AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
Historical figures reassessed around globe after Floyd death
The rapidly unfolding movement to pull down Confederate monuments around the U.S. in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police has extended to statues of slave traders, imperialists, conquerors and explorers around the world, including Christopher Columbus, Cecil Rhodes and Belgium’s King Leopold II.
Protests and, in some cases, acts of vandalism have taken place in such cities as Boston; New York; Paris; Brussels; and Oxford, England, in an intense re-examination of racial injustices over the centuries. Scholars are divided over whether the campaign amounts to erasing history or updating it.
New Zealand's fourth-largest city removed a bronze statue of the British naval officer Capt. John Hamilton, the city's namesake, on Friday, a day after a Maori tribe asked for the statue be taken down and one Maori elder threatened to tear it down himself. The city of Hamilton said it was clear the statue of the man accused of killing indigenous Maori people in the 1860s would be vandalized. The city has no plans to change its name.
At the University of Oxford, protesters have stepped up their longtime push to remove a statue of Rhodes, the Victorian imperialist who served as prime minister of the Cape Colony in southern Africa. He made a fortune from gold and diamonds on the backs of miners who labored in brutal conditions.
Oxford’s vice chancellor Louise Richardson, in an interview with the BBC, balked at the idea.
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Indian capital's crematoriums overwhelmed with virus dead
NEW DELHI (AP) — When Raj Singh’s 70-year-old mother died from the coronavirus in India's capital, he took comfort in the prospect of a proper cremation, the funeral rite that Hindus believe releases the soul from the cycle of rebirth.
But instead of chanting sacred Vedic hymns and sprinkling holy water from the Ganges River, all Singh could do was place his mother's wrapped corpse on a wooden pyre and along with a handful of relatives watch it burn.
“I never thought I would watch my mother go like this,” he said.
Like elsewhere in the world, the novel coronavirus has made honoring the dead in New Delhi a hurried affair, largely devoid of the rituals that give it meaning for mourners. Cemeteries and crematoriums are overwhelmed, so there isn’t much time for ceremony, and even if there were, the government limits the number of people allowed at funerals and those in attendance must maintain distance and wear masks.
“The whole grieving process has been interrupted,” said Pappu, who goes by only one name and lights the funeral pyres at Nigambodh Ghat, New Delhi’s biggest crematorium.
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Researchers ask if survivor plasma could prevent coronavirus
Survivors of COVID-19 are donating their blood plasma in droves in hopes it helps other patients recover from the coronavirus. And while the jury’s still out, now scientists are testing if the donations might also prevent infection in the first place.
Thousands of coronavirus patients in hospitals around the world have been treated with so-called convalescent plasma — including more than 20,000 in the U.S. — with little solid evidence so far that it makes a difference. One recent study from China was unclear while another from New York offered a hint of benefit.
“We have glimmers of hope,” said Dr. Shmuel Shoham of Johns Hopkins University.
With more rigorous testing of plasma treatment underway, Shoham is launching a nationwide study asking the next logical question: Could giving survivors plasma right after a high-risk exposure to the virus stave off illness?
To tell, researchers at Hopkins and 15 other sites will recruit health workers, spouses of the sick and residents of nursing homes where someone just fell ill and “they’re trying to nip it in the bud,” Shoham said.
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Hong Kong's increasing divide portends a tumultuous future
BEIJING (AP) — Protesters in Hong Kong got its government to withdraw extradition legislation last year, but now they’re getting a more dreaded national security law. And the message from Beijing is: Protest is futile.
One year ago Friday, protesters took over streets and blocked the legislature, preventing lawmakers from starting debate on the extradition bill. The youthful crowd clashed with police, who deployed tear gas and pepper spray in a portent of the months of protest that lay ahead.
Thousand of rounds of tear gas later, the movement has been quieted — in part by the coronavirus — but the anger has only grown. In its wake, the polarization has deepened between the city's disenchanted youth and its government. And the resolve of the central government in Beijing to crack down on dissent, as evidenced by the coming national security law for the territory, has hardened.
“Emotions are running high because these young protesters see no future,” said Willy Lam, a commentator and adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “There are no communication channels between the protesters and either the (Hong Kong) government or Beijing. And the protesters see no future for themselves, because they know they can’t change the mind of (Chinese President) Xi Jinping."
The divide signals an uneasy and possibly tumultuous future for the semi-autonomous territory, which is part of China yet has its own laws and greater freedoms than the mainland under a “one-country, two systems” framework that is supposed to guarantee it a high level of autonomy until 2047.
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Lebanese government meets after night of raging protests
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's prime minister held an emergency Cabinet meeting Friday after a night of raging protests that saw demonstrators shut down roads across the country with burning tires in renewed protests spurred by a plunging national currency.
Scuffles with security forces broke out in several locations Thursday night as people spontaneously took to the streets after the pound tumbled to a new low against the dollar. Protesters in central Beirut pelted police and soldiers with rocks and smashed some storefronts, drawing volleys of tear gas.
Some protesters set fire to a private bank, while others threw stones at the offices of other banks in an expression of anger at their perceived role in deepening their economic malaise.
“Three glass windows were broken in the front and the back, the fridge and the phones. And they broke the photocopy machines and the chairs. ... I am not sure yet what is the estimated material loss," said the owner of a travel agency in downtown Beirut.
Security forces reopened blocked roads early Friday as the protests calmed. Prime Minister Hassan Diab canceled his scheduled meetings for the day and called for an emergency session to discuss the crisis. Riad Salameh, the governor of the central bank who has been singled out by Diab for his mishandling of the situation, was taking part in the meeting.
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Experts: Police 'woefully undertrained' in use of force
BURIEN, Wash. (AP) — Seattle officers hold down a protester, and one repeatedly punches him in the face. In another run-in, officers handcuff a looting suspect on the ground, one pressing a knee into his neck — the same tactic used on George Floyd.
The officers were captured on videos appearing to violate policies on how to use force just days after Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police, setting off nationwide protests.
With calls for police reforms across the U.S., instructors and researchers say officers lack sufficient training on how and when to use force, leaving them unprepared to handle tense situations. Better training can’t fix all the issues facing the nation’s police departments, but experts believe it would have a big impact.
“The skills are not taught well enough to be retained and now the officer is scrambling to find something that works,” said William Lewinski, executive director at Minnesota-based Force Science Institute, which provides research, training and consulting to law enforcement agencies.
Its two-year study of three large U.S. police academies says skills like using a baton or taking down an aggressive offender deteriorate dramatically within two weeks.
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Downplaying virus risk, Trump gets back to business as usual
WASHINGTON (AP) — At the White House, aides now routinely flout internal rules requiring face masks. The president's campaign is again scheduling mass arena rallies. And he is back to spending summer weekends at his New Jersey golf club.
Three months after President Donald Trump bowed to the realities of a pandemic that put big chunks of life on pause and killed more Americans than several major wars, Trump is back to business as usual — even as coronavirus cases are on the upswing in many parts of the country.
While the nation has now had months to prepare stockpiles of protective gear and ventilators, a vaccine still is many months away at best and a model cited by the White House projects tens of thousands of more deaths by the end of September.
Amid renewed fears of a virus resurgence, financial markets — frequently highlighted by Trump as a sign of economic recovery — suffered their worst drop since March on Thursday.
At the White House, though, officials played down the severity of the virus surge and sought to blame it on factors beyond Trump's forceful push to reopen the economy, which he's counting on to help him win reelection.
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Pulling down statues of racists? Africa's done it for years
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Queen Victoria, Cecil Rhodes, King Leopold. Statues honoring these leaders of colonial rule have been pulled down over the years in Africa after countries won independence or newer generations said racist relics had to go.
New campaigns in the U.S. and Europe are now following Africa’s lead. Monuments to slave traders and colonial rulers have become the focus of protests around the world, driven by a reexamination of historical injustice after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in the U.S.
No protests have been spotted this week around the remaining statues in Africa, but several have faced furious demonstrations in the past.
A boisterous student-led campaign pressed the University of Cape Town to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes from the school's entrance in April 2015. The statue had been defaced and covered in excrement by students protesting against the colonial leader who supported white minority rule in South Africa and the colonization of the southern African territories named for him, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, which later became independent Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Students celebrated as a crane lifted the statue off its base. Now the statue is covered by a tarpaulin at a local army base.
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European shares, US futures higher after Wall St rout
Shares rose in Europe on Friday after a day of losses in Asia following Wall Street’s overnight sell-off on worries over a possible “second wave” of coronavirus cases.
The CAC 40 in Paris jumped 1.2% to 4,875.41, while Germany’s DAX added 0.7% to 12,056.57.
Britain’s FTSE 100 recovered from early losses to gain 1.1%, rising to 6,146.14. Shares initially fell on news that the British economy contracted by 20.4% in April amid lockdown measures to fight the pandemic, wiping out nearly two decades worth of growth.
U.S. shares were set for a rebound, with Dow futures up 2.1% at 25,543.00. S&P 500 futures gained 1.7% at 3,051.00.
Losses were milder in global markets than in the U.S. on Thursday, partly because markets in the region have not seen the same massive gains in recent weeks: outbreaks of the virus, travel disruptions and business shutdowns remain apparent and hopes for a quick rebound more modest.
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AP PHOTOS: Venezuelan migrants make long trek back home
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A couple pushing their 6-month-old twins in a stroller. A family with their life’s belongings stuffed into one large cloth sack. Young boys and girls sleeping beneath makeshift tents, their mouths covered with face masks.
These are some of the thousands of Venezuelans who fled their homeland hoping for a brighter future abroad and are now trying to get back home.
A severe economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic has dashed the dreams of countless Venezuelans who fled their crisis-torn country in what had been one of the largest mass migrations anywhere in recent years.
Now Colombia migration authorities estimate nearly 75,000 have made the journey back, traveling tiring miles by foot and bus. Many are arriving at the border crossing in the city of Cucuta only to find they will have to wait longer: Authorities in Venezuela allow only a few hundred to enter and just on three days a week.
In recent weeks, hundreds have built an encampment in Colombia’s capital, using black plastic tarps for makeshift tents. The migrants in Bogota are waiting to be bused to the border. Officials are trying to avoid a sudden massing of people at the border crossing, a potential public health hazard.