white house – The Philadelphia Observer

Injuries at protests draw scrutiny to use of police weaponry

Juan Ignacio — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 15:40:50 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — In law enforcement, they’re referred to as “nonlethal” tools for dealing with demonstrations that turn unruly: rubber bullets, pepper spray, batons, flash-bangs.

But the now-familiar scenes of U.S. police officers in riot gear clashing with protesters at Lafayette Park across from the White House and in other cities have police critics charging that the weaponry too often escalates tensions and hurts innocent people.

“When you see riot gear, it absolutely changes the mood,” said Ron Moten, a longtime community organizer in the nation’s capital who was out demonstrating this weekend. He said it takes away any perception the officers could be empathetic.

“If I went up to speak with a police officer and I’m covered in armor and holding a shield and a stick, don’t you think they would regard me as a threat?”

Government Spy Planes and Drones Were Surveilling Recent Black Lives Matter Protests

“When we see riot gear, as black people it takes us back 400 years,” he said.

Protesters in Denver arrived at the hospital with injuries from police projectiles that caused one person to lose an eye and left three other people with permanent eye damage, said Prem Subramanian, a physician who operated on some victims following demonstrations late last month.

“They weren’t accused of any crime, and they came in with devastating eye injuries,” Subramanian said, adding that he was so upset about it that he complained to city officials, who promised to investigate any abuses. “We’re learning the consequences of using these weapons.”

Source: Injuries at protests draw scrutiny to use of police weaponry

CDC officials say decisions made by the White House have worsened effects of the pandemic

Juan Ignacio — Thu, 21 May 2020 12:29:58 +0000

(CNN) In the early weeks of the US coronavirus outbreak, staff members in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had tracked a growing number of transmissions in Europe and elsewhere, and proposed a global advisory that would alert flyers to the dangers of air travel.

But about a week passed before the alert was issued publicly — crucial time lost when about 66,000 European travelers were streaming into American airports every day.

Harlem’s Famous Sylvia’s Restaurant Is Giving Back To The Community Amid COVID-19

The delay, detailed in documents obtained by CNN, is the latest example to emerge of a growing sense of disconnect between the CDC and the White House.

In interviews with CNN, CDC officials say their agency’s efforts to mount a coordinated response to the Covid-19 pandemic have been hamstrung by a White House whose decisions are driven by politics rather than science.

The result has worsened the effects of the crisis, sources inside the CDC say, relegating the 73-year-old agency that has traditionally led the nation’s response to infectious disease to a supporting role.

Source: CDC officials say decisions made by the White House have worsened effects of the pandemic

White House: Next 30 days are crucial

Juan Ignacio — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 12:26:13 +0000

White House officials predicted a stark US death toll of more than 100,000 people from coronavirus, saying measures working to curb the spread of the virus are the only hope for keeping that total from rising further.

Those measures could be especially valuable now that data shows as many as one-fourth of those infected with the virus could be walking around with no symptoms and transmitting it, according to the head of the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

Airbnb will pay hosts $250 million to help cover cancellations due to COVID-19

“One of the (pieces of) information that we have pretty much confirmed now is that a significant number of individuals that are infected actually remain asymptomatic. That may be as many as 25%,” CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told NPR. He did not elaborate on how he reached that number. CNN has reached out to the CDC.

At least 185,499 Americans have so far been infected, according to CNN’s tally. At least 3,834 people have died — about 830 of those deaths were reported Tuesday, the most reported US deaths in a single day.

Source: White House: Next 30 days are crucial

White House says Turkey set to invade Syria

Juan Ignacio — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 13:55:07 +0000

October 7, 2019 Edit Edit with WPBakery Page Builder

Turkey will soon invade northern Syria, the White House announced late Sunday in a statement that seemed to indicate at least tacit American support.

President Donald Trump talked to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey about the military incursion, the White House said in its statement. The administration, without elaborating on the scope of the attack, referred to the invasion as a “long-planned operation.”

“The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial ‘Caliphate,‘ will no longer be in the immediate area,” the statement said.

Turkey has been a U.S. ally in efforts to battle ISIS in the region — Syria being the location of much of the fighting because of the horrific chaos of its ongoing civil war — but there are complications to the alliance.

Kurdish soldiers had also been working with American forces in Syria, but Turkey regards those forces as its enemy. The Kurdish forces, which have been fighting for an independent homeland for Kurds, could be in serious jeopardy when Turkish troops sweep into the area.

21 Savage: Young undocumented immigrants should be ‘exempt’

Erdogan has expressed displeasure with the support the United States has given those Kurdish forces.

The White House used its statement to ding its European allies.

“The United States Government has pressed France, Germany, and other European nations, from which many captured ISIS fighters came, to take them back, but they did not want them and refused. The United States will not hold them for what could be many years and great cost to the United States taxpayer,” it said. “Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years.”