By BY MICHAEL CORKERY from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2YRoOj0
Monday, August 31, 2020
Walmart Announces Membership Service in Attempt to Compete With Amazon
By BY MICHAEL CORKERY from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2YRoOj0
Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies Fatally Shoot a Black Man They Say Had a Gun
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How the Fatal Shooting at a Portland Protest Unfolded
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Quotation of the Day: In Command: The Few, the Proud, the White
By Unknown Author from NYT Today’s Paper https://ift.tt/3hZg421
Saudi King Fires 2 Royals in Defense Corruption Inquiry
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Elecciones 2020: el Partido Republicano postula a Trump y el demócrata Biden aún lleva la ventaja
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Biden Condemned Violence. Why Won’t Trump?
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A Long History of Language That Incites and Demonizes
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‘We Germans,’ Alexander Starritt by the Author: An Excerpt
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Facebook Could Block Sharing of News Stories in Australia
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Frustrated by Election Boycott, Venezuela’s Leader Pardons 100 Opponents
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A Teacher and Congresswoman Confronts School Reopenings
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Trump Fans Strife as Unrest Roils the U.S.
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A series of primaries in Massachusetts could be a bellwether for the Democratic Party.
By BY JACEY FORTIN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/34OFiMu
American Intelligence Knows What Russia Is Doing
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¿Qué es eso en la terraza del Met? Un enorme y hermoso muro
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‘Allá vamos otra vez’: España vive una segunda ola de coronavirus
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The Padres Bulk Up and Set Their Sights on Catching the Dodgers
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Youth and Experience Will Face Off in the U.S. Open Women’s Draw
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With Some Big Names Missing, U.S. Open Men’s Draw Still Looks Strong
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A Quick Virus Test? Sure, If You Can Afford It
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At the U.S. Open, Doubles, of All Things, Stays Stable
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2020 U.S. Open: What to Watch on Opening Monday
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New top story from Time: In China’s Xinjiang, Forced Medication Accompanies Coronavirus Lockdown
(BEIJING) – When police arrested the middle-aged Uighur woman at the height of China’s coronavirus outbreak, she was crammed into a cell with dozens of other women in a detention center.
There, she said, she was forced to drink a medicine that made her feel weak and nauseous, guards watching as she gulped. She and the others also had to strip naked once a week and cover their faces as guards hosed them and their cells down with disinfectant “like firemen,” she said.
“It was scalding,” recounted the woman by phone from Xinjiang, declining to be named out of fear of retribution. “My hands were ruined, my skin was peeling.”
The government in China’s far northwest Xinjiang region is resorting to draconian measures to combat the coronavirus, including physically locking residents in homes, imposing quarantines of more than 40 days and arresting those who do not comply. Furthermore, in what experts call a breach of medical ethics, some residents are being coerced into swallowing traditional Chinese medicine, according to government notices, social media posts and interviews with three people in quarantine in Xinjiang.
There is a lack of rigorous clinical data showing traditional Chinese medicine works against the virus, and one of the herbal remedies used in Xinjiang, Qingfei Paidu, includes ingredients banned in Germany, Switzerland, the U.S. and other countries for high levels of toxins and carcinogens.
The latest grueling lockdown, now in its 45th day, comes in response to 826 cases reported in Xinjiang since mid-July, China’s largest caseload since the initial outbreak. But the Xinjiang lockdown is especially striking because of its severity, and because there hasn’t been a single new case of local transmission in over a week.
Harsh lockdowns have been imposed elsewhere in China, most notably in Wuhan in Hubei province, where the virus was first detected. But though Wuhan grappled with over 50,000 cases and Hubei with 68,000 in all, many more than in Xinjiang, residents there weren’t forced to take traditional medicine and were generally allowed outdoors within their compounds for exercise or grocery deliveries.
The response to an outbreak of more than 300 cases in Beijing in early June was milder still, with a few select neighborhoods locked down for a few weeks. In contrast, more than half of Xinjiang’s 25 million people are under a lockdown that extends hundreds of miles from the center of the outbreak in the capital, Urumqi, according to an AP review of government notices and state media reports.
Even as Wuhan and the rest of China has mostly returned to ordinary life, Xinjiang’s lockdown is backed by a vast surveillance apparatus that has turned the region into a digital police state. Over the past three years, Xinjiang authorities have swept a million or more Uighurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities into various forms of detention, including extrajudicial internment camps, under a widespread security crackdown.
After being detained for over a month, the Uighur woman was released and locked into her home. Conditions are now better, she told the AP, but she is still under lockdown, despite regular tests showing she is free of the virus.
Once a day, she says, community workers force traditional medicine in white unmarked bottles on her, saying she’ll be detained if she doesn’t drink them. The AP saw photos of the bottles, which match those in images from another Xinjiang resident and others circulating on Chinese social media.
Authorities say the measures taken are for the well-being of all residents, though they haven’t commented on why they are harsher than those taken elsewhere. The Chinese government has struggled for decades to control Xinjiang, at times clashing violently with many of the region’s native Uighurs, who resent Beijing’s heavy-handed rule.
“The Xinjiang Autonomous Region upheld the principle of people and life first….and guaranteed the safety and health of local people of all ethnic groups,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a press briefing Friday.
Xinjiang authorities can carry out the harsh measures, experts say, because of its lavishly funded security apparatus, which by some estimates deploys the most police per capita of anywhere on the planet.
“Xinjiang is a police state, so it’s basically martial law,” says Darren Byler, a researcher on the Uighurs at the University of Colorado. “They think Uighurs can’t really police themselves, they have to be forced to comply in order for a quarantine to be effective.”
Not all the recent outbreak measures in Xinjiang are targeted at the Uighurs and other largely Muslim minorities. Some are being enforced on China’s majority Han residents in Xinjiang as well, though they are generally spared the extrajudicial detention used against minorities. This month, thousands of Xinjiang residents took to social media to complain about what they called excessive measures against the virus in posts that are often censored, some with images of residents handcuffed to railings and front doors sealed with metal bars.
One Han Chinese woman with the last name of Wang posted photos of herself drinking traditional Chinese medicine in front of a medical worker in full protective gear.
“Why are you forcing us to drink medicine when we’re not sick!” she asked in a Aug. 18 post that was swiftly deleted. “Who will take responsibility if there’s problems after drinking so much medicine? Why don’t we even have the right to protect our own health?”
A few days later she simply wrote: “I’ve lost all hope. I cry when I think about it.”
After the heavy criticism, the authorities eased some restrictions last week, now allowing some residents to walk in their compounds, and a limited few to leave the region after a bureaucratic approval process.
Wang did not respond to a request for interviews. But her account is in line with many others posted on social media, as well as those interviewed by the AP.
One Han businessman working between Urumqi and Beijing told the AP he was put in quarantine in mid-July. Despite having taken coronavirus tests five times and testing negative each time, he said, the authorities still haven’t let him out – not for so much as a walk. When he’s complained about his condition online, he said, he’s had his posts deleted and been told to stay silent.
“The most terrible thing is silence,” he wrote on Chinese social media site Weibo in mid-August. “After a long silence, you will fall into the abyss of hopelessness.”
“I’ve been in this room for so long, I don’t remember how long. I just want to forget,” he wrote again, days later. “I’m writing out my feelings to reassure myself I still exist. I fear I’ll be forgotten by the world.”
“I’m falling apart,” he told the AP more recently, declining to be named out of fear of retribution.
He, too, is being forced to take Chinese traditional medicine, he said, including liquid from the same unmarked white bottles as the Uighur woman. He is also forced to take Lianhua Qingwen, a herbal remedy seized regularly by U.S. Customs and Border patrol for violating FDA laws by falsely claiming to be effective against COVID-19.
Since the start of the outbreak, the Chinese government has pushed traditional medicine on its population. The remedies are touted by President Xi Jinping, China’s nationalist, authoritarian leader, who has advocated a revival of traditional Chinese culture. Although some state-backed doctors say they have conducted trials showing the medicine works against the virus, no rigorous clinical data supporting that claim has been published in international scientific journals.
“None of these medicines have been scientifically proven to be effective and safe,” said Fang Shimin, a former biochemist and writer known for his investigations of scientific fraud in China who now lives in the United States. “It’s unethical to force people, sick or healthy, to take unproven medicines.”
When the virus first started spreading, thousands flooded pharmacies in Hubei province searching for traditional remedies after state media promoted their effectiveness against the virus. Packs of pills were tucked into care packages sent to Chinese workers and students overseas, some emblazoned with the Chinese flag, others reading: “The motherland will forever firmly back you up”.
But the new measures in Xinjiang forcing some residents to take the medicine is unprecedented, experts say. The government says that the participation rate in traditional Chinese medicine treatment in the region has “reached 100%”, according to a state media report. When asked about resident complaints that they were being forced to take Chinese medicine, one local official said it was being done “according to expert opinion.”
“We’re helping resolve the problems of ordinary people,” said Liu Haijiang, the head of Dabancheng district in Urumqi, “like getting their children to school, delivering them medicine or getting them a doctor.”
With Xi’s ascent, critics of Chinese traditional medicine have fallen silent. In April, an influential Hubei doctor, Yu Xiangdong, was removed from a hospital management position for questioning the efficacy of the remedies, an acquittance confirmed. A government notice online said Yu “openly published inappropriate remarks slandering the nation’s epidemic prevention policy and traditional Chinese medicine.”
In March, the World Health Organization removed guidance on its site saying that herbal remedies were not effective against the virus and could be harmful, saying it was “too broad”. And in May, the Beijing city government announced a draft law that would criminalize speech “defaming or slandering” traditional Chinese medicine. Now, the government is pushing traditional Chinese remedies as a treatment for COVID-19 overseas, sending pills and specialists to countries such as Iran, Italy, and the Philippines.
Other leaders have also spearheaded unproven and potentially risky remedies – notably U.S. President Donald Trump, who stumped for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which can cause heart rhythm problems, despite no evidence that it’s effective against COVID-19. But China appears to be the first to force citizens – at least in Xinjiang – to take them.
The Chinese government’s push for traditional medicine is bolstering the fortunes of billionaires and padding state coffers. The family of Wu Yiling, the founder of the company that makes Lianhua Qingwen, has seen the value of their stake more than double in the past six months, netting them over a billion dollars. Also profiting: the Guangdong government, which owns a stake in Wu’s company.
“It’s a huge waste of money, these companies are making millions,” said a public health expert who works closely with the Chinese government, declining to be identified out of fear of retribution. “But then again – why not take it? There’s a placebo effect, it’s not that harmful. Why bother? There’s no point in fighting on this.”
Measures vary widely by city and neighborhood, and not all residents are taking the medication. The Uighur woman says that despite the threats against her, she’s flushing the liquid and pills down the toilet. A Han man whose parents are in Xinjiang told the AP that for them, the remedies are voluntary.
Though the measures are “extreme,” he says, they’re understandable.
“There’s no other way if the government wants to control this epidemic,” he said, declining to be named to avoid retribution. “We don’t want our outbreak to become like Europe or America.”
Sunday, August 30, 2020
New top story from Time: Qatar ‘Dismantles’ Kafala Employment System That Critics Say Allowed Abuse of Migrant Workers
(DUBAI, United Arab Emirates) — New labor rules in the energy-rich nation of Qatar “effectively dismantles” the country’s long-criticized “kafala” employment system, a U.N. labor body said Sunday.
The International Labor Organization said as of now, migrant workers can change jobs before the end of their contracts without obtaining the permission of their current employers.
Qatar also has adopted a minimum monthly wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275) for workers, which will take effect some six months after the law is published in the country’s official gazette, the ILO said. The minimum wage rule requires employers to pay allowances for housing and food as well if they don’t provide those for their workers.
Amnesty International praised the move as “an encouraging sign that Qatar may finally be heading in the right direction,” although employers still can file criminal charges against “absconding” employees, meaning those who left their jobs without permission.
“We call on Qatar to go further with these reforms, including removing the charge of absconding, to make sure that the rights of all workers are fully protected,” Amnesty official Steve Cockburn said in a statement.
Qatar, whose citizens enjoy one of the world’s highest per-capita incomes due to its natural gas reserves, partially ended the “kafala” system in 2018. That system ties workers to their employers, who had say over whether they could leave their jobs or even the country.
Qatar is being transformed by a building boom fueled by its vast oil and natural gas wealth. Like other energy-rich Gulf nations with relatively small local populations, Qatar relies on well over a million guest workers, many of them drawn from South Asian nations including India and Nepal. Rights activists long have criticized the “kafala” system as allowing abuses of those foreign workers.
This comes as Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the Arabian Peninsula nation. Having the winning bid for the soccer tournament brought renewed attention to laborers’ rights in Qatar.
Meanwhile Sunday, the United Arab Emirates announced it now requires private employers to grant new fathers five paid days off after the birth of a child.
What’s on TV Monday: ‘All or Nothing’ and ‘American Ninja Warrior’
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Meet Germany’s Bizarre Anti-Lockdown Protesters
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New top story from Time: These Are the Best and Worst Moments From the 2020 MTV VMAs
It was just a year ago that the Jonas Brothers sauntered down Asbury Park to a roaring, penned-in crowd for the MTV Video Music Awards. Such a scene would be unthinkable in today’s socially distanced climate—and on Sunday, MTV took on the tall task of producing one of first major U.S. live awards shows of the COVID-19 era.
In front of a crowd of no one in New York City, Keke Palmer hosted the proceedings; Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, BTS, the Weeknd, DaBaby, Miley Cyrus and others performed in sequences that were shot across the city or in front of greenscreens. The socially distanced setup actually improved the show in some respects: there were no agonizingly slow walks to the stage or stifling bleeps of live audio, and the runtime was a relatively brisk two and a quarter hours.
But the show also missed the scale and spontaneity that has previously made the VMAs so unpredictable and compelling. Here are the show’s most memorable moments, for better or worse.
Best Overall: Lady Gaga
Keke Palmer may have been the hosted the show, but Lady Gaga was the big star. She waltzed to the stage repeatedly to collect four on-camera awards—including Artist of the Year—and was given free rein to play a winding medley from her new album, Chromatica. In these bite-sized chunks of time onstage, she showed flashes of why she’s been one of the most reliable pop stars over the last decade, with brawny vocal runs, idiosyncratic dance routines, splashes of bluesy piano and compassionate acceptance speeches.
But her masks were perhaps the most memorable aspect of her night. It’s not surprising that Gaga, who has been visually radical since she arrived in the pop world a decade ago, would make the best out of a dicey situation, even one that requires covering her famous nose. But she raised the bar for PPE fashion going forward, coming out first with an inset-like gas-mask getup; then a tentacles to become a cousin of Pirates of the Caribbean’s Davy Jones; then a reflective silver one recalling Watchmen’s Looking Glass, and finally an imposing head-to-toe ensemble a la Maleficent.
Best: Dystopian Sets
Nothing about 2020 is normal, and thankfully, the VMAs and its artists didn’t try to carry on as usual, but instead embraced dystopian aesthetics throughout, leaning into what Lady Gaga termed onstage as “the wrath of pop culture” and “the rage of art.” Palmer stood on a huge digital stage surrounded by more screens on which tiny audience members flicked in and out; in the virtual rafters, shadowy Sims-like avatars roared their approval.
The Weeknd showed up disoriented, bandaged and bloodied (as he has during press appearances for most of this year). DaBaby performed on top of a cop car and in front of a greenscreen of a smoldering cityscape. Doja Cat pranced through a reddish desolate landscape that resembled either Mars or the bottom of the sea. And constant references to death—from Chadwick Boseman to Jacob Blake to those killed by the coronavirus—lent a somberness to the show that reflected the year at large.
Worst: Lack of Hip-Hop
On the other hand, the VMAs seemed to exist in an alternate reality in which hip-hop isn’t the driving force of the modern music industry. Only one true rap song won an on-camera prize, and it was in the hip-hop category, which was presented, for some dumbfounding reason, by Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. The VMAs are supposed to be the more forward-thinking younger brother of the Grammys, but many of the year’s biggest stars—including Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Baby, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Roddy Ricch—were nowhere to be found.
Instead, the telecast was dominated by songs indebted to 80s pop, from the Weeknd’s go-go synth pop anthem “Blinding Lights” to Miley Cyrus’s Stevie Nicks-inspired “Midnight Sky.” The VMAs landed big stars, but mostly failed to capture what the dominant stream of music actually sounds like today. J-Hope of BTS put it best, during the K-pop group’s breezy performance of “Dynamite”: “Disco overload / I’m good with that, I’m good to go.”
Best: Boy Bands
Still, it was hard not to be charmed by the two boy bands that performed on Sunday: BTS, from South Korea, and CNCO, from Latin America. The former performed “Dynamite,” their first fully English language song, with crisp choreography and snazzy color-coordinated suits. The latter embraced the strange setup of the drive-in concert at Skyline Drive-In in Greenpoint by wandering into the metallic audience and jumping on top of cars. The performance looked retro and futuristic at the same time.
Best: Chloe x Halle
One of the night’s most electric performances was relegated to the pre-show. The R&B duo Chloe x Halle have broken out this year thanks to both their immaculate album Ungodly Hour and their poised, shrewdly-shot home performances. Their pre-taped VMAs performance was no exception: they sang and danced to a reworked version of the album’s jazzy title-track inside of a conical strobe. With any luck, they’ll be on the mainstage next year.
Worst: Keke Palmer’s Impressions
Overall, Palmer made the out of a tough gig, bringing her trademark exuberance and mischievousness to inject energy straight to the camera from various spots around the city. But Palmer thrives most in informal settings and when bouncing off other personalities—as evidenced by her many viral interviews or the “sorry to this man” meme—and in comparison, her crowdless exhortations lacked verve. A running bit in which she tried on some impressions—including a skeevy male street performer, a ditz and an haute socialite—likewise fell flat. On the other hand, she was a whole lot better than last year’s host, Sebastian Maniscalco.
As Japan’s Abe Leaves, ‘Abenomics’ Will Remain, for Good or Ill
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The Runway Lights Failed, So Villagers Used Their Headlights to Aid an Airlift
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New top story from Time: New Zealand’s Largest City Exits Lockdown After Bringing Mystery COVID-19 Surge Under Control
New Zealand’s largest city has exited lockdown after the government said a Covid-19 outbreak there has been brought under control and it remains on track to again eliminate the virus from the community.
Auckland schools and customer-facing businesses re-opened on Monday and a ban on traveling out of the city was lifted, almost three weeks after the outbreak prompted the reintroduction of restrictions. Social distancing requirements remain in place for the whole country under level 2 restrictions and everyone from the age of 12 is now required to wear a mask on public transport.
“Our testing shows that it is highly unlikely there is Covid anywhere else in the country and we want to keep it that way,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday. “The last thing we want from re-opening Auckland is to spread the virus around the country, and that is one of the reasons we continue to have level 2 settings across New Zealand,” she said. The government expects to further review all alert settings by Sept. 6.
New Zealand became the envy of the world earlier this year when it succeeded in eliminating community transmission of the coronavirus by imposing a strict nationwide lockdown. Ardern said the government continues to pursue an elimination strategy and is confident it can stamp out the outbreak in Auckland, home to about a third of New Zealand’s five million people.
The Auckland cluster has grown to 141 cases in total, and the government expects new infections among close contacts to continue for some time. The source of the outbreak is still being investigated. New Zealand has 131 active cases, 24 of which are returnees from overseas who were quarantined on arrival.
Restrictions in Auckland remain slightly stricter than in the rest of the country, with gatherings limited to 10 and people encouraged to wear masks in public spaces. Ardern called Auckland’s settings “level 2.5” and wouldn’t rule out imposing broader mask-wearing requirements if people don’t abide by the current rules.
“Our system is good, it is designed to keep us on track with our elimination strategy at level 2, in the scenario we now have, but it will only work if people follow the guidance,” she said.
Quotation of the Day: As China Flexes, Taiwan Revamps Its Military
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How to Help Someone Who Lost Their Job
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Think You’re Making Good Climate Choices? Take This Mini-Quiz
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I’m Still Reading Andrew Sullivan. But I Can’t Defend Him.
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Portland Shooting Amplifies Tensions in Presidential Race
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Jon Rahm Sinks a Big Putt to Win Playoff at the BMW Championship
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Stories of 2020: Five Lives Caught in a Year of Upheaval and Pain
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What’s on TV Sunday: The VMAs and ‘Driven to Abstraction’
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