam-Packed CrowdsAnd the Computing Technology Industry Association, the international trade-association for tech companies and consultants, is recommending data tools to child protection officials—saying that unemployment rates and frequency of 311 calls, for instance, could be used to identify neighborhoods where child abuse is likely spiking."They're basically saying, 'Let's go find the poor people,'" Lexie Gruber, a data expert and management consultant at Accenture, said of the technology association's proposal to find unemployed families. Gruber is also a child welfare expert who has testified on Capitol Hill, including about her own experience as a former foster youth.In an emailed statement, the authors of the association's recommendation to track unemployment rates and other poverty metrics said they wholeheartedly agree that data must be analyzed and acted upon "with a lens toward equity and an awareness of the disproportionality that is present in child welfare." Some children's rights activists counter that when the physical safety of children is on the line, what would actually be discriminatory would be to not investigate what's happening to them just because they are poor or Black or Brown.We do know that when the country is in economic distress, child neglect increases.Lower income clearly means less ability to provide children with food, shelter, clothing, and healthy living conditions. But, in an echo of recent calls to re-imagine law enforcement, parent advocates say the system should respond by offering help, including economic help, not by policing families and potentially separating them. If a kid is not getting enough food during the pandemic, they say, the best thing is to call a food bank, not to call child protective services."If poverty itself is defined as neglect (which it often is) and the pandemic pushes more families into poverty (which it has) then in that sense yes, there will be a 'spike' in so-called 'child neglect' when the schools reopen and children are seen to have less in the way of food and clothing," Richard Wexler, executive director of the advocacy group National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, wrote in an email. "The solution to this, of course, is money—not for the child welfare establishment, but for at-risk families."Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has offered a potential example of this approach, providing $200 a month to families likely to lose their children to foster care.Short of truly addressing poverty, experts and advocates say, another solution could be to have child protection services respond only to severe abuse cases while creating an entirely separate, less punitive system for calls that come in about forms of neglect arising from poverty, such as hunger and homelessness. These cases would be handled by social workers who would take a public-health approach to helping struggling parents."The child welfare system was never either a humane response to child poverty or effective at identifying and preventing serious child abuse," said the Bronx Defenders' Ketteringham. Maybe post-pandemic, she said, it can come closer to being both.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| Do the Moral Arguments About the Atomic Bombings Hinge Around This One Point? Posted: 14 Jun 2020 03:00 PM PDT  Did Washington do it on purpose and delay accepting Tokyo's surrender?
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| The Melania you don't know Posted: 14 Jun 2020 06:08 AM PDT  In "The Art of Her Deal," Washington Post correspondent Mary Jordan explores the life of the first lady and her surprising role as one of the most influential voices in the Trump White House
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| Pilot of US Air Force jet that crashed in North Sea is dead Posted: 15 Jun 2020 03:11 AM PDT 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.
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| Chinese consulates deploying 'mask diplomacy' in U.S. communities Posted: 15 Jun 2020 02:00 AM PDT  With China on the defensive over the coronavirus pandemic, its diplomatic missions in the United States are on a charm offensive.
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| New York attorney general called to probe the 2008 firing of a Black Buffalo police officer who jumped on a white colleague's back to stop him from using a chokehold Posted: 14 Jun 2020 12:51 PM PDT  The officer who tried to use the chokehold was sentenced to four months in prison a decade later for use of excessive force against four Black teens.
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| Sri Lanka holds coronavirus-proof test vote ahead of election Posted: 14 Jun 2020 09:32 AM PDT  Voters wear face masks and observe social distancing in queues to prepare for a general election.
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| Billionaire Shari Redstone’s Son, 35, Deported From Israel for Flouting Quarantine to See Teen Lover Posted: 15 Jun 2020 04:24 AM PDT  You know how it is. Your mom's the billionaire boss of the ViacomCBS media empire, having emerged victorious from a messy, Succession-style family feud.You've spent your life criss-crossing the globe on airplanes. You're 35, and you're dating an 18-year old Israeli model. You don't think the normal rules apply to you. Perhaps it is not entirely surprising then that Brandon Korff, son of Shari Redstone and grandson of Sumner Redstone, thought he could get away with flouting Israel's tedious quarantine regulations.His pressing need to break the health and safety guidelines amid a deadly global pandemic? Hooking up with his beautiful young girlfriend, Yael Shelbia, an 18-year-old Instagram star who has appeared in campaigns for Kim Kardashian's KKW Beauty makeup line.No doubt Korff wasn't expecting to be caught, and, having been caught, it seems unlikely that the scion of one of America's most prominent billionaire families would have ever imagined he would be thrown out of the country in disgrace.But that is exactly the fate that befell Korff, who was unceremoniously ejected from Israel on Sunday night after he violated the terms of an "exceptional permit," which allowed him into the country to visit and stay with his brother, who is serving with the Israeli army.Korff promptly abandoned his brother's company in favor of the more compelling charms of his girlfriend.A statement from the Israeli government said Korff "violated the isolation orders from the moment he entered the country and met his Israeli partner," and "stayed with her in the same apartment."It said Korff, whose mother is the chairwoman of ViacomCBS, was ordered to leave the country immediately.The Times of Israel said the official statement did not identify Korff's partner, but Korff is known to be dating Shelbia, a part-time model who is also doing compulsory military service.Israel banned entry to non-citizens and non-residents in March in an effort to clamp down on the spread of the coronavirus. Israel requires all individuals entering the country to remain in quarantine for two weeks following their arrival.Unluckily, perhaps, for Korff, the country's leaders had every reason to come down hard on him; last week, Israel's health ministry came under fire after an Israeli billionaire businessman, Teddy Sagi, was granted an exemption from the isolation orders only to be spotted attending a party with Israeli celebrities.Minister of Health Yuli Edelstein issued a statement late last week saying: "No one is above the guidances, not even celebrities or the one percent. No one! The virus does not differentiate between celebrities and ordinary people."And nor, it seems, does the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Robot vs. Robot War? Now China Has Semi-Autonomous Fighting Ground Robots Posted: 15 Jun 2020 08:15 AM PDT  The Chinese Army is preparing to deploy small, new, tracked war-robots armed with machine guns, night vision, missile loaders and camera sensors to conduct attacks while leaving manned systems at safer stand-off distances.
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| Increase in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations in states explained Posted: 14 Jun 2020 04:49 AM PDT  Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel breaks down the latest numbers and what Americans can do to keep themselves safe.
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