Democrats challenge latest watchdog firing; French authorities arrest fugitive of Rwanda genocide; Nations support inquiry into handling of virus; US, world leaders want WHA to include Taiwan
NewsHero - May 18, 2020 - Issue 100
Welcome to today’s free edition of NewsHero for May 18, 2020.
Going forward, Monday editions will be available to all readers—free of charge, while the remainder of the week’s newsletters will be available to subscribers only.
This is our 100th issue of NewsHero!
As we were setting up this 100th issue for you today, I was struck by the amazing journey we have been on together over these last few unprecedented months. As each of us has found ourselves both witnesses and participants in one of humanity’s largest and most profound acts of global cooperation and solidarity, there have been no shortages of heroes for us to highlight. That is not to minimize the magnitude of the suffering and uncertainty that has been endured and that which is to come for our most vulnerable, but I believe that when we look back at this time, we will see that our better angels in every way prevailed and that all but a tiny few of us stood up and did what we could. That is a lot of heroes to be thankful for, and it makes the NewsHero mission feel all the more worthy of our attention as we progress further into recovery and healing.
There is much that we would like to do with NewsHero going forward, from original reporting to a larger platform, and this future is very much in your hands as our supporters and subscribers.
NewsHero is not for everyone and cannot be all things to all people, but what we will do for as long as you allow us to, is focus on the heroes in the headlines above those who would do harm, and show that no matter what the situation there are always those who are doing the hard, generous work of showing up, and making this world just a little bit better.
Thanks for reading!
Benji
Co-founder NewsHero
**Now through June 1, 2020, new annual subscriptions to NewsHero will each be contributing 25% to the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund**
Image: Lights, Camera Pod
“May I start by saying how thrilled we are to have you here. We are such fans of your music and all of your records. I'm not speaking of yours personally, but the whole genre of the rock and roll.” - FRED WILLARD, 1933 – 2020, as Air Force Lt. Bob Hookstratten in "This Is Spinal Tap"
NewsHero Notes
Museums - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Today, May 18, is International Museum Day (IMD). Organized by the International Council of Museums since 1977, IMD was built on the idea that: “Museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples.” The theme for 2020 is “Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion.”
Greta Thunberg - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Greta Thunberg recently appeared on a CNN Coronavirus Town Hall, hosted by Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, where she addressed the importance of listening to scientists as COVID-19 continues to have a devastating impact on the world’s most vulnerable people.
Afternoon Brief
Challengers of watchdog firings - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Democrats demanded on Saturday that the White House hand over all records related to Donald Trump’s latest firing of a federal watchdog, this time at the State Department, and they suggested Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was responsible, in what “may be an illegal act of retaliation.”
“We unalterably oppose the politically-motivated firing of inspectors general and the President’s gutting of these critical positions,″ the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote in a letter to the administration announcing their investigation.
Trump announced late Friday that he was firing the inspector general, Steve Linick, an Obama administration appointee whose office was critical of what it saw as political bias in the State Department’s management. The firing was yet another move by the president against independent executive branch watchdogs who have found fault with his administration.
UN, French authorities - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
French authorities said on Saturday that a joint investigation with the U.N.’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals office of the prosecutor led to the arrest of one of the most wanted fugitives in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Felicien Kabuga had been living in a town north of Paris, Asnieres-Sur-Seine, under an assumed name, the appeals court’s prosecutor’s office said.
The U.N.’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda indicted Kabuga in 1997 on charges related to conspiracy to commit genocide, persecution and extermination.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed Kabuga’s arrest, according to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
It “sends a powerful message that those who are alleged to have committed such crimes cannot evade justice and will eventually be held accountable, even more than a quarter of a century later,” Dujarric said.
Mausi Segun, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, described the arrest as “an important step towards justice for hundreds of thousands of genocide victims.”
US Justice Department - 🦸♀️🦸♀️
The U.S. Justice Department has sent grand jury subpoenas to big banks seeking records as part of a broader investigation into potential abuse of a $660 billion emergency loan program to help small businesses hurt by the novel coronavirus, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The previously unreported subpoenas issued by the department’s Washington fraud division do not necessarily indicate wrongdoing on the part of the banks, but will compound growing worries among lenders that they risk being swept up in a federal crackdown on Paycheck Protection Program fraud.
“Right now, we don’t think banks are 100% the target,” said one of the sources, but added: “There are concerns that there will be a boomerang effect six months down the road on banks that they didn’t do enough.”
WHO Head Will Evaluate Its Handling Of Virus At ‘Earliest Appropriate Moment’
US, world leaders call for WHA to include Taiwan
Vaccine development has a high failure rate, so the more approaches there are, the greater the chance of success. Some human trials have already begun. This is the fastest vaccine development in history. Information Is Beautiful
NewsHero is continuing to offer a compilation of stories and resources that best represent the current state of the coronavirus pandemic, centered on those individuals, institutions, and organizations stepping up to end this crisis as quickly and effectively as possible. The public, too, has a duty. This includes staying responsibly informed and taking the situation seriously, while remaining as cool-headed and as isolated as possible. These are strange and difficult times, but we will endure.
Nearly 100 countries are getting behind a resolution at the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) that calls for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of “the (WHO)-coordinated international health response to COVID-19,” reports CNN. The EU-drafted resolution follows Australia’s push for investigating China’s handling of the crisis.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said today that he would initiate an independent evaluation of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic at the “earliest appropriate moment” and vowed transparency and accountability. “We all have lessons to learn from the pandemic. Every country and every organization must examine its response and learn from its experience. WHO is committed to transparency, accountability and continuous improvement,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told its annual ministerial assembly.
World leaders have joined the U.S. in calling for the WHA on the coronavirus to include Taiwan, reports Fox News. In a letter to the WHO sent last week, the U.S. made a bipartisan appeal to allies to support Taiwan’s inclusion. “Diseases know no borders,” the letter read. “We urge your government to join us in addressing the pressing issue of Taiwan’s inclusion in the global health and safety organization.”
An editorial published by The Lancet says that the CDC “has seen its role minimized and become an ineffective and nominal adviser in the response to contain the spread of the virus,” and concludes that “Americans must put a president in the White House come January, 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.”
According to a whistleblower complaint filed with Stanford University last week and obtained by BuzzFeed News, JetBlue founder David Neeleman partially funded a coronavirus antibody study that said the virus wasn’t that deadly. Neeleman has reportedly expressed doubt over the need for strict lockdowns.
A New York Times report details concerns over the rampant spread of misinformation (conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxer propaganda) on social media and the impending arrival of a vaccine for the coronavirus: “What if we get a COVID-19 vaccine and half the country refuses to take it?”
Mitch McConnell said last week he was mistaken in claiming that the Obama administration had failed to leave plans for the Trump administration for handling a pandemic, Politico reports. “I was wrong,” McConnell told Fox News. “They did leave behind a plan. So, I clearly made a mistake in that regard.”
Health care workers applaud in return as they are cheered on by people outside the Fundación Jiménez Díaz hospital in Madrid on March 25. (Oscar Del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images)
“As farmers throw away produce and other Americans line up for food, relief groups are connecting the two by turning those ingredients into meals,” says a report from The New York Times.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which runs on application fees, said it could be out of money by summer because of far fewer people applying for visas, reports The New York Times. “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, USCIS has seen a dramatic decrease in revenue,” said a spokesperson for the agency.
Rival gang members have been working together in Cape Town, South Africa, to deliver food to the poor in areas on lockdown. Not everyone is impressed by the good deeds though: “The trauma they’ve inflicted on communities for decades won’t be forgotten for a couple of loaves of bread,” said J.P. Smith, who works in the mayor’s office of Cape Town in charge of safety and security.
Though governors continue to support social distancing and wearing masks as their states reopen, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said it is safe to reopen the country because half of U.S. counties reporting cases of COVID-19 “haven’t had a single death,” reports The Washington Post.
“Health officials double down on the dangers of mass gatherings as states reopen more venues,” read a Sunday CNN headline. Experts are warning that large groups could be sending states back to lockdown mode.
The latest edition of the Corona Daily newsletter, “A critical week ahead,” can be found here. In it you’ll find a report from Health Affairs: “Strong Social Distancing Measures In The United States Reduced The COVID-19 Growth Rate”
Extra! Extra!
Sometimes you have to take what you can get.
You know, like when your soccer stadium is empty and you just need that special something to complete the scene.
If you can’t have actual people in the stands, you can have the next best thing: sex dolls! Sorry, we meant: mannequins!
It seems a South Korean soccer club has issued an apology after being accused of putting sex dolls in empty seats during a match. The Associated Press had the story today.
“FC Seoul expressed ‘sincere remorse’ over the controversy, but insisted in a statement that it used mannequins—not sex dolls—to mimic a home crowd during Sunday’s 1-0 win over Gwangju FC at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.”
Maybe the presence of attractive female figures in the crowd enhanced the, uh, performance of the team that scored. Or perhaps it made it harder to keep control of the ball.
Goodnight, everybody!
Sources:
International Museum Day - ICOM
Greta Thunberg: 'Our actions can be the difference between life and death for many others' - CNN
Trump ramps up retaliatory purge with firing of State Department inspector general - The Washington Post
Fired State Department watchdog was probing whether Pompeo made staffer walk his dog, pick up laundry - NBC News
Romney denounces Trump firing of officials as threat to democracy - Business Insider
Democrats investigating Trump firing of State Dept. watchdog - AP News
State Department inspector general becomes the latest watchdog fired by Trump - CNNPolitics
Hope for Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide: Daily Brief - Human Rights Watch
Top fugitive in Rwanda's genocide arrested outside Paris - Politico
Félicien Kabuga, Rwandan genocide suspect, captured in Paris suburb after decades on the run - CNN
'He wouldn't say a word' - Rwanda genocide fugitive lived incognito in Paris - Reuters
Top fugitive in Rwanda’s genocide arrested outside Paris - AP News
Whistleblower: Wall Street Has Engaged in Widespread Manipulation of Mortgage Funds - ProPublica
Exclusive: U.S. Justice Dept. subpoenas Wall Street banks for small business loans info: sources - Reuters
China has been trying to avoid fallout from coronavirus. Now 100 countries are pushing for an investigation - CNN
COVID special: donations, vaccines, volunteers - Beautiful News
"Prestigious medical journal slams Trump as U.S. death toll surpasses 85,000"Reviving the US CDC - The Lancet
WHO chief to review its pandemic handling, vows transparency - Reuters
WHO's exclusion of Taiwan from coronavirus assembly leads more nations to sound the alarm - Fox News
JetBlue Founder David Neeleman Helped Fund The Stanford Coronavirus Antibody Study - BuzzFeed
Get Ready for a Covid-19 Vaccine Information War - The New York Times
McConnell says he was wrong on Obama pandemic playbook - Politico
Top Amazon exec calls for federal price gouging law amid coronavirus scams - CNBC
Gangs deliver food in poor Cape Town area amid lockdown - AP News
To Fight Waste and Hunger, Food Banks Start Cooking - The New York Times
Immigration Agency That Issues Visas, Green Cards Struggles to Stay Afloat - The New York Times
Top Trump official says country safe to reopen as governors stress social distancing - The Washington Post
US coronavirus: Health officials double down on dangers of mass gatherings - CNN
A critical week ahead - Coronadaily
S. Korean soccer team accused of putting sex dolls in seats - AP News