US, others criticize arrest of pro-democracy advocates, ACLU reveals racial discrepancy in pot arrests; WHO gave Trump COVID-19 updates in real-time from start; Governors stand firm to protect states
NewsHero - April 20, 2020 - Issue 80
Welcome to today’s edition of NewsHero for April 20, 2020.
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Team NewsHero
NewsHero Notes
ACLU - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
A new report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) shows that “due to racial profiling and bias in marijuana enforcement, Black people are 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession, despite similar usage rates.”
Indigenous people, their advocates, and environmental activists - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Local leaders and Indigenous advocates are speaking out over President Jair Bolsonaro’s plans to commercially develop Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, reports The New York Times.
Afternoon Brief
Pro-democracy advocates - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
The Committee to Protect Journalists says Hong Kong authorities should drop all charges against millionaire publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, 71, founder and chair of Next Digital, following his arrest alongside other pro-democracy advocates on suspicion of participating in an illegal assembly.
The United States and others criticized the arrest of 15 people on charges of organizing and participating in anti-government protests last year, the biggest crackdown on the pro-democracy movement since the outbreak of the protests almost a year ago.
“This is all happening while we are in midst of a pandemic,” pro-democracy activist Avery Ng told Reuters by telephone. “The world is dealing with this virus, but this signals that Beijing still sees a political crackdown in Hong Kong is a top priority.”
Along with Jimmy Lai, those arrested included Democratic Party founder and barrister Martin Lee, 81, and former lawmaker and barrister Margaret Ng, 72.
The International Bar Association condemned the arrests of Lee and Margaret Ng, who have been active human rights and rule of law campaigners during their careers.
Center for Public Integrity - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
A story published jointly by The Center for Public Integrity—a non-profit newsroom investigating betrayals of public trust—and NBC News details fourteen city governments that say Donald Trump’s campaign owes them a collective $1.82 million worth of public safety-related debt, while the campaign claims it is not responsible.
As many cities see their economies hit by the coronavirus, expecting budget troubles and cuts to local programs, now is the time they say to have money owed from Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rallies re-paid.
“Campaigns should always reimburse already cash-strapped cities for police and public safety costs, argued Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, whose city wants the Trump campaign to pay nearly $543,000 stemming from an Oct. 10 rally,” the article states.
“But during this crisis, that loss is even more pronounced—$150,000, for instance, could pay for emergency rental assistance for 100 Minneapolis families,” Frey told Public Integrity this week.
The Atlantic - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
The Atlantic delivered a piece Friday, How Facebook Works for Trump, that examines Donald Trump’s use of the social media platform’s advertising mechanism to win the presidency. The article suggests he could do it again, too.
Though Andrew Bosworth, who headed up Facebook’s ad team during the 2016 election, once wrote that Trump “ran the single best digital ad campaign I’ve ever seen from any advertiser,” the article says it wasn’t so much a case of mastering Facebook as it was the Trump campaign’s “pure, blunt constancy, using Facebook in exactly the way the tech giant intended: pouring heaps of money and data into Facebook’s automated advertising system.”
WHO Fed Trump COVID-19 Info In Real Time From Start Of Outbreak
Health workers stand defiant blocking cars with residents protesting stay-at-home orders
A group of healthcare workers in Denver stood in the street to counter-protest the calls for re-opening, silently obstructing cars as they drove down towards the Capitol, dressed in scrubs and face masks (Reuters)
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.
As the World Health Organization gets criticized by Donald Trump for its communication during the coronavirus outbreak, The Washington Post reports that a number of U.S. researchers, physicians and public health experts—many from the CDC—were working at the WHO, transmitting real-time information about the discovery of COVID-19 and its spread in China to the Trump administration.
Insider published photos taken Sunday in Denver showing two people dressed in N95 masks and scrubs standing defiant against protesters wanting Colorado's stay-at-home orders lifted.
Many governors and mayors are being put to the test, forced to stand their ground to protect the public’s health and safety, in Texas, California, and Michigan, alongside Colorado, as residents gather to speak out about frustrations over coronavirus restrictions.
“What’s Driving the Right-Wing Protesters Fighting the Quarantine?” asks The New York Times, in an article that aims to understand the uprising against orders designed to protect the nation.
Ambassador Jukka Salovaara, representative of Finland to the UN, tweeted: “Finland is increasing its financial support for @UNFPA and @UN_Women, both important partners for @FinlandUN. Core funding of €33 and €19 million. Minister @VilleSkinnari: in managing the #COVID19 crisis special attention must be given to women.”
The COVID-19 crisis may very well increase lawsuits over voting rights this election year, reports NPR.
A new poll conducted by Harvard and Harris Insights and Analytics found that 72 percent of participants support holding the 2020 presidential election entirely by mail, reports Newsweek.
A group of healthcare workers in Denver stood in the street to counter-protest the calls for re-opening, silently obstructing cars as they drove down towards the Capitol, dressed in scrubs and face masks (Reuters)
One World: #TogetherAtHome, a concert featuring some of music’s biggest stars, raised nearly $128 million for the World Health Organization. The event, broadcast throughout the world, was organized by international advocacy group Global Citizen.
Despite being slowed down by the coronavirus pandemic, young climate activists continue to organize globally, furthering their work. Earth Day Live is one of the events being put together by a coalition of youth-led climate groups.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that the state has nearly 15,000 hotel rooms to shelter homeless people during the pandemic.
Apparently stay-at-home orders have been good for traffic accidents. The Los Angeles Times reports that vehicle collisions have been cut by more than half, saving taxpayers roughly $1 billion, according to a UC Davis survey.
Spain recorded its lowest increase in coronavirus deaths in a month, reports CNBC.
Germany is re-opening some shops as coronavirus restrictions are loosened up, reports The New York Times.
In this image provided by Lizabeth Baker Wade, nurses at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., on April 10, 2020, raise their fists in solidarity after telling managers they can’t care for COVID-19 patients without N95 respirator masks to protect themselves. The hospital has suspended ten nurses from the ward, but has started providing nurses caring for COVID-19 patients with N95 masks. (Lizabeth Baker Wade via AP)
Hundreds of doctors, nurses and other health care workers across the country say they’ve been asked to work without adequate protection. Some have taken part in protests or lodged formal complaints. Others are buying or even making their own supplies.
The British government has acknowledged there’s a shortage of protective clothing for COVID-19 health workers, as unions warn that NHS staff may refuse to work if there is not enough PPE to ensure their safety, reports the BBC.
Microsoft is teaming up with a group of pharmaceutical companies to recruit people who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma, which could be used in future treatments, reports CNBC.
Yuan Zhiming, vice director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has come forward to deny accusations that the novel coronavirus originated in a lab. He said the notion was a “conspiracy theory” to “confuse” people. He also denied the virus was manmade, reports NBC News.
Extra! Extra!
“Hey, who invited this jackass to the meeting?!”
We’ve talked about people getting in trouble for not showing up properly dressed for Zoom meetings, but what if there’s not someone half-naked to make the meeting more interesting?
Well, a farm in North Carolina has a remedy for that boring Zoom meeting: a miniature donkey, of course!
Yes, for the low, low price of $50, Peace N Peas Farm will rent you Mambo, the 8-year-old miniature donkey, and his friends to crash company conference calls. You’ll get 10 minutes of the fun-loving donkey to interrupt your windbag boss and burn some time on the clock stuck staring at your co-workers.
So the next time you’re asked for your updated TPS reports, just click Mambo into the meeting and get the party started.
Our heroes are identified as follows:
🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️ - the hero, hands down. - Meaning that it wasn’t even a close call.
🦸♀️🦸♀️ - the hero, but… - Meaning that in this situation the call needed to be looked at in a little more detail. For example, in this case, they did the right thing but there have been some questionable calls in the past.
🦸♀️ - the hero, but only here, and it was a close call. - Meaning that in this instance they did the right thing but it was either out of character or a maddeningly close call.
Sources:
Extreme Racial Disparities Persist in Marijuana Arrests - ACLU A
s Bolsonaro Keeps Amazon Vows, Brazil’s Indigenous Fear ‘Ethnocide’ - The New York Times
Hong Kong police arrest Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai - Committee to Protect Journalists
US condemns arrests of Hong Kong democracy activists - CNBC
Arrests show Beijing sees Hong Kong crackdown as priority: activist - Reuters
City leaders to Trump: Pay your bills, help us fight the coronavirus - NBC News
How Facebook’s Ad Technology Helps Trump Win - The Atlantic
Americans at World Health Organization transmitted real-time information about coronavirus to Trump administration - The Washington Post
Report: Americans At World Health Organization Told Trump Administration About Coronavirus ‘Late Last Year’ - Forbes
Nurses push back on pressure to work without right equipment - AP News
Coronavirus: some NHS staff may refuse to work as govt admits lack of protective clothing - BBC News
Powerful photos show healthcare workers quietly standing up to lockdown protesters in Denver - Insider
Protesters descend on Colorado Capitol to oppose coronavirus restrictions - Denver Post
Europe's coronavirus death toll tops 100,000 as lockdown protests erupt in U.S. states - NBC News
What’s Driving the Right-Wing Protesters Fighting the Quarantine? - The New York Times
Jukka Salovaara - Twitter
Coronavirus Advice From Abroad: 7 Lessons America’s Governors Should Not Ignore as They Reopen Their Economies - ProPublica
Coronavirus Likely To Supercharge Election-Year Lawsuits Over Voting Rights - NPR
Over 70 Percent of Voters Support Making 2020 Presidential Election Entirely Vote-by-Mail, New Poll Shows - Newsweek
Spain sees lowest coronavirus death count rise in a month, global death toll tops 160,000 - CNBC
Global concert raises more than $127M for WHO emergency response fund - CNN
Young climate activists slowed by pandemic, but not defeated - AP News
Laboratory in Wuhan breaks silence to deny claims that the coronavirus originated there - NBC News
June Almeida discovered coronaviruses decades ago—but got little recognition - National Geographic
Questions mount over Christian group behind Central Park Covid-19 hospital - The Guardian
Newsom: California has over 15K hotel rooms for homeless during pandemic - The Hill
Coronavirus stay-at-home order saves state taxpayers $1 billion after car crashes cut by 60% - Los Angeles Times
World News Updates: Germany Begins Reopening Shops as Coronavirus Limits Ease - The New York Times
Microsoft is launching a ‘plasmabot’ to encourage people who recovered from the virus to donate their plasma as a possible treatment - CNBC
Addressing the strain the coronavirus has put on America's food supply chain with José Andrés - 60 Minutes - CBS News
N.C. farm rents out miniature donkey to crash video calls - AP News