Monday, April 27, 2026

Corporate Hashtag Activism

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Corporate Hashtag Activism

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Instagram was filled yesterday with users’ posts featuring black squares, meant to convey solidarity with the protests that have erupted after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Companies joined, too, reflecting the challenge of trying to embrace their customers’ strongly held values without giving offense.

Blackout Tuesday started in the music industry, the brainchild of two insiders who wanted a pause to business as usual by staying quiet and letting conversations about racial injustice come to the fore. And companies like Apple, Spotify and music labels took the day to cease many operations in deference to the protests.

• Warner Music took a different route, delaying its I.P.O. pricing from yesterday to today.

Other businesses joined in, from retailers like Nordstrom and J. Crew to beauty brands like Ulta and sports teams like the San Francisco 49ers.

It prompted criticism that companies were using the black squares as a superficial — or even cynical — way of demonstrating support for the protesters’ cause. Messages from brands like Adidas, which has many young black customers, are scrutinized particularly closely.

• One brand that has won praise is Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream maker with a history of social activism. The company recently called on President Trump to denounce white supremacists and urged lawmakers to pass a bill studying options for reparations for slavery.

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Our DealBook Debrief call tomorrow will feature special guest Kara Swisher, one of the most plugged-in reporters in the technology industry, discussing how the tech giants are dealing with the turmoil over free speech, the pandemic, antitrust regulation and more. R.S.V.P. here for the call on Thursday at 11 a.m. Eastern, and send your questions for Kara to dealbook@nytimes.com.

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The Facebook co-founder defended his company’s hands-off approach to inflammatory posts by President Trump on a contentious call with employees yesterday. The Times’s Mike Isaac, Cecilia Kang and Sheera Frenkel listened in.

A “tough decision” that was “was pretty thorough” is how Mr. Zuckerberg described his decision to leave the posts alone. Employees’ unease with the policy, and in some cases public revolt, has been described as the biggest challenge in the Facebook founder’s career, as we detailed in DealBook yesterday.

“In trying to placate everyone, Mr. Zuckerberg has failed to appease almost anyone,” Mike, Cecilia and Sheera write. “One persistent feeling shared among Facebook’s rank-and-file came out in a direct moment between Mr. Zuckerberg and another employee during the call,” they note. “ ‘Why are the smartest people in the world focused on contorting and twisting our policies to avoid antagonizing Trump?’ the employee asked.”

“Promoting free speech shouldn’t be used as a get out of tough choices card,” Barry Schnitt, a former Facebook director of corporate communications and public policy who left the company in 2012, wrote in an open letter to the social network’s employees.

Michelle Leder is the founder of the S.E.C. filing site footnoted*. Here, she looks for trends in the votes at big technology companies’ latest shareholder meetings. You can follow her on Twitter at @footnoted.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, will hold its annual shareholder meeting today. Like most meetings these days, it will be virtual to avoid packing people into a crowded auditorium during the pandemic. Still, judging by other tech giants’ gatherings, shareholders aren’t likely to let current events dampen their appetite for voting.

Take Facebook, which on Friday disclosed its voting results for its annual meeting held earlier in the week. This year, there were far fewer “broker nonvotes” — investors who didn’t vote on resolutions — than in 2019.

Shareholders at Facebook and other big tech companies largely followed management’s recommendations, though in many cases, founders personally control so much of the vote that opposition is largely symbolic. Still, shifts in the strength of opposition can reveal what other investors think about a company:

• Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s C.O.O., received far fewer “votes withheld” — effectively, votes against her re-election to the board — than she did last year; 10 percent of votes were withheld last year, versus only 1 percent this year. Last year, advisory and advocacy groups urged shareholders to withhold votes for Ms. Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg, in an effort to push for an independent board chairman. In March, the company appointed Robert Kimmitt, a former top Treasury Department official, as lead independent director, making the issue moot.

• Amazon also disclosed far fewer broker nonvotes than in 2019 as well. Surprisingly, Jeff Bezos received nearly twice as many votes against his re-election to the board this year than he did last year — though we are talking about 2 percent of votes against or abstaining this year, versus 1 percent last year.

• Apple held its annual meeting in-person at its office in Cupertino, Calif., in late February, a few weeks before the pandemic shut the world down. Broker nonvotes were down by nearly a quarter at the meeting versus last year.

It’s hard to draw firm conclusions from this year’s crop of annual meetings, given how different this spring has been. But with many companies having held virtual meetings without any meaningful drop in participation — if anything, it’s been the opposite — holding in-person events may become the exception, not the norm.

• Harvard economists found that major government relief programs exclude many companies with big debt loads, The Times’s Jeanna Smialek reports.

• The Fed’s Main Street lending initiative to help midsize companies is “too late and not enough,” some of the intended recipients told Politico.

• ProPublica published an investigation into Justin Muzinich, the Treasury Department official managing the department’s economic aid measures who still retains ties to his family’s investment firm, which has benefited from the bailout.

• A group of bipartisan lawmakers are taking a look at the role that BlackRock, the asset management giant, is playing in overseeing Fed bailout efforts, Politico reports.

• Private equity titans like KKR and Apollo used a little-known loan program run by the Department of Health and Human Services to help some of their health care portfolio companies, according to Bloomberg.

The Trump administration warned that it may investigate proposals by other countries to impose special taxes on American internet giants. That risks igniting another trade war, The Times’s Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson write.

At issue are levies on the revenue of companies like Facebook and Google that generate significant sales but don’t report large taxable profits in many countries where they operate. France, Britain and India have been imposing these taxes for months.

• There’s a clear incentive for countries to do this, writes Paul Donovan of UBS: “With rising borrowing, governments have a politically easy target in technology companies with global operations and limited tax payments — regardless of where they happen to be headquartered.”

The U.S. inquiry could imperil international talks to create a global framework for such taxes, Jim and Ana write. But the administration’s pushback is supported by several American business concerns, including a major Silicon Valley trade group and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Zoom, the videoconferencing service that has become a staple for many homebound workers, reported its latest quarterly results yesterday. The numbers were, in a word, astounding.

The company blew away expectations, with quarterly revenue up 169 percent, to $328 million. It earned $27 million, versus only about $200,000 in the same quarter last year. It doubled its previous guidance for sales this fiscal year, and tripled its profit forecast. Zoom’s market cap is now nearly $60 billion, after tripling in value since the start of the year.

• The few downsides in the report were related to its explosive growth, with the cost of extra bandwidth — which it buys from Amazon and Oracle — eating into margins. A peak of 300 million average daily users in April also came down “a little bit” in May.

It was the most upbeat earnings calls you’ll hear in a while. Executives acknowledged the solemnity of the pandemic and “shocking” social unrest, but the mood brightened considerably when the discussion shifted to the company’s finances.

• Analysts often give a perfunctory “great quarter, guys” to executives before asking questions. But Aleksandr Zukin of RBC uncorked this at the start of the call’s Q.&A. section: “You just delivered one of, if not the greatest, all-time quarters in enterprise software history.”

• It was the birthday of Zoom’s C.F.O., Kelly Steckelberg, and she said that presenting the results was “the best birthday present I could ever have.”

• The call, held on Zoom (naturally), had over 3,000 participants, said Eric Yuan, the C.E.O. His opening remarks were delayed slightly when — like millions of other Zoom users every day — he forgot to unmute his mic.

Deals

• SoftBank plans to create a $100 million fund to invest exclusively in start-ups founded by entrepreneurs of color. (Axios)

• Facebook and PayPal were among the investors in the latest funding round for Gojek, the Indonesian ride-hailing company. (CNBC)

Politics and policy

• The Times reconstructed how President Trump’s desire for a photo op at a Washington church led to armed officers, agents and troops aggressively clearing out a park near the White House. (NYT)

Tech

• An organization backed by Silicon Valley giants sued President Trump over his move to curb social networks’ legal immunity over user-generated content. (WaPo)

Best of the rest

• New York financial regulators may punish Deutsche Bank over its dealings with the deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein. (NYT)

• The pandemic has opened the door to a resurgence of the Italian mafia, experts warn. (The Crime Report)

• Meet the biggest players in the tear gas industry. (Axios)

Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter misstated the name of the health care company that bought back control from the investment firm Cerberus. It is Steward Health Care, not Stewart Health Care. You can read more about the deal here.

We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com.



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Milind Soman goes running with wife Ankita Konwar after 75 days, shares pic

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Milind Soman goes running with wife Ankita Konwar after 75 days, shares pic

Image Source : INSTAGRAM/@MILINDRUNNING

Milind Soman goes running with wife Ankita Konwar after 75 days, shares pic

Milind Soman Soman is a fitness inspiration and there is no denying that. The former supermodel is not only known for his impeccable looks but also his health conscious routine even at the age of 54. The actor-model had his first run after 75 days recently and shared an inspiring picture along with wife Amkita Konwar.

Taking to Instagram, Milind Soman shared the picture and wrote, “First run on first day of Unlock one!!! When you haven’t run for 75 days, you have to take it slow its unlock one for the body as well, so no matter the level of excitement, control is key ! Just a slow 5k enjoying the cool weather, mild drizzle and the lack of traffic and people, feeling F.I.N.E !!!!!!! And yes, I pulled the mask down while running and nobody was around!”.

Ankita Konwar got married to Milind Soman in April, 2018 in Alibaug. The couple had a barefoot wedding in Spain in the same year.

On the work front, Milind Soman was last seen in the Amazon Prime web-series Four More Shots Please where he shared screen space with Sayani Gupta, Bani J, Kirti Kulhari and Maanvi Gagroo.

Fight against Coronavirus: Full coverage



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A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Maintaining Tourist Sites During COVID-19

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A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Maintaining Tourist Sites During COVID-19

Under normal circumstances, spring is the time when the country’s many zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens come alive with activity after a long, cold winter. However, this year has been anything but ordinary. Over the course of the last couple of months, the nation has watched as these popular travel destinations as well as museums and historical sites have closed to visitors in an attempt to help curb the spread of COVID-19. But while these attractions may have been (or in many states, still are) off limits to the general public, essential workers have been showing up daily to take care of animals, plants and artifacts amidst their closures.

However, it’s not just the workers who are feeling the affects of the pandemic, but the animals, too. Zoos worldwide report that there have been noticeable shifts in the animals’ behavior. In some cases, the animals are craving more human interaction, which they normally receive when these facilities are bustling with visitors. Giraffes at the Houston Zoo, for instance, are used to visitors feeding them lettuce, and the chimpanzees at the Maryland Zoo are normally hand fed but due to social distancing procedures are receiving scatter feedings instead.

Zookeepers, animal trainers, horticulturalist and other essential employees across the United States have had to maintain a sense of normalcy to keep things running smoothly behind-the-scenes. Whether that means working longer, more sporadic hours or taking on new duties, these caretakers’ roles have shifted in the wake of COVID-19, sometimes in interesting and creative ways.

These staff members have had the unique opportunity to witness changes at their places of work that are the immediate result of closures. Colleen Kinzley has been living onsite at the Oakland Zoo in California for nearly 25 years, but it’s only been in the past few weeks that she’s witnessed a shift in animal activity at what has been her home for much of her career. As vice president of animal care conservation and research, she’s responsible for leading a team of zookeepers in caring for the animals, particularly the zoo’s resident herd of three African elephants, whose quarters are within close proximity to her own. If one of the animals should need immediate assistance at night, either she or the other onsite manager springs to action. But because there haven’t been large crowds of people visiting the zoo, she’s noticed animals from the adjacent Joseph Knowland State Arboretum and Park, a nearly 500-acre green space, starting to roam the zoo.

Colleen Kinzley (left), vice president of animal care conservation and research at the Oakland Zoo, works with a mountain lion rescued from the wild.

(Courtesy Oakland Zoo)

“I walk to and from work each day, and lately I’ve been seeing more deer and turkey during that time,” Kinzley says. “I’ve seen a couple of deer strolling through the elephant exhibit. We also have some frogs living in the [Wayne and Gladys Valley Children’s Zoo] that are usually silent, but now they’re deafening. It’s been interesting seeing wildlife take over where people have left off.”

While Kinzley’s animal encounters are something that the public will not likely get to experience once the zoo reopens and the crowds return, at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, animal care staff have lifted the veil of what goes on behind-the-scenes by putting some of their resident animals in the limelight. In March, trainers filmed the aquarium’s colony of Rockhopper penguins as they went on a “field trip” through the building’s beluga whale exhibit. The video quickly went viral. However, one thing a lot of people may not realize is that these roughly 30-minute jaunts are a regular occurrence for the penguins once the crowds have left the building.

“Sometimes we’ll walk them into the offices upstairs, or during slower times we’ll take them through the exhibits when the building is less crowded,” says Steven Aibel, senior director of animal behavior and training. “We want our animals to be flexible and used to closed and open buildings. In the wild, animals are meant to be flexible and adaptive, so we’re parlaying that into their current environment by making things variable and each day new.”

Aibel says that the viral video’s international acclaim was a fluke and the result of one of the trainers who wanted to capture the moment to share with family, friends and colleagues.

“Little did we know that the world would be interested,” he says. “We thought it was cool and fun, and the experience shows the positive affect animals can have, especially right now when people are looking for hope these days.”

This hope is proving especially important as these essential employees are not only trying to keep operations running smoothly, but also striving to educate the public, which during normal times is a crucial part of their day-to-day work.

“The biggest change for us while we’re closed is that we’re not doing any public-facing programs,” Aibel says. “Normally, each morning we come in and prepare for ways to engage with guests by doing presentations, meet and greets, and animal encounters. These things are very purposeful to the welfare of the animals, since it gives them activities and stretches their brains. Because these exercises are no longer supplied through daily programming, we’ve had to figure out ways to still do these elements, such as taking them on walks through the aquarium.”

In institutions where there are no animals to care for, essential workers have had a little more leeway in how creative they can get while still engaging with audiences. At the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Tim Tiller, the museum’s head of security and resident cowboy, has become the unofficial social media spokesman for the museum. For the past couple of months, Tiller has been working with the marketing team by hijacking the museum’s Twitter feed (@ncwhm) with his viral #HashtagTheCowboy posts. In his tweets, Tiller highlights some of the high jinks he’s gotten into as one of the sole staff members on site, like modeling items sold in the gift shop and interacting with the exhibits, including a stint in the museum’s jail. He’s also been answering fans’ questions like, “How often did cowboys take a bath?” and “What’s the proper way to tie a wild rag or bandana?”

“We were hoping to gain a few new audience members, but had no expectations that they would be from all over the world,” Tiller says. “People are telling us that the posts have helped them through their day, and thank us for the positivity during this tough time.”

Seth Spillman, the museum’s chief marketing officer, and his team are the ones responsible for recruiting Tiller in the first place.

“Tim is an authentic voice for our institution and has been a real sport with all of this,” he says. “We’re getting feedback from people from all over the world who have said that they’ve never been to our state and museum, but now they can’t wait to come and visit us when we reopen.”

Another popular tourist destination that has been finding new ways to engage with the public is the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. When it closed on March 15, the organization was quick to keep the garden’s many fans actively involved by posting photos and videos of its popular Orchid Show, which was already in full bloom and, during normal circumstances, one of the first signs of spring for many New Yorkers. Over the years, the NYBG has served as a beacon of hope and popular respite for city dwellers.

“After 9/11, people enjoyed having access to the garden, since they saw it as a place that’s fundamentally peaceful and where they could bask in the benevolence of peace and beauty,” says Todd Forrest, the Arthur Ross Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections at the NYBG. “People need that now more than ever, and it’s frustrating that we’re not able to provide that since we’re closed. We’re anxious for people to come back.”

Todd Forrest New York Botanical Gardens.jpg
Todd Forrest, Arthur Ross Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections, spoke during a media preview of an exhibition in June 2019 at the New York Botanical Garden.

(Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images)

However, there is some hope that, slowly but surely, things are beginning to go back to (more or less) normal at the gardens. Forrest says that during the first few weeks of its closure, only a small number of horticulturists were onsite, but every week more employees are returning to work to help out by watering and planting flowers, mowing the expansive lawns and transplanting plants in anticipation of summer’s first visitors.

“Right now the cherry trees, gardenias, and daffodils are all in bloom,” he says. “It’s stunningly beautiful, but haunting because the crowds aren’t here to enjoy it.”

Some day, perhaps sooner rather than later, these popular attractions will once again be alive with activity. But until then, at least we can find solace in knowing that these important destinations are right there, waiting for us to return.



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Boris Johnson: George Floyd death ‘inexcusable’

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Boris Johnson: George Floyd death ‘inexcusable’

Boris Johnson said that any protests taking place in the U.K. should be carried out in accordance with social distancing rules. | Chris J. Ratcliffe/Getty Images

UK PM refuses to be drawn on whether he has raised concerns with Donald Trump.

LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the death of George Floyd “appalling” and “inexcusable” but urged protesters in the U.S. and elsewhere to stay within the law and behave in a “reasonable way.”

Giving his first public comments on the unrest in the U.S. at the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Johnson said he understood protesters’ anger, but declined to be drawn on whether he had raised his concerns with Donald Trump.

Labour leader Keir Starmer urged Johnson to convey “the U.K.’s abhorrence” at Trump’s response, while the Scottish National Party’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said Trump’s “actions and rhetoric”  had been “distressing” and claimed the U.S. was on “a dangerous slide into autocracy.”

Commenting on the death of Floyd in Minneapolis, Johnson said: “What happened in the U.S. was appalling, it was inexcusable, we all saw it on our screens, and I perfectly understand people’s right to protest what took place, though obviously I also believe that protest should take place in a lawful and reasonable way.”

Asked by Blackford to state plainly that “black lives matter,” Johnson said: “Of course black lives matter, and I totally understand the anger, the grief that is felt not just in America but around the world and in our country as well. I totally understand that and I get that.”

He added that any protests taking place in the U.K. should be carried out in accordance with social distancing rules.



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Jair Bolsonaro has trashed Brazil’s image but he hasn’t broken its soul | Eliane Brum

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Jair Bolsonaro has trashed Brazil’s image but he hasn’t broken its soul | Eliane Brum

It is claimed that the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, had a prophetic start to his political career: he was accused (a controversial trial found him not guilty) of devising an aborted plan to press for higher wages by detonating bombs in his army barracks. Decades later, he finally seems to have managed to blow something up: his country’s image overseas.

Given his government’s thoroughly irresponsible handling of the pandemic, Brazilians are now seen as a walking biological threat. Since 27 May, they have been banned from entering the US. It is already one of the nations worst hit by Covid-19 and studies indicate that the number of deaths may surpass 125,000 by August. Bolsonaro has dismissed the disease as a ‘little flu’.

Indigenous peoples in the Amazon have warned that Covid-19 might lead to their extermination, since the government gives them no protection and their lands have been invaded by land grabbers and illegal miners, incited by Bolsonaro’s anti-indigenous rhetoric. Satellite data has shown deforestation of the world’s largest tropical forest is out of control. 

An already weakened economy is heading for a depression, possibly the worst crash in the country’s history. Some days ago, the veteran journalist Elio Gaspari cited a Brazilian businessman who works on international markets: “The way Brazil’s reputation is going, in a while I’ll only get responses from answering machines.”

Brazil used to be seen as a kind of colourful giant, with plenty of sun, good football, great music, friendly people, and favelas where more daring visitors could spend their dollars on “real-life tourism”. While such an image might have been a cliche, it was one that gave the country a degree of soft power on the international stage. Nobody used this image better than the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “Our people’s souls, their eyes, their warmth, their rhythm, their colour and their smiles are unbeatable. The world has finally recognised it: Brazil’s time and turn have come,” he said in 2009. 

In June 2013, with an economic crisis knocking at the door and the uncharismatic Dilma Rousseff in power, the world watched on as protests erupted across Brazil. The period of euphoria over the country’s redemocratisationafter the 1964-1985 military dictatorship had petered out. The Workers’ party, which had symbolised the country’s best hopes, had grown corrupt in power, buying votes in congress mostly paid by construction firms in exchange for building contracts. There was a growing sentiment that democracy was not delivering what it had promised in such areas as public security, education and health.



A protester in São Paulo on Sunday, whose masks reads ‘Bolsonaro out’. Photograph: Van Campos/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Three years later, Rousseff was impeached ostensibly for window dressing government accounts, although this was a pretext for political reasons. Lula was convicted on charges of personal corruption in 2017 as part of a controversial judicial process. The former president has always maintained his innocence and argued the case against him was also politically motivated.

In the years before Bolsonaro’s ascent, marginalised communities demanded their place at the country’s political centre. The black community and women fought to have power in a country built on racism, and where violence against women and members of the LGBTQ+ community has reached alarming levels. Assassinated in March 2018, Mariele Franco embodied this hard-won power: the leftwing city councillor was female, black, lesbian and from a favela.

No one has better leveraged hatred, fear and frustration than Bolsonaro. He has done so especially among sections of the white middle-class, who have suffered the erosion of their buying power and watched as the black community refused to return to its historical subaltern position. And especially among men challenged by women who decried sexual harassment and misogynistic jokes. Perceiving that its cultural, racial and class privileges were threatened, a slice of Brazilian society has sensed quicksand beneath its feet.

In his election victory speech last year, Bolsonaro promised “liberation from socialism, inverted values … and political correctness”. His own advocacy of violence, including praise for torture and the assassination of opponents, is interpreted by his followers as “authenticity”. He has spoken out against black people, indigenous peoples, women and the LGBTQ+ community along with his adversaries, all labelled “communists”.  Brazilians who had hidden their prejudices deep in the internet’s sewers began displaying them in daylight and on social media like trophies. Bolsonaro, in power, had redeemed such people. 

Now the price is being paid – in human lives, and in Brazil being made into a global pariah – for this investment in hatred. The world watches as Brazil grows more militarised and authoritarian. Nine ministers are from the armed forces and almost 3,000 members of the military hold second-echelon positions.

Signs of an olive-green coup abound. On Sunday, Bolsonaro arrived by military helicopter to join a protest against the supreme court and congress, which have tried to limit the president’s abuses. He then rode through the crowd on a police horse. One of his main groups of supporters, 300 do Brasil, has camped in the capital. They are armed and use Nazi symbols. 

Augusto Heleno, a retired general and national security adviser, drew support from retired military officers when he warned of “unpredictable consequences” for the country if the court pursued its demand for the president to hand over his mobile phones in a case involving fake news. In a public letter, the officers intimated that there was a possibility of “civil war”. The press is also under attack, transformed into an enemy of Brazil by Bolsonaro. 

The real Brazil never corresponded to the cliched image of a gentle giant, projected for export. But not even the most pessimistic Brazilian could have predicted that in 17 months Bolsonaro would hijack all the country’s joy and creative power. A rising number now think it is easier to survive the virus than the president.

Brazil today is masked in hatred. But there are other Brazils, and they resist. This weekend, previously irreconcilable figures from the left and right and from all walks of life released a manifesto in which they declared that two-thirds of Brazilians want a government that respects the constitution and want to feel “joy and pride in being Brazilian once again”. Jurists from across the country published a statement in the country’s leading newspapers demanding the armed forces respect democracy. It is not just the country’s image that is being contested: it is the country’s soul.

• Eliane Brum is a Brazilian journalist, author of The Collector of Leftover Souls – Dispatches from Brazil. This piece was translated by Diane Grosklaus Whitty.

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Father of Bulgarian killed by Aussie Jock Palfreeman condemns early release

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Father of Bulgarian killed by Aussie Jock Palfreeman condemns early release

The father of a Bulgarian man killed by Jock Palfreeman has told local media he wants to see the Australian go back to prison for “one more night”.

Hristo Monov condemned the early release of Mr Palfreeman, who served nearly 12 years in jail in Bulgaria for the murder of his son Andrei, at a press conference in Sofia on Wednesday.

“I just want (Palfreeman) to go back to prison for one more night – they’ll be so happy to see him,” Mr Monov told reporters.

Jock Palfreeman when he was released from detention in Bulgaria after being granted parole. (AP)

The former Bulgarian Socialist Party MP said the early release of Mr Palfreeman was illegal and that the three-judge panel who made the decision in September were corrupt.

“It’s on those judges’ conscience that they released him,” Mr Monov said.

“He will kill again, I know that. It’s on them when he does it.”

The former politician called Mr Palfreeman a sociopath and attacked the 33-year-old, as well as the Bulgaria Helsinki Committee, which has assisted him, for supporting the country’s LGBT community.

Palfreeman was convicted of fatally stabbing a Bulgarian student during a 2007 brawl.
Palfreeman was convicted of fatally stabbing a Bulgarian student during a 2007 brawl. (AP)

“Jock and (the BHC) threaten the Bulgarian way of life and our belief system,” Mr Monov said.In response, Mr Palfreeman on Wednesday told AAP he “opposed hate speech towards either Bulgarians, Roma or LGBT families”.

But Mr Palfreeman said he remains unable to leave the country as his movement is restricted by the Bulgarian government over issues relating to an expired travel ban.

Australia’s foreign affairs department has welcomed the Supreme Court of Cassation’s ruling but would not comment further on Mr Palfreeman’s situation. He is receiving consular assistance.

Hristo Monov, the father of the Bulgarian man killed by Jock Palfreeman has condemned his early release. (AAP Image/Supplied by Bulgarian News Agency) (PR IMAGE)

The former Riverview student earlier this week applied in Sofia for a review of video evidence omitted from his first murder trial.

Mr Palfreeman said the new evidence would be more than enough to secure a retrial and that the application was unrelated to the administrative barriers currently preventing him leaving Bulgaria.

“The request was just a long time coming,” he said.

Bulgaria Helsinki Committee president Dr Krassimir Kanev, who wrote a letter in support of Mr Palfreeman’s early release, said the Australian could claim “hundreds of thousands” of euros in compensation for wrongful imprisonment if he is acquitted.

But he doubts the Sofia City Prosecutor will accept Mr Palfreeman’s request.<

“Renewal is an extraordinary procedure, an attack on a final judgment, which was subject to two appeals,” Dr Kanev told AAP.

Mr Palfreeman was released in October after serving nearly 12 years behind bars in the Balkan nation’s capital.

He was found guilty of murder and attempted murder for stabbing two Bulgarian youths during a street melee in 2007.

The 33-year-old has always maintained he acted in self-defence.

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Cory Booker Asks A Pointed Question Over And Over In Senate Speech Against Racism

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Cory Booker Asks A Pointed Question Over And Over In Senate Speech Against Racism

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Tuesday delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor about racism and the protests that have erupted nationwide since the death of George Floyd.

Booker said the police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis last week was a “searing” reminder for many Black Americans that “this could have been me. That this even would have been me in the same circumstances.”

Being Black in America is “to know that a misunderstanding, that an implicit racial bias that an interaction that should be everyday and routine can become a moment that your life is turned upside down, your body becomes broken or you are killed,” continued Booker, who is Black.

“It’s why so many Black Americans scream out: ‘Do you see me? I do not have your equal justice under law. Do you see me? I do not have justice for all. Do you see me? I matter. I matter. Black lives matter. Black bodies matter. America, I love you, do you see me? Do you know my experiences? Do you know the failings of our ideals?’”

“Hope is essential but it is not enough,” Booker added.

Booker, the former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, joined the Senate in 2013 and said it was “literally the least diverse place” he’d seen. Booker ended his run for president in January.

Check out Booker’s address in the video above.



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Russian firm, French far-right party settle $10m debt dispute

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Russian firm, French far-right party settle $10m debt dispute

A legal agreement has been reached between France’s far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen and a Russian firm suing it over a $10.1m unpaid loan, according to a Moscow court.

“An amicable agreement was reached between the parties. The judge approved it,” a court spokeswoman told AFP news agency on Wednesday after the first hearing into the dispute.

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Documents filed in December last year to Moscow’s Court of Arbitration showed aviation parts company Aviazapchast was suing Le Pen’s party for 639.8 million rubles ($10.1m) loaned to the party.

Documents show the sum has since increased to 734 million rubles ($11.5m), though it was not immediately clear what accounted for the increase.

It should have made a single payment of nine million euros ($10m) in 2019, after interest payments.     

The debt-recovery action was filed with the Russian court late last year, and the National Rally party was notified in a December letter of the first hearing in June.

The court said a document outlining the full agreement would be published within five working days.

Controversial loan

The French far-right party, which has struggled financially for several years, took out the loan with Russia’s First Czech-Russian Bank in 2014.

News of the lending sparked concerns the Kremlin had thrown its weight behind Le Pen’s party, which is critical of Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis.

In March 2016, the original loan was passed to Russian car hire firm Konti, shortly before the First Czech-Russian Bank went into administration and eventually shut down in July the same year.

State-owned Deposit Insurance Agency then indicated that the loan had been passed on to Aviazapchast in late 2016.

Russian news site Open Media says Aviazapchast has its roots in a Soviet-era company.

As well as selling Russian aircraft parts to Asia and Africa, it also sells metals for the aerospace industry to India and Syria.

Previous debts

The National Rally was already in debt in its previous incarnation as the National Front, when it was led by co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of the current leader. Marine Le Pen took over leadership of the party in 2011.

In 2018, the French authorities withheld $2.2m of public subsidies normally paid to political parties, pending an inquiry into the alleged misuse of European Union funds.

French authorities are also pursuing the party to recover nearly 11.6 million euros ($12.9m) in damages and interest for alleged fraud and misuse of public money during the 2012 parliamentary election campaign.

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Police block protesters from leaving Manhattan Bridge in hours-long standoff

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Police block protesters from leaving Manhattan Bridge in hours-long standoff

After New York City protesters flooded the Manhattan Bridge, the NYPD blocked off both sides of the bridge preventing demonstrators from leaving. Eventually, police ended the standoff allowing protesters to vacate the area.

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Education is a political and ethical matter – The Mail & Guardian

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Education is a political and ethical matter – The Mail & Guardian

COMMENT

With the Covid-19 lockdown regulations, ministerial announcements and public commentary, never before have Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire’s ideas about education been more relevant. 

In 1970 Freire argued that education is political and ethical, and cannot be detached from the current context of social and political realities. This is evident in the policies that govern education, the distribution of educational resources across the country, the pedagogy and the assessments used in classrooms. 

Every day, politicians, parents and society at large are debating whether schools should reopen or not. Many are questioning how the academic year will be completed, and raising curriculum and instruction issues. Pedagogy —  the methods and practice of teaching — has come under the spotlight as learners and teachers are expected to rapidly transition from face-to-face to online, remote learning and teaching.

Pedagogy and resources

Epistemological access has become a glaring issue during this period. Some learners have access to information and technology, but even then, the process of learning is difficult, including a lack of study space in many homes as room is taken up by family members in lockdown. It is thus important to understand that access to gadgets and information does not always result in learning taking place. 

Plunged into the deep end, not all teachers are equipped with the required technological devices and the online or blended pedagogy required. We accept that we must move with the times and do what we can to salvage the situation, but we cannot ignore the online pedagogical expertise that many of our teachers lack. 

Those with online skills and good guidance have created online classrooms on multiple platforms. This is commendable, however we have to question how equitable outcomes can be achieved nationally when there is uneven guidance to support the achievement of online skills for all teachers.

The gap is considerable. Some schools, predominantly the better-resourced schools, have been able to carry on with teaching online whereas in many other schools, learners have had to make do with a couple of radio and television lessons. Within schools there is also unevenness in the distribution of devices, as not all teachers possess smartphones or laptops to be able to teach online. 

What is in question is the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which speaks to the provision of quality education for all learners. Furthermore, in the department of basic education’s (DBE) 2016 strategic plan, two critical priority areas and mandates of the National Development Plan refer to the drawing up of a joint plan to roll out broadband ICT infrastructure so that all schools should meet the minimum infrastructure standards by 2016. Moreover, the 2004 White Paper on e-Education sketches out the fundamentals of transformed learning and teaching through information and communication technologies. What we are sorely experiencing during this pandemic is the lack of achievement of these goals as many schools on the ground have no experience of them at all. This affects their academic success enormously.

As for the DBE option of home-schooling, who does this option benefit? Many parents do not have the means or the knowledge of the curriculum and depend on public schooling for the education of their children.

All of these issues bring to the fore our racialised, post-apartheid, bimodal education system that reinforces inequality and perpetuates the coexistence of poverty and privilege.


Inflexible assessment

Another important question that has been highlighted during this period centres on statements made by the DBE that the grade 12 examination papers were set a long time ago and therefore the curriculum cannot be adjusted, irrespective of the schooling days missed. If assessment is going to be so rigid and inflexible, one wonders how we can claim that assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning? We know that the curriculum is not only about the content, but about the environment in which it is delivered and the teachers who deliver it. To ignore all of these critical aspects is highly questionable. 

For some township and rural schools, even in a normal year, when learners can attend school every day, there are multiple issues, including learner transport, water and sanitation, feeding scheme and safety and security issues. These learners are expected to perform at the same level as learners who do not experience these problems. Now the pandemic has added to this burden and yet we still expect these learners to perform well and complete the academic year. With full knowledge of the uneven learning that has been taking place across the country, is this fair?

Reopening of schools 

With regard to the reopening of schools, to say that if schools do not comply with the requirements of the department for Covid-19 they will not be allowed to start up again, is very irresponsible. We know that many of the schools that will not be ready are the schools in the rural areas and townships. How can we further disadvantage these learners? What is the plan to assist these schools to comply and address their non-existent connectivity and infrastructure?

We simply cannot behave as if everything is “normal”. The education sector as a whole needs to reflect, recalibrate and reimagine the best way forward during and beyond Covid-19, considering the circumstances. We need to re-look at how we envisage completing the academic year; we need to look at where our schools are and who our learners are in those schools. Knowing who the learner is gives us the opportunity to be aware of their learning needs, their circumstances and to plan accordingly. This is not optional; as educators we are compelled to do so.



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