The EU missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah have noted with concern that Israeli authorities have continued to carry out demolitions of Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2020. These demolitions, including of EU and EU member states-funded structures, have resulted in the displacement of Palestinians and negatively affected Palestinian communities.
While welcoming Palestinian-Israeli cooperation to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU missions note with concern that demolitions have continued since the outbreak of the pandemic in early March. Demolitions have also continued during the Holy Month of Ramadan, which saw a three-fold increase in the number of demolished structures compared to last year.
Under international humanitarian law, the occupying power has a responsibility to ensure and maintain public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, as well as to adopt appropriate measures to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.
In line with the EU’s long-standing position on Israel’s settlement policy – illegal under international law – and actions taken in that context, such as forced transfers, evictions, demolitions and confiscations of homes, the EU urges the Israeli authorities to halt demolitions of Palestinian structures.
Minnesota State Patrol officers arrested CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and two members of his crew while they were broadcasting live from protests in Minneapolis on Friday morning’s broadcast of “New Day.â€
Jimenez, who was covering the demonstrations that have erupted in the city following the death of George Floyd, was placed in handcuffs and taken away after telling officers the crew would go wherever they wanted them to.Â
CNN called for the release of the trio in a statement shared on Twitter.
“A CNN reporter & his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves ― a clear violation of their First Amendment rights,†it read. “The authorities in Minnesota, incl. the Governor, must release the 3 CNN employees immediately.â€
A CNN reporter & his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves – a clear violation of their First Amendment rights. The authorities in Minnesota, incl. the Governor, must release the 3 CNN employees immediately.
John Berman, the cohost of “New Day,†said the network’s legal team was “in touch with authorities and working to secure the release of the team.â€
Viewers and Jimenez’s colleagues expressed shock at the scene:
My colleague @OmarJimenez, reporting calmly and cooperatively, was just arrested on live television along with his crew.
The Minnesota State Patrol just arrested my colleague @CNN correspondent @OmarJimenez and his team for doing their job. Reporting the news. His camera is still rolling as it sits on the ground in #Minneapolis — see it on @NewDayCNN now.
Outdoor sports venues across Texas will be allowed to operate at reduced capacity for professional sporting events from this weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Thursday.
From Friday all the counties in the Lone Star State, with the exception of Deaf Smith, El Paso, Moore, Potter and Randall counties, will be allowed to host fans in outdoor venues for professional sporting events, provided capacity is capped at 25 percent.
Prior to welcoming fans back into the stadiums, however, the respective leagues will need to receive approval from the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Fans, however, are still banned from attending indoor sporting events and Abbott did not address college and high school sports, although a week ago Abbott had suggested some fans could be allowed to attend college football games this fall.
“If you want a prediction […] we are gonna have college football beginning as scheduled […] with at least some level of fans in the stands,” he told NBC-affiliate KXAN-TV last week.
The relaxation on allowing fans in the stadiums came as Texas reported a new single-day high of coronavirus cases.
According to the latest figure from the state’s health department released on May 28, Texas reported 59,776 cases of coronavirus, an increase of 1,855 from the previous day and 7,508 more than a week ago.
The previous single-day high increase of new cases was 1,801 on May 16.
The death toll, meanwhile, rose by 39 in 24 hours to 1,601, compared with a total of 816 at the beginning of the month.
Texas’ move to allow at least some fans in outdoor venues is a significant step, as so far it had been widely accepted that games will be played behind closed doors for the foreseeable future whenever professional leagues return from the two-month hiatus imposed by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, the NHL announced that as part of its restart plans, the playoffs will see all the Eastern Conference and Western Conference games split across two yet-to-be-determined cities. The decision to play in specific hubs has been taken to minimize travel and ensure players can be as isolated as possible. While the NBA is yet to finalize return plans, it is expected to follow the NHL’s example and play the entire postseason at the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida.
While both sports are expected to resume behind closed doors, Abbott’s decision to allow outdoor venues to operate at reduced capacity could is significant for the Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans—the state’s MLB and NFL teams.
Earlier this week, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said he believed fans will be allowed into stadiums once the NFL season begins, while complying with health guidelines set out by the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention.
“I think there definitely will be a football season this year,” he said during an interview with CNBC on Tuesday morning. “[The] real question is, will there be fans in the stadium? Right now—today—we’re planning to have fans in the stadium.”
A day later, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft confirmed the NFL was ready to return this summer and that it was exploring ways to ensure fans could safely attend games in the not so distant future.
“We’re preparing to hopefully play football this fall,” the Patriots owner told Sean Hannity on FOX News on Tuesday night.
“We’re working hand-in-hand with our [players] union […] We believe we’re developing protocols that allow us to do it in a safe way, looking out first for our players and our personnel, and then of course, the fans. I believe we can do it.”
As of Friday morning, over 1.72 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in the U.S., by far the highest tally of any country in the world.
Over 101,600 deaths have been recorded in the U.S. and almost 400,000 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking the outbreak using combined data sources.
A view of Globe Life Field, where the Texas Rangers MLB team plays, on March 18, 2020 in Arlington, Texas. The inaugural opening of Globe Life Field was delayed due to closures and event cancellations caused by the COVID-19 virus. The NBA, NHL, NCAA, and MLB have all announced cancellations or postponements of events because of the COVID-19. Tom Pennington/Getty
The beauty of the outdoors naturally encourages people to go outside, inhale fresh air, listen to the birds, take a walk, or watch the wind animate the branches of the steadfast neighboring trees. The pull toward the natural world is present even in normal times. Now, as we’re confined indoors by the coronavirus pandemic, often spending hours in front of inanimate screens, the urge to be outside is ever more acute. One way to satisfy these urges while improving our health and well-being is forest therapy, a practice growing in popularity around the world.
What is forest therapy?
Inspired by the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing,†forest therapy is a guided outdoor healing practice. Unlike a hike or guided nature walk aimed at identifying trees or birds, forest therapy relies on trained guides, who set a deliberately slow pace and invite people to experience the pleasures of nature through all of their senses. It encourages people to be present in the body, enjoying the sensation of being alive and deriving profound benefits from the relationship between ourselves and the rest of the natural world.
Shinrin-yoku started in Japan in the 1980s in response to a national health crisis. Leaders in Japan noticed a spike in stress-related illnesses, attributed to people spending more time working in technology and other industrial work. Certified trails were created to guide people in outdoor experiences. Decades of research show that forest bathing may help reduce stress, improve attention, boost immunity, and lift mood.
How does forest therapy affect the body?
Stress raises levels of the hormone cortisol. Long-term stress and chronic elevations in cortisol play a role in high blood pressure, heart disease, headaches, and many other ailments. In test subjects, levels of cortisol decreased after a walk in the forest, compared with people who walked in a laboratory setting.
Trees give off volatile essential oils called phytoncides that have antimicrobial properties and may influence immunity. One Japanese study showed a rise in number and activity of immune cells called natural killer cells, which fight viruses and cancer, among people who spent three days and two nights in a forest versus people who took an urban trip. This benefit lasted for more than a month after the forest trip!
Don’t worry if you don’t have three days to spend in the forest. A recent study in the United Kingdom of nearly 20,000 people showed that spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature improved self-reported health and well-being. It doesn’t matter whether the 120 minutes represents one long trip, or several shorter visits to nature. So, even as we are honoring physical distancing, we can get outside for 20 minutes every day and enhance our well-being.
Some research suggests exposure to natural tree oils helps lift depression, lowers blood pressure, and may also reduce anxiety. Tree oils also contain 3-carene. Studies in animals suggest this substance may help lessen inflammation, protect against infection, lower anxiety, and even enhance the quality of sleep.
Even people confined to a hospital bed may benefit from viewing nature. A small study published decades ago compared people who recovered from gallbladder surgery in a room with a window onto a natural outdoor view with people who recovered from the same surgery in a hospital room with a view of a brick wall. People who could see nature recovered more quickly and needed less powerful pain medication than people who could not see nature.
And one intriguing study found benefit in green roofs. Participants were asked to look at nature in a green roof or concrete for 40 seconds while the researchers measured attention. According to this study, green spaces are restorative and boost attention, while viewing concrete worsens attention during tasks.
Finding a forest therapy guide
The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy trains and certifies forest therapy guides across the world. Guides help people forge a partnership with nature through a series of invitations that allow participants to become attentive to the forest, to deepen their relationship with nature, and allow the natural world to promote healing and well-being.
Ultimately, guides support what the forests have to offer us, inviting participants into practices that deepen physical presence, pleasure, and partnership with nature. When we connect with nature in this way, we are connecting with ourselves.
The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Besha Rodell, a columnist for the Australia bureau.
The return of Australian children to school has been one of the country’s most hotly debated topics, with feuds breaking out between federal and state officials while parents and teachers grapple with their own fears and frustrations. But what about the students?
Their voices have been harder to find, so I thought it would be useful to ask some of the children I know what their experience has been like, and how they’re feeling about the slow return to class and normalcy.
I started at home, with my son Felix Stewart, who is a 16-year-old year 11 VCE student at Princes Hill High School in Melbourne.
Felix returned to school this week with mixed feelings. He told me he was relieved to return to school for social reasons, but home learning worked incredibly well for him.
“These past few months have been some of the most productive of my entire school career,†he said. “I’m someone who is so easily distracted. I’ve also accepted that if someone tells me to do something, I don’t want to do it. Maybe it’s my adolescent/cave man brain. When there’s no one to tell me I have to get something done, then I tend to just do it.â€
Felix also said that the last couple of months have been valuable in terms of preparing him and other older high school students for what lies ahead.
“These last few months have been good training for what we’re actually trying to achieve,†he said. “Most jobs, as far as I’m aware, do not have one boss looking over a room of 30 employees, telling all of them to get to work.â€
Even some students who are younger seem to have enjoyed the flexibility of learning from home. Archie Trengove, who is in grade one at South Preston Primary in Melbourne, just celebrated his seventh birthday with a Harry Potter-themed isolation party that he declared his “best birthday ever.â€
Though he returned to school this week, he has loved the time spent at home, telling me “it was nice to spend so much time with my mum.â€
He has bloomed during these months, learning to read much better than he was able to before. When I asked him if there was anything bad about learning from home he said, “No, not really.â€
These responses, of course, are not universal. With some schools better equipped and more competent with remote learning than others, the disparities in teaching and experience have tended to vary even more widely at home than they might in school.
And many students say they prefer a structured classroom.
That is certainly true of Charlotte Dawson, a year 9 student at Wesley College in Melbourne who just turned 15. Charlotte will return to school on the 9th of June, and feels as though she has fallen behind while learning via Zoom.
“It’s especially hard in maths, because the teacher would usually come around and check on how everyone’s doing,†she said. “You have to be so much more forward and proactive to get that attention, and not everyone is good at that.â€
She also said that she thinks teachers have been compensating for lost face-to-face instruction by loading up students with far more work than they would usually be given. (This is a complaint shared by Felix, as well, along with many other children.)
What’s clear from speaking to all these kids, though, is that education rarely takes such differences into account — nor is there much room for children to figure out which conditions best help them learn.
For many parents, quarantine has provided that opportunity. It reinforced for me just how different every student is, and how one-size-fits-all schooling will always leave some children behind.
If anything positive can come of this grand experiment in learning that Australia has undertaken, it might be that schools begin to allow flexibility for students with different needs and learning styles.
Have your kids thrived or struggled with home learning? Let us know at nytaustralia@nytimes.com. (And if there are any students out there who would like to share their experiences, we’d love to hear from you as well.)
Here are this week’s stories.
And Over to You …
Two weeks ago, we wrote about life slowly returning to normal in Australia, and asked how your life has changed during the pandemic. One reader wrote in telling us about her experience as an American in Sydney who has no access to government assistance, and is struggling with anxiety and issues with her landlord. And yet:
Not all sour is bad. In fact, I’m a sucker for sour candy — or lollies as they call them down under. COVID forced us all to stay home, and in my case this forced me to see the beauty in my home.
All of a sudden our greatest friends and supporters became our neighbors. Our friendly six-year-old neighbor has been our new best friend, joining us for pancake parties in our front garden and roasting marshmallows.
Toby, our neighbor’s dog, has also been part of our recent circle of close friends. He is one of the coolest and calmest dogs I know, a great addition to the isolation pack. Reaching out to friends and simply saying “how are you†has become the norm, and it truly feels nice when others are brutally honest and say how they feel, even if it is pretty or not.
Presumptive Democratic 2020 nominee Joe Biden on Thursday pointed out how, on the same day in October 2019, he was warning on Twitter about the United States’ lack of preparedness for a pandemic while President Donald Trump was posting some head-scratching advice for Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“Two tweets from the same day in October,†tweeted Biden with screenshots of the posts:
Indeed, Biden did on October 25 call for “leadership that builds public trust, focuses on real threats, and mobilizes the world to stop outbreaks before reach our shores.â€
We are not prepared for a pandemic. Trump has rolled back progress President Obama and I made to strengthen global health security. We need leadership that builds public trust, focuses on real threats, and mobilizes the world to stop outbreaks before they reach our shores. https://t.co/1qqpgayUEX
The US house also passed a bill, earlier this week authorising sanctions against senior Chinese officials for human rights abuses, against Muslim minorities, so today’s press conference could well up the ante further, if President Trump signs off on that bill as well as implementing further measures that might hint that the US is keen to send the Chinese a message.
This sharp reversal in the last hour of US trading, merely goes to show that markets not only see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear, but that they also choose when they want to as well.
The announcement of today’s press conference is probably as a result of yesterday’s vote in the China’s National People’s Congress that approved the controversial new security law for Hong Kong.
Jackson Wang, of the popular K-pop group GOT7, leads a prominent solo career in China. As a musician, he has released multiple singles and his solo album ‘Mirrors’. In March 2020, he unveiled the highly awaited single  ‘100 Ways’ along with a music video. Now, he is making history with the track.
Two months after the song’s release, Jackson Wang has become the first Chinese solo artist to debut on Mediabase’s Top 40 Radio Chart in the US. It had 997 plays over the week and with a reported reach of 1.19 million people. “Blessed and thankful for my supporters. LET’S MAKE HISTORY. Hoping this unfortunate time will pass ASAP. Love you and stay safe,” he wrote on Twitter on Friday.
Speaking to Forbes magazine, Jackson said, “I’m so blessed and grateful for the Team Wang members, all my people, & all my supporters. This means the world to me. It’s another piece of history we made together. Everyone please, please care and stay safe. I hope I can continue to make you all really proud. This is just the beginning, let’s continue making history together.”
Jackson Wang, throughout the years, released many solo tracks apart from his work with GOT7. The 25-year-old musician released his eight-track album ‘Mirrors’ last year. He made chart history by becoming the first Chinese artist to debut at No. 32 on Billboard 2020 charts.
The Indian Scholastic Assessment or IND-SAT has been postponed to July. The exam was earlier scheduled to be held on 30 May. HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank tweeted that a new date for the exam will be announced soon.
📢Announcement Considering the current #covidcrisis in the world & upon receiving requests from many international students, we have decided to postpone the IND-SAT exam that was initially scheduled for 30 May’20 to July’20. The date of the examination will be announced soon. pic.twitter.com/zBNzFvFawO
— Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) May 29, 2020
The minister posted that the decision for the postponement of the exam has been taken considering the current COVID-19 crisis and upon receiving requests from many international students.
As per a report in The Indian Express, IND-SAT is a standardised online test for students who are seeking scholarship with Study in India or SII. The medium of the paper is English and it constitutes multiple-choice questions which have to be completed in 90 minutes. The paper cover topics like Verbal, Logical and Quantitative Reasoning.
While Verbal constitutes 40 questions, Quantitative and Logical sections will have 25 questions each. Each question will carry one mark. There is no negative marking.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had introduced the IND-SAT exam in her union budget speech on February 1. According to her, the IND-SAT exam will be held for Asian and African students for scholarships to Study in India.
According to a report in The Hindustan Times, the exam will be conducted across the various Asian and African countries. These include India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Mauritius and Zambia.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Hungarian PM complains scheme would mean ‘financing the rich from the money of the poor.’
The European Commission’s proposal to allocate a large portion of a €750 billion recovery fund to relatively well-off countries is “absurd and perverse,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday.
“Financing the rich from the money of the poor is I think not a good idea,” Orbán told state-owned Kossuth Rádió.
Under the Commission’s proposal, unveiled this week, the EU would raise €750 billion on the markets and distribute the money as a mix of grants and loans to member countries. The bloc would repay the grants over 30 years, starting in 2028.
The largest beneficiary of the plan would be Italy, which would be eligible for accessing up to €172.7 billion out of the €750 billion, according to Commission figures seen by POLITICO. Spain would be the second-largest beneficiary, receiving a maximum of 140.4 billion, followed by Poland with €63.8 billion.
Hungary would be eligible for a total of €15 billion — €8.1 billion in grants and €6.9 in loans.
Orbán raised concerns about Hungary participating in guaranteeing EU borrowing.
“The situation is that the new distribution system that they presented to us is an absurd and perverse solution, because it gives more resources to the rich than to the poor,” Orbán said.
While noting that there is a need to study the Commission proposal, Orbán raised concerns about Hungary participating in guaranteeing EU borrowing.
The proposal would mean “you as a Hungarian citizen need to take responsibility for the repayment of Greek, Italian or French debt, and if they can’t, you pay it back,” Orbán said.
The prime minister also announced a new “national consultation” where Hungarians would receive questions by post, including on Hungarian-American businessman George Soros’ idea of perpetual bonds, which Orbán referred to as “debt slavery.”
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