All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Colorado secretary of state defends mail-in voting: ‘Trump is lying’ | TheHill

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said Friday that President Trump “is lying about vote by mail” amid efforts by the administration to discredit the use of mail-in ballots.

“Colorado has a very clean history of running great elections with vote by mail,” Griswold told CNN. ”We have safeguards in place to make sure we would catch any type of double voting including signature verification, rules about ballot collection and a lot of other safeguards.”

 

Source: Colorado secretary of state defends mail-in voting: ‘Trump is lying’ | TheHill

Obama: ‘Unheard of’ for Trump to try to ‘actively kneecap the postal service’ | TheHill

“What we’ve never seen before is a president say, ‘I’m going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting, and I will be explicit about the reason I’m doing it,’” Obama said. “That’s sort of unheard of, right? And we also have not had an election in the midst of a pandemic that is still deadly and killing a lot of people and…we still don’t know.”

Source: Obama: ‘Unheard of’ for Trump to try to ‘actively kneecap the postal service’ | TheHill

Belarusian police continue beating and detaining journalists

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Vilnius, Lithuania, August 13, 2020 — Belarusian authorities should stop detaining journalists and allow them to cover protests freely and safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

Detentions and beatings of journalists have continued for the fifth day since the August 9 presidential elections in which incumbent President Aleksandr Lukashenko declared a landslide victory. Anti-government protesters have contested the results, holding large demonstrations, according to reports.

“Belarusian authorities should stop the brutal treatment of journalists who have been reporting on post-election protests and allow them to work freely and safely,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Detained journalists should be released, those injured should be provided access to medical treatment, journalists’ equipment should be returned, and all representatives of the press should be treated with respect.” 

Olga Khvoin, secretary with the Belarusian Association of Journalists, an advocacy group, told CPJ via phone that police have detained 68 journalists since the election. She said that 29 journalists were brutalized during their arrests, and some were injured, without providing further details. Twenty-three journalists, she said, are still in detention, though she added that BAJ’s figures are not exhaustive. 

Reached via phone, Olga Chemodanova, the head of information and public relations of Belarusian Ministry of Interior, told CPJ that the ministry has an order to “free all the journalists” today and claimed that ministry staff was visiting detention centers to ensure that they would be let go. 

She added that journalists without accreditation are working “illegally.” Asked about reports of journalists being beaten, she said she would “find out what is happening.” 

But Khvoin told CPJ “no one was released today,” and that detentions continue. She said that one journalist detained in Mohilev in eastern Belarus on August 11 was today sentenced to eight days of administrative detention. The journalist, Alina Skrabunova, is a reporter for the independent Belarusian TV station Belsat, which is registered in Poland. 

Khvoin said that in several cases journalists’ equipment was “deliberately damaged.” Naming two incidents in Minsk, she said on August 9 police destroyed the camera of AP reporter Mstyslav Chernov and on August 11 police tried, but did not succeed, to damage cameras belonging to a BBC crew. 

Yesterday in Minsk, police detained and beat a correspondent with U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Vital Tsyhankou and his wife Olga Tsyhankou, according to the broadcaster. BAJ has no information on their whereabouts, Khvoin said.

In a separate incident yesterday, also in Minsk, police detained Konstantin Reutski and Evgeny Vasilyev, correspondents with the Ukrainian independent broadcaster Hromadske TV, according to BAJ. In a statement, Hromadske TV addressed the Belarusian authorities urging them “to free the journalists, return them to Ukraine, and to not take steps limiting freedom of speech.” BAJ has no further information on the journalists, according to Khvoin. 

Also in Minsk yesterday, Belsat journalists Liubov Luneva and Dmitry Soltan were detained, as reported Tut.by, one of Belarus’s largest online media outlets. They were released the same day, Khvoin told CPJ. 

Belarus: Mounting evidence of a campaign of widespread torture of peaceful protesters

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Amnesty International and local human rights groups have collected horrifying testimonies from protesters in Belarus who describe being tortured or subjected to other ill-treatment in detention centres, including being stripped naked, beaten, and threatened with rape. Crowds outside a detention centre in Minsk say the screams of torture victims are audible from outside, and video footage corroborates this. The evidence points to a campaign of widespread torture and other ill-treatment by the Belarusian authorities who are intent on crushing peaceful protests by any means.

“For days the world has watched in horror as police in Belarus fire rubber bullets and tear gas, into crowds of peaceful protesters. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the bloody scenes on the streets of Belarus are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

<?UMBRACO_MACRO macroAlias=”Quote” quoteText=”For days the world has watched in horror as police in Belarus fire rubber bullets and tear gas, into crowds of peaceful protesters. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the bloody scenes on the streets of Belarus are just the tip of the iceberg” quoteAuthor=”Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.” />

“Former detainees told us that detention centres have become torture chambers, where protesters are forced to lie in the dirt while police kick and beat them with truncheons. They described being stripped naked and subjected to sadistic beatings while listening to the screams of other victims. These are people whose only “crime” was to take to the streets in peaceful protest. What we are seeing in Belarus is a human rights catastrophe that demands urgent action.”

<?UMBRACO_MACRO macroAlias=”Quote” quoteText=”They described being stripped naked and subjected to sadistic beatings while listening to the screams of other victims” quoteAuthor=”Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia” />

Amnesty International is calling on international leaders to put pressure on the government of Belarus to stop the mass human rights violations unfolding in the country.

Forced to lie in the dirt

Over the past few days Amnesty International delegates in Minsk have been monitoring the vicious response to protests and have interviewed former detainees about their experiences. As protests enter their fifth day, their testimonies indicate that the Belarusian authorities are resorting to increasingly drastic measures to crush dissent.

According to numerous testimonies, detainees in Minsk and other cities and towns in the country are severely beaten for the entire duration of their detention, starting from the moment when they are dragged inside police buses. The abuse continues in the police stations where they are “sorted”, and in the temporary detention centres where they are held until release or trial.

Katsyaryna Novikava told Amnesty International that she was detained in the centre of Minsk on the evening of 10 August while walking to a supermarket. She spent 34 hours at the Centre for Isolation of Offenders (also known as TsIP). Katsyaryna saw that the entire yard of the facility was filled with arrested men who had been forced to lie down in the dirt. Inside the TsIP, dozens of men were told to strip naked and get down on all fours while officers kicked and beat them with truncheons. Katsyaryna was also forced to kneel and listen to the screams of other victims.

<?UMBRACO_MACRO macroAlias=”Quote” quoteText=”Katsyaryna saw that the entire yard of the facility was filled with arrested men who had been forced to lie down in the dirt. Inside the TsIP, dozens of men were told to strip naked and get down on all fours while officers kicked and beat them with truncheons” quoteAuthor=”” />

Katsyaryna was placed in a four-person cell with 20 other women, where they slept on the floor. They were not provided with any water or food for the duration of their detention and were denied access to doctors. Multiple women she was jailed with told Katsyaryna that they had been threatened with rape by police officers.

Katsyaryna was not told until about 22 hours after arrest that she was accused of participating in an unauthorized rally. Before she was released early in the morning on 12 August, she was told by police officers, “We have all your data. If we see you here again, we’ll kill you.” Her belongings, including her passport and apartment keys, were not returned to her upon release.

Nikita Telizhenko, a journalist with the Russian online newspaper Znak.com, was arrested on the evening of 10 August.  He recalled in his article: “In the police bus, people continued to be beaten – for having tattoos, or for having long hair. “You are a faggot, now you will be turned out in prison,” they [the police officers] yelled at them.”

<?UMBRACO_MACRO macroAlias=”Quote” quoteText=”In the police bus, people continued to be beaten – for having tattoos, or for having long hair. “You are a faggot, now you will be turned out in prison,” they [the police officers] yelled at them” quoteAuthor=”Nikita Telizhenko, a Russian journalist ” />

According to Nikita, he had spent the next 16 hours in the Maskouski District Internal Affairs Office, where “the police forced the detainees to pray, read the Lord’s Prayer. Those who refused were beaten in all sort of ways. Sitting in the station’s auditorium, we heard people being beaten on the floors below and above us.”

“People spent a lot of time on their knees, or on the floor spreading their legs. […] It was scary. I’m a person who has seen quite a lot of things, but it was scary,” another journalist, Maksim Solopov, told the media. A Russian national working for the Latvian online-newspaper Meduza, Maksim was forcibly disappeared for 40 hours after being arrested in the evening of 9 August. He was released – visibly bruised – only after public outcry and intervention by the Russian Embassy.

According to evidence gathered by Viasna human rights group, in some police stations, detainees were forced to lie face down on the floor for several hours or stand against the walls of corridors or courtyards, being beaten at the slightest movement. This is confirmed by numerous testimonies and video footage that has been smuggled outside.

<?UMBRACO_MACRO macroAlias=”Quote” quoteText=”According to evidence gathered by Viasna human rights group, in some police stations, detainees were forced to lie face down on the floor for several hours or stand against the walls of corridors or courtyards, being beaten at the slightest movement” quoteAuthor=”” />

“These reports are not isolated incidents. The abundance of torture reports from across the country, corroborated video and photo images widely shared on the social media, are so widespread that it is highly probable that the approach has been sanctioned at the highest level,” said Marie Struthers.

“We once again call on the Belarusian authorities to end this brutal campaign and allow protesters to voice their opinions without fear of violent reprisals.”

Detentions amounting to enforced disappearance

The whereabouts of hundreds of detainees remains unknown, and the detentions of at least some may amount to enforced disappearance. Many have been detained since 9 August. According to the Belarusian Ministry of the Interior, over the first four days of protest, 6,700 people were detained.

Relatives of scores of detainees and their lawyers have made unsuccessful attempts to find their whereabouts, calling police stations and warning the courts that they cannot try detainees in the absence of a legal defender. On 12 August, riot police used force to disperse about 200 relatives of detainees who had peacefully gathered in front of the Akrestsyna detention facility.

“Detained peaceful protesters and bystanders are being held in detention incommunicado in violation of the most basic procedural rules, in complete disregard of their fundamental human rights. In numerous reported instances, individuals go missing for days on end, which amounts to enforced disappearance,” said Marie Struthers.

<?UMBRACO_MACRO macroAlias=”Quote” quoteText=”In numerous reported instances, individuals go missing for days on end, which amounts to enforced disappearance” quoteAuthor=” Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia” />

“We call on the authorities of Belarus to immediately stop the torture and other ill-treatment of detainees and release every person arbitrarily arrested. Independent monitors should be granted an immediate, full and unimpeded access all detention facilities. All those involved or complicit in human rights violations must be brought to justice – from the rank and file police officers in the street to the commanding officers who have ordered or turned a blind eye to abuse.”

Background

At least two deaths have already been confirmed since protests began. The first protester died on 11 August when police fired stun grenades and tear gas into a crowd in Minsk. A 25-year-old man died in custody in Brest on 12 August, on the same day when police in the city also used live ammunition against protesters.

Earlier another death was reported on 9 August, corroborated by video footage of a protester being run over by a police vehicle in Minsk and lying motionless on the ground after the vehicle drives away. The fate and whereabouts of the victim, or his body, have since remained unknown.

Forced isolation may be the only way to stop resurgence of coronavirus, Australia/NZ News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

Flare-ups from Australia to Japan show the world hasn’t learned an early lesson from the coronavirus crisis: to stop the spread, those with mild or symptom-free coronavirus infections must be forced to isolate, both from their communities and family.

In Australia, where Victoria state has been reporting record deaths, some 3,000 checks last month on people who should have been isolating at home found 800 were out and about. In Japan, where the virus has roared back, people are staying home but aren’t in isolation: 40 per cent of elderly patients are getting sick from family members in the same apartments.

The failure to effectively manage contagious people with mild or no symptoms is a driving factor behind some of the world’s worst resurgences.

 

Source: Forced isolation may be the only way to stop resurgence of coronavirus, Australia/NZ News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

Beirut explosion: Russell Crowe donates to Le Chef restaurant – BBC News

Actor Russell Crowe has donated to a fundraiser to help rebuild an iconic restaurant damaged in Beirut’s devastating explosion.

Le Chef was left “in shambles” by the blast, according to its GoFundMe page.

On Thursday, an organiser said they had received “a very generous donation” from someone named Russell Crowe.

The Oscar-winning actor confirmed he made the donation in memory of late chef Anthony Bourdain, who featured Le Chef in one of his documentaries.

“I thought that he would have probably done so if he was still around,” Crowe said in a message posted on Twitter.

“I wish you and LeChef the best and hope things can be put back together soon.”

 

Source: Beirut explosion: Russell Crowe donates to Le Chef restaurant – BBC News

US sees highest COVID-19 daily death toll since May | CIDRAP

Yesterday 1,499 Americans died from the novel coronavirus, the highest number since mid-May, and 1,000 Americans each day have succumbed to COVID-19 for the last 17 days, per 7-day rolling averages analyzed by the Washington Post.

Across the Southern half of the country, states continue to report record death tolls, with Georgia recording 105 deaths yesterday, the second day with more than 100 fatalities in a row. In Texas, 324 people died from the disease — a new single-day record.

 

Source: US sees highest COVID-19 daily death toll since May | CIDRAP