Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Republicans Push ‘Return To Work Bonus’ As Alternative To Unemployment

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Republicans Push ‘Return To Work Bonus’ As Alternative To Unemployment

With Republicans intent on letting expanded unemployment benefits expire at the end of July, a new GOP proposal would instead give workers a bonus for returning to their jobs.

The “Return to Work” bonus would give workers up to $1,200 for going back to work. The bonus money would be available until the end of July, when the extra $600 in federal money that Congress added to weekly unemployment checks also expires.

More than 40 million Americans have filed unemployment claims since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses across the country.

The extra money was designed to encourage people to stay home, since the new germ is highly transmissible, and there’s no good treatment for people who get severely ill. President Donald Trump, however, has said workers should be “warriors” and go back to their jobs despite the risk.

With such a high number of unemployed ― and many workers now actually making more or about the same on unemployment as they were before ― Republicans are looking for ways to entice people back to their jobs.

The ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee ― Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas ― recently introduced the return to work legislation, calling the proposal “an important part in preventing a prolonged recession.”

Brady said on CNBC that Texas businesses have been calling him and that they are “very frustrated that they can’t bring their workforce back.”

But Democrats — who passed legislation in the House that would extend the extra $600 in unemployment benefits until the end of the year — are panning the idea.

The Senate Democrat who negotiated the higher unemployment benefits, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), characterized the proposal as inadequate.

“If Republicans think a two-week bonus is the solution to a once-in-a-century pandemic and economic crisis, they are delusional about the scale of this crisis,” Wyden said. He added that any bonus would need to be paired with hazard pay for workers who’ve stayed at their jobs all along. 

Democrats have signaled they might be willing to keep the extra benefits in place at a lower number than $600, but they also suggest that some sort of extra compensation should remain in place as long as the economy is suffering and that the benefits should automatically “trigger” off as conditions improve.

The $600 boost comes on top of whatever a claimant receives in regular state-funded benefits, and the extra money has been an important lifeline for many of the 40 million people who have become unemployed due to the coronavirus crisis. (Congress also created special unemployment benefits with broader eligibility criteria for people not normally covered, such as Uber drivers. Those benefits aren’t expiring until the end of the year.) 

But the Trump administration has already been undercutting the expanded benefits by encouraging states to cut people off if they refuse to return to work, even though federal regulations say people are supposed to be able to keep disaster unemployment benefits if they refuse jobs that pose a risk to their health. Brady’s proposal also includes a provision “ensuring employers can report job refusals,” which is something employers generally can do already. 

Brady’s proposal to give workers a $1,200 bonus is relatively meager when compared to the expanded unemployment benefits. And rather than actually having a significant effect on the unemployment rate, the proposal could just be a fig leaf for GOP indifference about the financial struggles of those who have lost their jobs because of coronavirus.

Republicans seem intent on not extending those added unemployment benefits, and if they actually do hold the line and refuse to agree to even a smaller number, a proposal like Brady’s could be important in helping the GOP avoid charges of heartlessness.

Instead, they can point to Brady’s proposal and say, while Democrats are incentivizing unemployment, Republicans are encouraging jobs.
Several workers have told HuffPost they quit or refused to return to their jobs because it’s not worth risking exposure to the coronavirus, even if they wind up with no income at all.



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PPP loan program accidentally paid some small-business owners twice

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PPP loan program accidentally paid some small-business owners twice

While many small-business owners complained of missing out on crucial funding from the Paycheck Protection Program, others mistakenly ended up receiving their money twice — or multiple times.

The issue stems from the hectic early weeks of the program, when funding ran out quickly and borrowers were not hearing back from their banks, industry sources told NBC News. Although businesses must certify they are only applying for one loan, some small-business owners applied at more than one bank to ensure they could secure a financial lifeline amid the economic shutdown.

Senior banking executives told NBC News the Small Business Administration’s system caught most of these duplicates, rejecting borrowers who already had a loan number.

However, a few did get through — especially if, for instance, borrowers used their Social Security number to apply to one bank and their Employer Identification Number for another.

The news that some borrowers are getting paid more than once is galling, but not surprising, to small business owners such as Pittsburgh drywall contractor Bill Martin, who has yet to receive a PPP loan he applied for in April, even after resubmitting his application form multiple times and exchanging dozens of emails with a senior vice president at his bank.

The news that some borrowers are getting paid more than once is galling, but not surprising, to small business owners who have been waiting months for their own PPP loan.

“The incompetency and the amount of people who don’t know what they’re doing and just hanging on and doing the bare minimum is at an-all time high,” said Martin, a 55-year-old Army veteran. “Everyone is just flying by the seat of their pants.” An SBA spokesperson told NBC News the agency would reach out to Martin.

Some banks, potentially in an attempt at speeding things along, also gave their borrowers a promissory note before receiving SBA loan authorization number, Bay News 9 reported in early May.

“I applied for funding at a local bank. Other than the initial email I did not hear back from them on status. So I applied to PayPal,” wrote one Reddit user, who claimed they ended up being funded by both banks. “Something is fubar with the SBA system.”

Later, the user said they contacted their local bank and were able to give that loan back and keep the loan from PayPal.

After funding ran out, some banks also suggested that customers who still had pending applications in their queue should apply with another bank in the meantime.

“Your application is still in Stage 1, with an extremely large volume of applications ahead of you,” read one such message from Chase. “You can decide if you would like to try applying with another lender.”

There are an estimated 1,000 such loans for over a hundred million dollars, according to a Reuters report. That’s an error rate of about .00002 percent out of a total of almost 4.5 million loans to date, with the number dropping as the parties work to cancel the extra loans.

The SBA is sending banks lists of borrowers with duplicate PPP loans and, since the SBA will only guarantee one loan per borrower, banks are eager to cancel any extra loans. Banks are either canceling the loans themselves or asking customers which loan they want to keep. Borrowers, especially those applying for loan forgiveness, are also reaching out to cancel so that they are only responsible for one loan.

A Bank of America senior executive said the situation had not been an issue. Wells Fargo and Citibank declined to comment on the record. But JPMorgan Chase and three alternative lenders, PayPal, Square, and BlueVine, confirmed they were working with the SBA to resolve the problem.

“We have seen a small number of duplicate applications funded through the SBA Paycheck Protection Program, despite the administration’s guidance that applicants not apply more than once for a loan,” PayPal spokesperson Joseph Gallo said in a statement.

The overpayments are the latest ding for the $600 billion public program that has progressed in fits and starts since its rushed debut at the beginning of April.

“It is our impression that the majority of these borrowers are not bad actors but honest small business owners who had applied for a PPP loan through multiple lenders to increase their chances of getting a PPP loan quickly… after not hearing from their traditional bank for several days or even weeks,” Bluevine spokesperson Christina Cole told NBC News in an email.

The overpayments are the latest ding for the $600 billion public program that has progressed in fits and starts since its rushed debut at the beginning of April. Much of the early funding went to larger businesses before running out, leaving millions of small businesses out in the cold. Additional funding and guidance that restricted who should apply has since allowed the progam to continue assisting eligible small businesses.

Any borrower who managed to keep more than loan would still have to pay back the extra cash. Only one loan will be able to receive forgiveness. However, the Department of Justice has said it plans to investigate potential PPP fraud cases.

Ben Popken

Ben Popken is a senior business reporter for NBC News.



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Obama Addresses George Floyd Protests in Online Town Hall

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Obama Addresses George Floyd Protests in Online Town Hall

WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday is making his first on-camera comments about the killing of George Floyd and protests over police brutality sweeping the country — but he will not attend the memorial planned for Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis on Thursday, contrary to a published report, according to people familiar with his plans.

Mr. Obama said that the wave of protests convulsing the country was “unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime,” but he predicted that it would prompt an “awakening.”

The former president — who is taking pains to address the crisis without upstaging Joseph R. Biden Jr., his friend and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee — is appearing at a round-table event with his former attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., from Washington as part of a video town hall series sponsored by the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a nonprofit group Mr. Obama founded.

Mr. Obama planned to echo two online essays he posted over the last week in which he implored young protesters to channel their rage into political action turning out for Mr. Biden in November and to embrace local reforms to hold police officers accountable for abuses of power.

“We should be fighting to make sure that we have a president, a Congress, a U.S. Justice Department, and a federal judiciary that actually recognize the ongoing, corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it,” he wrote in a post on Medium on Monday.

He will also field a series of prescreened questions mediated by Mr. Holder. In recent appearances, Mr. Obama has become more forceful in his criticism of the White House, hammering President Trump’s actions without invoking his successor’s name. Mr. Obama rebuked the current administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as “chaotic” and questioned Mr. Trump’s commitment to the “rule of law” in a call with former members of his White House team last month.

Mr. Obama’s passions are running high, and the disciplined former president is finding it harder to stay on script, friends said. Over the last few days, he has been working the phones with close associates, including Mr. Holder, venting his disgust at the White House’s response to the protests and strategizing about the best way to address the issues without inflaming the crisis or squaring off into a one-on-one fight with Mr. Trump, people close to him said.

On Tuesday, a Minneapolis radio station reported that Secret Service officials were making preliminary preparations for a high-level visitor, perhaps Mr. Obama. But people close to the former president said he had no intention of traveling there this week — although they did not rule out Mr. Obama’s participation in related events in the future.

Shortly before Mr. Obama was set to speak on Wednesday, former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement calling for peaceful protest and systemic change. “As a white male of the South, I know all too well the impact of segregation and injustice to African-Americans,” the 95-year-old former president wrote. “We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this.”

Those comments came a day after another former president also presented an alternative vision of the protests to Mr. Trump. In a lengthy statement issued by his office, former President George W. Bush expressed solidarity with the demonstrators in the streets and, without naming the incumbent president, warned against trying to suppress their protests.

“It is a strength when protesters, protected by responsible law enforcement, march for a better future,” Mr. Bush said on Tuesday. “This tragedy — in a long series of similar tragedies — raises a long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society? The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving.”

Mr. Bush, the only living Republican former president — and one who refused to vote for Mr. Trump in 2016 — made no direct reference to the current president or his recent threats to use the military to dominate and deter protesters. But Mr. Bush spoke after law enforcement officers deployed chemical agents and flash grenades to forcibly clear peaceful protesters in Washington to make it possible for Mr. Trump to stage a photo opportunity with a Bible in front of St. John’s Church, and the former president’s comments read like a rebuke.

“Those who set out to silence those voices,” Mr. Bush said, “do not understand the meaning of America — or how it becomes a better place.”

Former President Bill Clinton issued a written message of his own on Saturday, denouncing Mr. Floyd’s death and saying that it once again raised profound questions for the nation — but he, too, did not name Mr. Trump.

“We can’t honestly answer these questions in the divide and conquer, us vs. them, shift the blame and shirk the responsibility world we’re living in,” he wrote. “People with power should go first — answer the questions, expand who’s ‘us’ and shrink who’s ‘them,’ accept some blame, and assume more responsibility. But the rest of us have to answer these questions too.”

Peter Baker contributed reporting.

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Judge trashes entire lockdown regime as constitutionally flawed – The Mail & Guardian

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Judge trashes entire lockdown regime as constitutionally flawed – The Mail & Guardian

NEWS ANALYSIS

It seemed to come out of nowhere. Everyone was following the cigarette ban case, the Democratic Alliance’s parliamentary oversight case and other court actions on different aspects of the lockdown regulations. Then, suddenly, came a judgment that, in one fell swoop, struck down the entire regulatory regime that South Africa has been living under since the announcement of a national state of disaster at the end of March.

On Tuesday Pretoria high court Judge Norman Davis ordered that “the regulations promulgated by the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs … are declared unconstitutional and invalid”.  

But Davis suspended his order for 14 days to allow Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma time to “review, amend and republish” some of the regulations.

The nub of his judgment was that each and every regulation under the Disaster Management Act had to be both rational in law and justifiable under the Constitution. 

But, he said, the evidence before him — an affidavit from the co-operative governance and traditional affairs director-general on behalf of the minister — did not show that Dlamini-Zuma had considered each of the regulations individually in terms of their constitutionality. 

“The director-general’s affidavit contains mere platitudes in a generalised fashion in this regard, but nothing of substance,” he said.

“The clear inference I drew from the evidence is that once the minister had declared a national state of disaster … little or, in fact, no regard was given to the extent of the impact of individual regulations on the constitutional rights of people.” 

The government had to look at “every instance” where rights were being encroached on and inquire whether the encroachment was justifiable, Davis ruled. “Without conducting such an inquiry, the enforcement of such means, even in a bona fide attempt to attain a legitimate end, would be arbitrary and unlawful.” 

Although some regulations passed constitutional muster, “in an overwhelming number of instances” the regulations had not been justified by Dlamini-Zuma. 

For many people — gatvol, anxious and exhausted by the ongoing uncertainty caused by the lockdown — the judgment captured exactly what they felt.

The government’s response was “paternalistic”, Davis found. It was irrational that people were allowed to attend funerals while informal traders, who had less contact with other people on a daily basis than people at a funeral, were not allowed to trade. 

It was irrational that a hairdresser, willing to comply with preventative measures, had to “watch her children go hungry while witnessing minicab taxis pass with passengers in closer proximity to each other than they would have been in her salon”.

“To put it bluntly, it can hardly be argued that it is rational to allow scores of people to run on the promenade, but were one to [set] foot on the beach, it will lead to rampant infection,” Davis remarked. 

But, what could be argued when the inevitable appeal comes is that the minister answered in “platitudes” and generalities because the application was itself a sweeping one, full of similar generalities and platitudes. 

It was brought by Reyno de Beer and an organisation called Liberty Fighters Network, during level four of the lockdown. They asked the court to strike down as unconstitutional the declaration of a national state of disaster and all the regulations under it. 

The main argument put forward was that the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was  a “gross overreaction”. It was also argued that the regulations were invalid because they had not been approved by the National Council of Provinces and were in breach of the Gatherings Act, passed by Parliament. 

All of these arguments were rejected by the judge. But on individual regulations — the basis on which the case was decided — the founding affidavit was notably sweeping. 

In one paragraph, De Beer refers to the classification of mineworkers as essential services as hypocritical and irrational. In the next he talks of hair salons, vehicle finance and property industries not being essential services as irrational. 

“In general, these regulations have violated almost all clauses in the Bill of Rights,” said De Beer, listing none but saying this matter would be argued at the hearing.

It is likely that the judgment will also be criticised for the way the legal test for rationality was applied. 

Davis set out the in principle test uncontroversially: the regulation in question must be rationally connected to the objective for which it was passed — to slow down the spread of the virus. 

But, when the judge applies the principle, he assesses rationality comparatively, asking how it can be acceptable for taxis to run but not for hairdressers to work.

He does not consider that essential services workers must get to work somehow, thus already establishing a rational connection.  

There may be an argument for assessing the rationality of the regulatory scheme overall, but it was not made. 

The judge’s comparative approach also runs counter to his own reasoning – that each individual regulation must be assessed on its merits.

These and other considerations are likely to result in an urgent appeal. 

So, while many may be nodding in agreement and celebrating the sentiment of the judgment, it is likely that it will be the other — more focused — cases relating to the lockdown that will stand the test of time.



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Dream Street singer Chris Trousdale dies from ‘undisclosed illness’ at 34

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Dream Street singer Chris Trousdale dies from ‘undisclosed illness’ at 34

Chris Trousdale, best known for his boy band days in Dream Street, has passed away. He was 34.

A family member told TMZ the singer and actor died on Tuesday at a hospital in Burbank, Calf. from coronavirus related complications. A spokesperson for the family confirmed to Yahoo Entertainment that Trousdale died from an “undisclosed illness,” but isn’t commenting specifically about COVID-19 at this time.

Chris Trousdale, best known for his boy band days in Dream Street, has passed away at age 34 (Photo: Getty Images).

“It is with a heavy heart that we confirm the passing of Chris Trousdale on June 2, 2020 from an undisclosed illness. He was a light to so many and will be missed dearly by his family, friends and fans all over the world,” the rep said on Wednesday. “Although it felt like he belonged to us all, the family is requesting that you respect their privacy at this time of grieving. Should you wish to make a donation in his honor, please give to ASPCA.”

ASPCA is the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Trousdale first made a name for himself as a child actor on Broadway, but his big break came in 1999 when he joined Dream Street. It’s the same band that helped launch Jesse McCartney’s career. Other members included Greg Raposo, Matt Ballinger and Frankie Galasso.

Dream Street split up after three years due to a legal dispute between the boys’ parents and managers. In their short amount of time, the band cranked out two albums and dance hits including “It Happens Every Time.” They also opened on tour for Aaron Carter.

After going their separate ways in 2002, Trousdale released a few songs on his own. He got back into acting and appeared on Disney channel’s Austin & Ally and Shake It Up. His theater credits include The Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast and The Wizard of Oz. In 2012, he auditioned for The Voice.

“[Dream Street] changed my life. After Dream Street broke up, it’s kind of hard to go from all that success and doing what you love every day, to doing absolutely nothing,” he said on the NBC show.

Trousdale’s mother added, “I am just so in awe of my son and how hard he’s worked all these years… I’m very proud of him.”

Although Trousdale didn’t make it past the blind auditions, he didn’t let it deter him. In 2019, he released the pop single “Summer.”

https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus

For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDC’s and WHO’s resource guides. 

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Tammy Duckworth: Trump’s Use Of Military Against Protesters Is “Disgusting”

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Tammy Duckworth: Trump’s Use Of Military Against Protesters Is “Disgusting”

WASHINGTON ― Sen. Tammy Duckworth flew Black Hawk helicopters to fight al Qaeda in Iraq and nearly lost her life doing so. Now, President Donald Trump is using military helicopters ― along with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades ― to intimidate Americans protesting racism and police brutality outside the White House.

“The military is not to be used against Americans,” the Illinois Democrat said in an interview Tuesday. “He is perverting, at best, the role of the military. And he’s destroying what they stand for and the honor with which they serve. It is disgusting to me.”

Trump had military helicopters fly over protesters this week from as low as 100 feet above the ground. He also had protesters tear-gassed in Lafayette Park so he could walk out of the White House and do a photo-op holding a Bible in front of a church. (The White House has disputed that the tear gas was tear gas, but it was tear gas.) Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, in military fatigues, joined the president in that photo-op.

That was profoundly disappointing for Duckworth.

“What were they doing there?” she asked. “For a photo-op in front of a church that has nothing to do with the military? Where people are talking about excessive use of police force, what were military leaders doing there?”

Duckworth had more choice words for Esper and Milley at a Senate press event earlier Tuesday: They were “walking along like lap dogs behind a draft-dodging wannabe tinpot dictator. … How dare you politicize our military.”

After taking heat for the photo-op, and after one Pentagon adviser resigned over it in disgust, Esper said Wednesday that he didn’t know he was going to a photo-op. Milley hasn’t said anything about it, though a senior Defense official said Wednesday he also didn’t intend to participate in a photo-op.

Even if they didn’t intend to take part in a completely inappropriate photo-op, could they have said no? Trump is, of course, the commander-in-chief.

“They can say no,” said Duckworth, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “This is when you stand up. … Both of those men promised me [during their confirmation hearings] that they would resign before they executed unlawful orders.”



Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley walk with Donald Trump to his photo-op at St. John’s Church, right after the president had the police clear peaceful protesters in the area with tear gas.

The Illinois senator also took aim at West Point officials who did not say no to Trump when he abruptly announced last month that he would be speaking at the military academy’s graduation ceremony, which hadn’t even been scheduled. The president’s appearance required bringing nearly 1,000 cadets back to campus for the ceremony, now set for June 13, testing them for the coronavirus and then isolating them for 14 days in rooms with masks.

At least 16 cadets have tested positive for the virus since coming back to school. USA Today reported that 14 of them tested positive for antibodies, meaning they had already had the virus and recovered from it. Even if the number of infected cadets is incredibly low, it’s still not acceptable that West Point is moving ahead with its ceremony, said Duckworth.

“Even if you don’t care about the troops, what about all of the people supporting them?” she said. “They do not have to put 1,000 cadets into a single space in order to listen to Trump give a speech. You could have done this in a very responsible way to bring people back, where you’re only exposing a fraction of the student body at a time so that they can pick up their gear and report to their next duty station.”

Can the commandant at West Point really say no to the president, though?

“He could say no, and then he would probably have to resign his post,” Duckworth said. “The commandant at West Point, not a single one of these guys are doing it.”

She added, “At a certain point, you’re the big boys wearing the four stars on your shoulders. You’re the big boy sitting in that Secretary’s office. You’ve got to be able to stand up and say, ‘This is not right.’”



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Chris Trousdale, Dream Street Member, Dead at 34 From Coronavirus

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Chris Trousdale, Dream Street Member, Dead at 34 From Coronavirus


Chris Trousdale, Dream Street Member, Dead at 34 From Coronavirus | Entertainment Tonight


































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Myanmar Forces Arrest Two Village Officials For Alleged Ties to the Arakan Army

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Myanmar Forces Arrest Two Village Officials For Alleged Ties to the Arakan Army

Two village administrators in Myanmar’s war-torn Rakhine state have been charged under the country’s Counter-Terrorism Law for allegedly having ties to the rebel Arakan Army, relatives of the men and officials said Wednesday.

The arrests come as Myanmar’s military is increasingly using the country’s Counter-Terrorism Law to prosecute civilians and local officials for alleged ties to ethnic armed force. The army has been stepping up its offensives a 17-month-long campaign to crush the AA’s armed drive for greater autonomy for ethnic Rakhines in the state.

On May 30, military and police forces detained and charged Maung Zaw, administrator of A-ngu Thit village, and Kyaw Myint, administrator of Ywathit Kay village, both in Myebon township, after an army commander summoned them to a meeting, their wives and Pe Than, a lawmaker from the township, told RFA.

They have been charged under sections 50(j) and 51(b) of the Counter-Terrorism Law, Pe Than said.

Section 50(j) pertains to offenses regarding the financing of terrorism and carries a prison sentence of 10 years to life, with the possibility of a fine. Section 51(b) pertains to offenses regarding unmarked plastic explosives and carries a five-to-10-year prison sentence, with or without a fine.

“The tactical commander of the military troops stationed in the region took away the two for a conversation,” Pe Than said. “They searched their houses while the officers were interrogating them.”

The pair was charged the following day and remanded by the court on Monday, he said.

Hla Thein Kyi, wife of Kyaw Myint, said she does not know why her husband was arrested, but surmised it had to do with accusations of ties to the AA, which the Myanmar government has declared an illegal association and a terrorist organization.

“He hasn’t come back home,” she told RFA. “They rummaged through the whole house. They went through all the documents related to his work, but they couldn’t find anything. We don’t know why he was arrested.”

“They don’t have any evidence against him,” she said. “We are so distressed. They have been bullying us like this. It would be acceptable if he had been arrested because they had found some evidence connecting him to the AA.”

It remains unknown who the plaintiff is in the cases against Maung Zaw and Kyaw Myint.

RFA could not reach the commander of Myebon Town Police Station or Zarni Kyaw, administrator of Myebon township, for comment.

Myanmar military spokesman Brigadier Gen Zaw Min Tun said the interrogation of the two men revealed that they have ties to the AA.

“The authorities found through the interrogations that two village administrators have connections to AA, and the government attorney decided to charge them under the Counter-Terrorism Law based on the findings,” he said.

AA spokesman Khine Thukha told RFA that the charges are false.

“The two village administrators in detention have no connections to the AA,” he said, adding that they are ordinary civilians.

“It is unacceptable that the Myanmar military has consistently used the same law to charge innocent village administrators,” he said.

Officials consider quitting

Local residents said Myanmar soldiers have been posted to the police station and have been conducting search operations in the area since May.

In 2019, many administrators resigned from their positions in other northern Rakhine townships, including Kyauktaw, Rathedaung, Mrauk-U, and Minbya, following the arrests of administrative officials amid the armed conflict.

Some administrators now say they are terrified that Myanmar security forces will arbitrarily arrest them on the same accusations and are planning to resign.

“In my opinion, it would be best to resign,” said one village administrator who declined to give his name out of fear for his safety. “If they charge us, we can’t do anything. It could happen to us.”

Pe Than said the military should be more understanding of the delicate situation of village administrators who have to deal with all armed forces operating in their areas.

“They might have helped the members of insurgent groups out of concern for their own safety, while they have had to do the same when the military showed up in their villages,” he said.

“The government and military should understand their precarious situation between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “If the authorities keep arresting and charging the administrators, it will drive them into a corner, and they all might resign. Then, the administrative mechanism in the region would collapse.”

Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun dismissed concerns that administrative mechanisms in Rakhine state could collapse if many administrators resigned out of concern for their safety.

“Many people will line up to replace the ones who have quit,” he said.

AA raids on police outposts in late 2018 and in early 2019 triggered the conflict in northern Rakhine state — a region already devastated by the Myanmar army’s campaign to expel 740,000 Rohingya Muslims in 2017.

More than 100 civilians have been killed and hundreds more have been injured by mortar shells, landmines, and other explosives since 2019, while over 160,000 others have been displaced by the fighting, according to the Rakhine Ethnics Congress, a local relief group.

The military and Myanmar government have also charged civilians and journalists under the Counter-Terrorism Law amid the hostilities.

In May, five ethnic Rakhine men who were videoed while being beaten by soldiers on a naval vessel were charged under the law for having suspected ties to the AA, though their relatives and friends said the charges were false.

Journalists Thar Loon Zaung Htet of Khit Thit News and Khine Myat Kyaw of Narinjara News were charged in March for violating the Counter-Terrorism Law by interviewing members of the AA, forcing the pair to go into hiding to avoid arrest.

Similarly, police arrested Voice of Myanmar editor-in-chief Nay Myo Lin in Mandalay during the same month for the publication of an interview with the AA spokesman, though prosecutors later dropped the charges.

Reported by RFA Myanmar Service, Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.



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Charles Lippincott, Who Hyped ‘Star Wars,’ Is Dead at 80

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Charles Lippincott, Who Hyped ‘Star Wars,’ Is Dead at 80

Without Charles Lippincott’s groundbreaking approach to publicity, there is a good chance that far fewer people would have flocked to a film set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.”

That film, of course, was “Star Wars,” George Lucas’s 1977 space opera starring Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, which not only became a box-office smash but also grew into one of the most successful franchises of all time. But before it was released, no one knew if there would be much of an audience for it.

Mr. Lippincott set out to build one. He began promoting “Star Wars” more than a year before its release date, arranging for tie-ins with Marvel Comics and building enthusiasm by courting aficionados of science fiction and comic books at conventions. Sometimes he brought along Mr. Hamill, the little-known actor who starred as Luke Skywalker. His approach, unheard-of at the time, has since become de rigueur.

Mr. Lippincott — whom Mr. Lucas called “one of the founding pillars of the ‘Star Wars’ films and phenomenon” in a tribute on the official “Star Wars” website — died on May 19 in Vermont. He was 80.

His wife, Geraldine Lippincott, said he died after a heart attack.

In addition to generating publicity, Mr. Lippincott helped negotiate the first “Star Wars” toy deals with Kenner Products.

“Charley was the one who said early on that ‘we can make this work’ and was the first person to both develop ‘Star Wars’ licensing and engage with the fans,” Mr. Lucas said. “He had insights into marketing and public relations that were truly unparalleled.”

Mr. Hamill also praised Mr. Lippincott’s contribution. “He became a legend of marketing for a reason,” he said in the online tribute. “He was brilliant at what he did. We traveled the world together promoting ‘Star Wars’ before anyone knew what it was.”

The “Star Wars” franchise became a worldwide phenomenon, but Mr. Lippincott parted ways with Mr. Lucas after the first film, retroactively renamed “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope.” He went on to publicize other science fiction films, including Ridley Scott’s “Alien” (1979) and Mike Hodges’s reboot of “Flash Gordon” (1980). He also produced the high school zombie film “Night Life” (1989) and an adaptation of the comic book “Judge Dredd” (1995) starring Sylvester Stallone.

Charles Myers Lippincott Jr. was born on Oct. 28, 1939, in Adams, Mass., to Ruth and Charles Lippincott. His mother was a nurse, his father a businessman.

The family moved to Illinois so that his father could work for a train manufacturer, and Charles Jr. graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston and attended law school before deciding on a new career path and entering film school at the University of Southern California, where he met Mr. Lucas.

In addition to his wife, who goes by the nickname Bumpy, he is survived by a sister, Janet.

In recent years Mr. Lippincott wrote a blog devoted to his recollections of working on “Star Wars” and other films. In a post from 2015, he wrote that he “did not expect the staggering, overwhelming response” to the film.

“No one did,” he added. “In our wildest dreams, we could not have predicted how massive a hit we had on our hands.”

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

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Rare rebuke for Trump from US evangelical Christian leader

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Rare rebuke for Trump from US evangelical Christian leader

Pat Robertson, an influential Christian leader in the United States, has rebuked President Donald Trump for his threats to call in the US military against civilians and his hardline stance against the recent protests over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of a white police officer on May 25.

Robertson opened his nightly “700 Club” television show on Tuesday by saying the political moment in the US now calls for compassion and reassurance, not the threats of dominance and military force that President Trump offered in recent days.

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“It seems like now is the time to say, ‘I understand your pain. I want to comfort you. I think it’s time we love each other’. But the president took a different course. He said, ‘I am the president of law and order’,” Robertson said.

“And he issued a heads up. He said: ‘I’m ready to send in military troops if the nation’s governors don’t act to quell the violence that has rocked American cities’. Matter of fact, he spoke of them as being jerks,” Robertson said.

“You just don’t do that. Mr president. It isn’t cool,” he said.

The rebuke was surprising because Robertson, who is one the founding leaders of the white, evangelical Christian movement in the US, has been a consistent supporter of Trump. His television show, begun in 1966, is seen by an estimated one million Americans every day.

One in four American adults belong to an evangelical Christian denomination and they voted 81 percent for Trump in 2016, according to the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan group.

Trump sparked controversy earlier this week when he posed for photographs in front of an historic Episcopal church near the White House that had been briefly set on fire by protesters on June 1. Episcopalians are not considered evangelical Christians.

Federal police in riot gear and on horseback had forcefully cleared a city park so that Trump and top officials could walk to the church.

Trump, who is not particularly religious, casually brandished the Bible upside down and backwards in his hand.

The move was widely interpreted as a publicity stunt and drew criticism from Episcopalian and Catholic church leaders.

Bishop Michael Curry, the head of the Episcopal Church, released a statement, saying Trump had used the Bible and the church for “partisan political purposes” instead of coming to the church to pray, which many other presidents have done.

At “a time of deep political hurt and pain in our country … his action did nothing to help us to heal us,” Curry said.

James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author, criticised Trump in a national television news interview and on Twitter, calling the president’s appearance at the church “revolting”.

But in a Fox News radio interview, Trump rejected the criticism from church leaders as partisan.

“Most religious leaders loved it. I heard Franklin Graham this morning thought it was great. Most religious leaders thought it was great,” Trump said.

“It’s only the other side that didn’t like it, the opposition party as the expression goes,” Trump said.

Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist pastor who gave the sermon for Trump’s inauguration as president in 2017, defended Trump in an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday.

“It was unbelievable what happened Sunday night that anarchists would try to destroy that historic church,” Jeffress said.

“I believe President Trump was absolutely correct in walking over there … and standing in front of that church to show his solidarity not only with that congregation but with houses of worship all across America, demonstrating his intent to protect churches from those who would try to destroy them,” he said.

In his 700 Club monologue, Robertson also questioned Trump’s public threats to call in the US military against the protesters, which the Trump administration has now backed away from.

“The question is, does the president have the authority to call out the troops,” he said. “You have got to go all the way back to pre-Civil War days to find an ordinance to give him that authority.”

The Pentagon had deployed rapid response, assault troops to military bases in the Washington, DC, region as well as two brigades of military police.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said he did not believe invoking the president’s authority to put down insurrections by military force would be necessary. Defense Department officials told The Associated Press news agency troops would return to their home bases in North Carolina and New York.

There have been signs recently that Trump’s political support among evangelicals may be eroding.

An evangelical magazine founded by the late Reverend Billy Graham published an editorial on December 19 during Trump’s impeachment in Congress calling for his removal from office for “gross immorality and ethical incompetence”.

A survey conducted in late April and early May by Pew found that support among evangelicals for Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, while still strong, had slipped by 6 percentage points.



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