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UConn student Peter Manfredonia, wanted for 2 killings, caught in Maryland after six-day manhunt

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UConn student Peter Manfredonia, wanted for 2 killings, caught in Maryland after six-day manhunt

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Published 12:07 a.m. ET May 28, 2020

A college student wanted for the slayings of two people in Connecticut was caught and arrested on Wednesday night following a six-day manhunt, according to law enforcement officials in Maryland.

Hagerstown Police Chief Paul Kifer said he got a text message at 9:26 p.m. after his investigators learned Peter Manfredonia, 23, was in custody. Police were told Manfredonia walked out of a wooded area behind a truck stopand turned himself in, Kifer said.

The U.S. Marshals Service and Washington County Sheriff’s Office were at the scene along with state police, authorities said.

Connecticut State Police said Manfredonia is wanted in the machete killing of 62-year-old Ted DeMers and wounding of another man in Willington on Friday. Manfredonia went to another man’s home, held him hostage and stole his guns and truck, then drove about 70 miles southwest to Derby, Connecticut, state police said.

In Derby, police found Manfredonia’s high school friend, Nicholas Eisele, 23, shot to death in his home. Authorities believe Manfredonia then forced Eisele’s girlfriend into her car and fled the state. The girlfriend was found unharmed with her car at a rest stop on Interstate 80 in New Jersey, police said.

Manfredonia then took an Uber to a Walmart in East Stroudsburg, not far from the New Jersey border, Pennsylvania State Police said.

A lawyer for Manfredonia’s family said he has struggled with mental health problems, but did not show signs of violence.

Hagerstown Police were notified Wednesday afternoon that Manfredonia might have come into the area, Kifer said. That was more than a day after Manfredonia was dropped off downtown, he said.

Information from the Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg Police Department and U.S. Marshals Service revealed Manfredonia abandoned a stolen vehicle in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, according to a Hagerstown police news release. Authorities discovered the stolen vehicle on Wednesday. The other agencies investigating determined Manfredonia then took an Uber to Hagerstown.

Pennsylvania State Police on Wednesday afternoon said they had received a tip about a possible sighting of Manfredonia in Chambersburg. Witness descriptions and surveillance video images matched that of Manfredonia, according to police.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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John Boyega Is In No Mood For Anyone’s Rebuttals After Tweeting He ‘F***ing Hates Racists’

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John Boyega Is In No Mood For Anyone’s Rebuttals After Tweeting He ‘F***ing Hates Racists’

Star Wars actor John Boyega has made it clear that when he tweeted that he he “fucking hates racists” he was not opening up the floor for a debate.

John made the declaration on Wednesday morning, after the tragic death of George Floyd in Minnesota once again raised the issue of police brutality towards Black people.

“This just burns,” he tweeted, alongside a photo of Floyd. “Seems to be a never ending cycle. The murderers need to be charged severely. Even in the face of death this man was given zero empathy.”

Minutes later, he followed this with a second tweet, saying simply: “I really fucking hate racists.”

While many, agreed with the sentiment of John’s tweet, others began flooding his replies with counter-arguments. And he was absolutely not here for it.

Some of his critics suggested that “hate” was too strong a word for him to have used…

…while others questioned his swearing, given that his role in the Star Wars franchise has meant that he has a lot of young followers on social media…

And then there were those who wanted to remind John that racism exists in many communities, which he was quick to point out was not the point of his initial tweets:

To illustrate his point further, John then retweeted a video addressing those who were tweeting #AllLivesMatter in response to Geroge Floyd’s death:

Earlier this month, John put Sky News on blast over an article on their website referring to a traditional African hairstyle as a “spiky coronavirus haircut”.

“You lot lost your damn mind putting this on the internet,” he wrote. “Which hairstyle did you just call spiky coronavirus haircut? Are you guys okay? The media need to make sure they do research before wiring articles like this. Ya fackin dummies.”

John is best known for his role as Finn in the most recent Star Wars trilogy.

He has also appeared in films like Pacific Rim: Uprising, Detroit and the dystopian drama The Circle.



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US coronavirus death toll tops 100K as Trump pushes to reopen

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US coronavirus death toll tops 100K as Trump pushes to reopen

Hospital personnel move the deceased to the overflow morgue trailer outside the Brooklyn Hospital Center on May 7 in New York City | Bryan Thomas/Getty Images

The tragic milestone revives debate over the handling of the pandemic.

By

Updated

U.S. coronavirus deaths surged past 100,000 Wednesday, even as President Donald Trump continues urging states across the country to reopen.

The U.S. leads the world in reported confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 1.6 million American cases since January, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.

A day before the U.S. reached the 100,000-death mark, Trump once again blamed China for not stopping the virus before it spread across the globe, and touted his decision in January to restrict travel from China to the U.S.

“For all of the political hacks out there, if I hadn’t done my job well, & early, we would have lost 1 1/2 to 2 Million People, as opposed to the 100,000 plus that looks like will be the number,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

But models that suggested millions of Americans would die from the coronavirus assumed that officials and the public would not take any steps to mitigate the pathogen’s spread, according to Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development who led efforts on global disaster response under the Obama administration.

“He’s basically saying we’ve done less poorly than complete inaction, that’s a pretty underwhelming bar to set,” Konyndyk told POLITICO. While it’s difficult to say definitively what impact Trump’s travel restrictions had on the U.S. outbreak, the administration did little to take advantage of any extra time to ramp up production of personal protective equipment or testing supplies, he added.

An outbreak model favored by White House officials projects the virus will cause approximately 32,000 additional deaths by Aug. 4. That would put the country’s overall toll at just under 132,000, according an update released Wednesday by researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday cited a study by Columbia University researchers  that found that if social distancing measures had been implemented one week sooner, the U.S. could have avoided nearly 36,000 deaths nationwide as of early May. “This is a fateful milestone we should have never reached — that could have been avoided,” Biden said in a Twitter video.

Democrats have blasted Trump’s handling of the pandemic, saying a lack of federal planning to organize testing and procurement of needed supplies has left states to fight with each other for scarce supplies on the private market.

The administration delivered a report to Congress over the weekend outlining its national coronavirus testing strategy, which suggests that conducting 300,000 tests per day and achieving a positivity rate under 10 percent is sufficient. But Democrats and public health researchers immediately panned those numbers as inadequate.

The authors of an analysis published by Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics said the administration report distorted their work. The HHS plan “selectively adjusted assumptions” and “does not provide an accurate summary of the modeling supporting our recommendations,” researchers E. Glen Weyl and Divya Siddarth and Safra Center Director Danielle Allen said in a statement Tuesday.

They argue the U.S. needs to conduct 1 to 1.5 million tests per day. “We have been arguing for and modeling a suppression strategy, which our numbers reflect,” Allen, Weyl and Siddarth said in a statement. “The administration appears to have embraced a mitigation strategy. We continue to encourage the administration to aim high. Mitigation should be but a stepping stone to suppression.”

Scott Gottlieb, Trump’s former FDA commissioner, cautioned over the weekend that the coronavirus is not yet contained, noting that the number of people hospitalized nationwide per day has begun to increase after a two-week decline.

“Some uptick in cases was expected as we re-opened but raises concern,” Gottlieb tweeted Sunday. “Risk is we don’t better contain spread, get slow burn, and bigger re-ignition in Fall.”



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Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: India’s confirmed cases rise to 1,58,333 after 6,566 more test COVID-19 positive; toll at 4,531

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Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: India’s confirmed cases rise to 1,58,333 after 6,566 more test COVID-19 positive; toll at 4,531


Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: India registered 6,566 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, thereby taking the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases at 1,58,333, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The figure also includes 86,110 active cases.

After 194 more individuals succumbed to the viral infection in the past 24 hours, the toll reached 4,531 on Thursday.

Two SpiceJet passengers who travelled from Ahmedabad to Guwahati via Delhi on Monday have tested positive for COVID-19, the airline said on Wednesday.

“Two passengers who had travelled with SpiceJet from Ahmedabad to Guwahati on May 25 have tested positive for COVID-19. The passengers had travelled on SG-8194 (Ahmedabad-Delhi) and SG-8152 (Delhi-Guwahati),” an airline spokesperson said.

“COVID tests were conducted at Guwahati after landing and the passengers were quarantined. The test reports came on May 27. The operating crew has been quarantined and SpiceJet is coordinating with government agencies in notifying other passengers who had travelled with them,” the airline said.

The toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,337 while total number of cases climbed to 1,51,767 in the country, registering an increase of 170 deaths and 6,387 cases in the 24 hours ending at 8 am on Wednesday.

This is the sixth day that the country has registered more than 6,000 new cases. However, the Union health ministry said that there have been “multiple gains” from the lockdown and the most important of them is that it has “decelerated the pace” of the spread of COVID-19.

Confirmed cases climb to 1,51,767

According to the morning update issued by the Union health ministry, the number of active coronavirus cases stands at 83,004 in the country, while 64,425 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the health ministry said. “Thus, around 42.45 percent of patients (in India) have recovered so far,” a senior health ministry official said.

Confirmed cases in India climbed to 1,51,767 on Wednesday. AP

Of the 170 deaths reported since Tuesday morning, 97 were in Maharashtra, 27 in Gujarat, 12 in Delhi, nine in Tamil Nadu, five each in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, three in Rajasthan and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Telangana and Uttarakhand.

Of the total 4,337 fatalities, Maharashtra accounts for the highest (1,792) deaths in the country, followed by Gujarat with 915 deaths, Madhya Pradesh with 305, Delhi with 288, West Bengal with 283, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh with 170 each, Tamil Nadu with 127 and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with 57 deaths each.

According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 54,758 followed by Tamil Nadu at 17,728, Gujarat at 14,821, Delhi at 14,465, Rajasthan at 7,536, Madhya Pradesh at 7,024 and Uttar Pradesh at 6,548.

“A total of 4,013 cases are being reassigned to states,” the ministry said on its website, adding that its “figures are being reconciled with the ICMR”.

Delhi records highest single-day spike

However, since the morning update given by the Union health ministry, many states have reported an increases in both cases and fatalities. Delhi recorded 792 fresh cases pushing the total past 15,000. The National Capital also recorded 15 deaths, taking the toll from the novel coronavirus to 303.

In Maharashtra, 105 more patients succumbed to the viral disease, taking the toll in the state to 1,897, whereas, the number of cases rose by 2,190 to 56,948, with Mumbai alone recording 1,044 new cases.

The state government, however, said that it is hoping to bring the numers under control by next week.

“The cases which are rising are in the same containment zones with high densities. There aren’t new areas from where cases are coming up. And even in these containment areas, the numbers are slowly decreasing. We should be able to bring the numbers under control by next week,” said Maharashtra minister Jayant Patil on Wednesday, according to News18.

Tamil Nadu also saw a sharp rise in cases as 817 more people tested positive, including 138 returnees from Maharashtra while six patients succumbed to the viral infection on Wednesday. The infection count in the state is now 18,545 while a total of 133 persons have died due to the disease.

The number of cases continued to rise in Kerala as well with the return of people from various states as well from abroad. The state which had been lauded for controlling the spread of the contagion reported 40 new cases on Wednesday, of which 37  were returnees, taking the overall tally 1,003. Presently, 445 people are undergoing treatment in various hospitals in the state and over 1.7 lakh are under observation, PTI quotes Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan as saying.

Tripura also reported 23 new cases and officials said that the majority of the recent cases have been detected among people returning from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and other states.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Raj Bhavan, the residence of the state governor, was declared as a containment zone after six persons living on the campus tested positive for the viral infection.

Raj Bhavan sources told PTI that after the first case of COVID-19 was found at the Raj Bhavan a couple of days back, the sample of Governor Lalji Tadon was also collected for testing.

Meanwhile, officials in the hill state Uttarakhand said that the doubling rate of coronavirus cases has worsened and the number of infections has jumped nearly five times in this period due to the influx of people from outside the state.

New cases were reported from various other states and union territories as well, including Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry.

Lockdown slowed spread of virus, insists health ministry

Meanwhile, the Union health ministry in a statement said the lockdown had contributed to the slowing of the spread of the virus in the country.

“Lockdown has garnered multiple gains, and primarily among them is that it has decelerated the pace of spread of the disease,” the ministry said.

Estimates made by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation showed that a large number of deaths and cases have been averted, it said, adding that health infrastructure also had been strengthened.

“Health infrastructure required for COVID-19 management was ramped up during the lockdown. As on 27 May, 930 dedicated COVID hospitals with 1,58,747 isolation beds, 20,355 ICU beds and 69,076 oxygen supported beds are available,” the statement said.

The Centre has also provided 113.58 lakh N-95 masks and 89.84 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to the states, union territories and central Institutions, the ministry said, adding that the testing capacity has increased in the country through 435 government laboratories and 189 private laboratories (total of 624 labs).

Chhattisgarh announces austerity measures

However, the impacts of the lockdown on the economy, particularly on the revenues earned by states continued to be evident, with the Chhattisgarh deciding to undertake various austerity measures.

“The state government has taken several important decisions to cut its expenditures and ensure optimal utilisation of resources available for development-oriented works in the backdrop of fall in revenue collection due to the lockdown,” a public relations official told PTI.

“As a part of the measures, creating new vacancies, transfer of government staff, holding meetings in expensive hotels, foreign tours and purchase of new vehicles have been prohibited,” he said.

The Punjab government decided to ask the Centre for a fiscal stimulus of Rs 51,102 crores to help the state tide over the financial crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the prolonged lockdown that ensued.

A draft memorandum to this effect was approved by the Council of Ministers, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

Meanwhile, two days after domestic flight operations were restarted in the country after a gap of two months, national carrier Air India said that a passenger, who had travelled on an Alliance Air flight from Delhi to Ludhiana on 25 May, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, following which 41 people, including five crew members, have been quarantined.

At least seven migrants died onboard Shramik Special trains

The plight of migrants also continued to make it to the headlines, a day after the Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre and states on the issue.

According to PTI, at least seven deaths were reported onboard Shramik Special trains for migrant workers on Wednesday. The seven deaths — four on-board trains travelling to Bihar and three terminating in Uttar Pradesh — happened over the past few days, and were reported on Wednesday.

However, Railways officials said that most of the deceased had pre-existing health conditions.

Among the dead was 35-year-old Uresh Khatoon. Her toddler’s vain attempt to awaken her from the eternal sleep on a platform in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur was captured in a moving video that went viral on social media Wednesday, opening the floodgates of criticism for the Railways. The Railways attributed her death to a recent heart surgery, also corroborated by her son.

Another death reported from Muzaffarpur was that of a four-and-a-half-year-old son of a migrant from Bihar based in Delhi. The boy died at the railway station on arrival by a ‘Shramik Special’ train, while his father desperately hunted for some milk he believed would have saved his child.

While the father said that his son died of heat, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Railway, Ramakant Upadhyay, claimed the boy was ailing for some time and had died before the train reached Muzaffarpur station.

Two migrant workers were also found dead on a Shramik Special train at a Varanasi railway station on Wednesday morning.

Travelling migrant workers have complained of lack of food and water on-board these Shramik Special trains and also alleged they are not running on time and are being diverted “at will”.

The Railways has, however, maintained that these trains are running on “pre-scheduled rationalised routes”.

Some trains which should have taken 24 hours to reach to their destinations, arrived in over two days, according to reports, leaving the passengers on-board hungry and desperate.

Schools in West Bengal to remain shut till 30 June

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the state considers ferrying of a large number of migrant workers by trains as a big problem for public health, as she sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in the matter. Those returning from the coronavirus hotspot states of Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu will have to go for a 14-day institutional quarantine, Banerjee said.

Migrant workers wait outside a railway station hoping to be able to return to their home states, in Mumbai. AP

Migrant workers wait outside a railway station in Mumbai hoping to be able to return to their home states. AP

The state government also announced that all schools will remain closed till 30 June.

In Mizoram, Chief Minister Zoramthanga said his government is contemplating extending the coronavirus-induced lockdown beyond 31 May in view of the influx of migrants from outside the state.

The Himachal Pradesh government has already authorised all district magistrates to extend the coronavirus lockdown beyond 31 May and three DMs have issued orders indicating that the curfew will continue in their areas for another month.

A nationwide lockdown has been in place since 25 March and the ongoing fourth phase of the lockdown is scheduled to remain in place till 31 May. While several relaxations have been given in the fourth phase for allowing various economic activities, educational institutions are among those that have not been allowed to open as yet.

With inputs from PTI

Updated Date: May 28, 2020 09:36:41 IST

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South Korea faces return to coronavirus restrictions after spike in new cases

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South Korea faces return to coronavirus restrictions after spike in new cases

South Korea has reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases in 53 days, triggering warnings it may have to revert to stricter social distancing measures after appearing to have brought the outbreak under control.

The Korean Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 79 new infections on Thursday with 67 of them from the Seoul metropolitan area, home to about half of the country’s population of 51 million.

Officials said health authorities were finding it increasingly difficult to track the transmission routes for new infections and urged people to remain vigilant amid fears of a second wave of Covid-19 infections.

The health minister, Park Neung-hoo, pleaded with residents in and around the capital to avoid unnecessary gatherings and urged companies to allow sick employees to take time off work.

“Infection routes are being diversified in workplaces, crammed schools and karaoke rooms in the metropolitan area,” Park said.

The recent spike in infections has underlined the risks that come with relaxing social distancing rules, as countries seek to breathe life into their struggling economies.

More than 250 new infections were traced to clubs and bars in the Itaewon district of Seoul in early May, while the latest cluster has been linked to a distribution centre in Bucheon, near Seoul, owned by the e-commerce firm Coupang.

Local health authorities have tested about 3,500 of the centre’s 4,000 employees, the Yonhap news agency said, with 69 cases confirmed so far.

The company reportedly failed to enforce preventive measures, such as requiring employees to wear masks and keep a distance of about two metres.

Media reports said some employees had been told to continue working even after they started displaying symptoms of the virus, including a woman in her 40s who is thought to be the first person at the centre to have contracted the virus.

Coupang closed the centre on Monday. “We have been conducting strong disinfection measures at the facility,” Coupang, which closed the facility on Monday, said in a statement carried by Yonhap. “We are also disinfecting goods ordered by customers before delivering them.”

The recent rise in cases is affecting the phased reopening of schools, only recently held up as evidence that South Korea, one of the first countries outside China to be affected, had contained the outbreak. More than 500 schools have delayed the resumption of classes over virus concerns, the education ministry said this week.

Thursday’s figures followed reports of 40 new cases on Wednesday – the highest figure in seven weeks. South Korea has reported a total of 11,344 cases and 269 deaths from Covid-19.

The KCDC’s director, Jeong Eun-kyeong, said the country may need to return to social distancing restrictions that were eased in April, which prompted large numbers of people to congregate at bars and restaurants.

Jeong warned that increased activity was making it more difficult for health workers to track transmissions. “The number of people or locations we have to trace are increasing geometrically,” she said. “We will do our best to trace contacts and implement preventive measures, but there’s a limit to what we can do.

“There is a need to maximise social distancing in areas where the virus is circulating, to force people to avoid public facilities and other crowded spaces.”

South Korea, which reported its first case in 20 January, has won widespread praise for its response to the pandemic – a combination of vigorous testing and tracing rather than a European-style lockdown.

The country was reporting around 500 new cases a day in early March before the number began falling in early April.

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South Africa: Today’s latest news and headlines, Thursday 28 May

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South Africa: Today’s latest news and headlines, Thursday 28 May

Never miss a beat when it comes to the latest news in South Africa, be sure to review all major headlines on Thursday 28 May.

After consecutive delays, resulting in widespread concern and speculation about government’s Level 3 lockdown strategy, Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) are expected address the nation this afternoon. Meanwhile, the legal bid to overturn the controversial cigarette ban enters a news phase of deliberation.

TODAY’S LATEST NEWS IN SOUTH AFRICA, Thursday 28 MAY

Dlamini-Zuma, NCCC briefing: Third time lucky?

While the first postponement following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address raised eyebrows, the NCCC’s decision to cancel its rescheduled briefing on Wednesday has raised some serious red flags. With four days to go until South Africa enters Level 3 lockdown, Dlamini-Zuma and the NCCC are under severe pressure to ratify regulations in line with government’s risk-adjusted strategy informed by the Disaster Management Act.

Reports indicate that division within the NCCC, coupled with proposals which have conflicted with Ramaphosa’s earlier assertions, have complicated the ‘collective decision-making process’. Minister in the Presidency, Jackson Mthembu, blamed the delays on ‘further engagements’ emanating from Ramaphosa’s swift turnaround to allow religious gatherings during Level 3 lockdown.

Mthembu’s reasoning has, however, been met with criticism from analysts who argue that the NCCC would’ve been aware of the president’s intention to lift the ban on religious gatherings.

Mthembu added that Dlamini-Zuma would be joined by the Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola, and the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel. The briefing is expected to begin at 14:00.

Mkhize denies Level 3 confusion

Amid the growing uncertainty emanating from government’s regulatory delays and doublespeak, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has endeavoured to allay fears of ineptitude and political division.

After alluding to the fact that the country’s hotspots could remain at Level 4 lockdown while the rest of the nation moved to Level 3, Mkhize was forced to clarify his comments which were in direct conflict with resolutions made by President Ramaphosa. Mkhize sought to clarify the misunderstanding, saying:

“An old slide was presented stating hotspots would remain at Level 4. That slide is now out-dated and was inadvertently included in a presentation that had been updated.”

Mkhize confirmed that, in line with the president’s proclamation, all provinces and districts in South Africa would move to Level 3 lockdown on Monday 1 June.

Eskom under ‘severe pressure’

Despite Eskom boss Andre de Ruyter recently issuing glowing reports of the utility’s operational sustainability — noting that winter load shedding predictions had been eased by over 90% — recent power alerts have cast doubt over the power supplier’s competence.

On both Tuesday and Wednesday evening, Eskom issued alerts which were strikingly similar in appearance to load shedding warnings, which stated:

“Our power system is under severe pressure. Please switch off all unnecessary lights, your geyser, pool pump and non-essential appliances.”

Earlier this month, Deputy President David Mabuza convened an urgent meeting with the Eskom Task Team which was aimed at assessing the probability of load shedding during Level 3 lockdown. Primary concerns around Eskom’s ability to perform when the economy reopens have been heightened due to the recent “severe pressure” warnings.

Legal challenge to overturn cigarette ban soldiers on

A legal bid launched by the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (Fita) hopes to see both Minister Dlamini-Zuma and President Ramaphosa in court on 9 June.

The challenge, which seeks to have the tobacco ban declared unlawful and overturned, has entered a new phase after lawyers acting on behalf of the respondents — in this case the president and the cooperative governance minister — delivered 4 000 pages of ‘substantive evidence’ to Fita in line with an order issued by the Pretoria High Court.

The documents, said to detail the NCCC’s reasoning for the tobacco ban, will be scrutinised by Fita over the next week. Dlamini-Zuma has confirmed that the papers rely on ‘scientific evidence and logic’.

UIF apologises for network problems

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has apologised for the freak break in its network, which has affected plans to capture the May applications for the COVID-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS).

The benefit scheme is expected to provide much needed relief to employees, who have been laid off work or unable to earn an income due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The system for the scheme has been undergoing through test runs since last week. It was due to due to go live on Tuesday but a damaged fibre link between the UIF’s offices and the State Information and Technology Agency (SITA) affected those plans.

“We would like to apologise to all our stakeholders and particularly our clients for this unfortunate turn of events and the resultant delays. We are doing everything in our power to ensure that the problem is resolved today so that we can start processing May applications immediately,” UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping said on Wednesday.

He said the fault of connectivity in Pretoria is due to a damaged fibre cable that links the UIF to the SITA’s datacenter. (Source: SAnews)

LATEST WEATHER FORECAST, Thursday 28 MAY

Take a look at weather forecasts for all nine provinces here.

LIVE TRAFFIC UPDATES FOR CAPE TOWN, JOHANNESBURG AND DURBAN

Stay one step ahead of the traffic by viewing our live traffic updates here.

HOROSCOPE TODAY

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TV Comedy Sketch Featuring Swastika Slammed For ‘Authorising Antisemitic Hate’

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TV Comedy Sketch Featuring Swastika Slammed For ‘Authorising Antisemitic Hate’

A television comedy sketch featuring the Nazi swastika has sparked backlash for being “unfunny, inappropriate and offensive” and “authorising antisemitic hate”.

The clip poking fun at home haircuts during COVID-19 lockdown aired on Wednesday on youth news show, ‘The Feed’ on Australia’s multicultural broadcaster, SBS. It showed a woman calling herself a “freaking bald Nazi” after discovering a swastika-shaped birthmark on her head.

The stylist in the video said, “Ok can I just say I do find that symbol very racist. And we do not tolerate that sort of hate here”. The woman responded saying she is Jewish, and later said she’s been “kicked out” by her parents and must wear a hat or she’ll get “bashed”. 

University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Professor of Sociology Andrew Jakubowicz, who specialises in race relations in the media, said the video can be interpreted two ways. 

“Does the sketch authorise antisemitic hate or challenge it?  That seems to me to be the heart of this and it seems to me to do both, depending on how different audiences interpret it,” he told HuffPost Australia. 

“As someone whose grandparents were murdered by the Nazis, I am very sensitive to the horrific implications of offering the swastika as a cultural meme of any sort. The actor refers to the swastika initially as a Buddhist symbol, which of course it is. The Nazis stole it from the eastern religions.

“However in the West it has an overwhelming meaning as a symbol of horror – having been trolled by neo-Nazis I can tell you how angry/hurt/sad I was.” 

Jeremy Jones, Director of International Affairs and Community Affairs for the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, said the swastika “is a unique symbol of evil”. 

“While we are not alleging that there was racist intent in the sketch, the widespread offence it has caused demonstrates the need for sensitivity when dealing with the swastika, which is a unique symbol of evil,” Jones told HuffPost Australia.

“Victims of Nazism will not be the only people who will find this skit unfunny, inappropriate and offensive.”

Jakubowicz acknowledged the “symbol has to be addressed” however the network could have “cautioned against” it being portrayed as a birthmark – “a symbolic engraving on a Jewish body that continues generation after generation”.

He said the sketch did however “foreground the resurgence of Nazism and racist attacks against Jews as well as Asians and Muslims”, and that Jewish groups seeking an apology may not be as helpful as using this video to encourage more awareness and conversation around antisemitism. 

“Rather use it as a trigger for wider discussion of what the boundaries of satire can be, and how the exploration of the role of body ‘art’ in foregrounding and challenging the hate and intimidation that is erupting through the COVID pandemic can strengthen our social capacity to reduce hate and marginalise its proponents.” 

In a statement provided to HuffPost Australia, SBS said: “The Feed is made by young creatives who explore a range of issues and share perspectives on matters that resonate with their audience.

“Satire is a significant element of The Feed’s format. In the words of the team behind the piece: ‘Our sketch, co-written by a young Jewish comedian, is not in any way an endorsement of anti-Semitism, Nazism or hatred. Humour is powerful and reclaiming symbols of hatred is a way to fight against oppression. We hope this sketch is viewed with that understanding.’”



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Coronavirus updates LIVE: US death toll passes 100,000; Authorities investigate 30-year-old’s death in COVID-free Queensland town

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Coronavirus updates LIVE: US death toll passes 100,000; Authorities investigate 30-year-old’s death in COVID-free Queensland town

If you suspect you or a family member has coronavirus you should call (not visit) your GP or ring the national Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080.

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Rosenstein to Testify on Russia Inquiry to Panel Led by Trump Ally

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Rosenstein to Testify on Russia Inquiry to Panel Led by Trump Ally

WASHINGTON — The former deputy attorney general Rod J. Rosenstein will testify before senators next week in a hearing that will give President Trump’s allies a high-profile platform to escalate their attacks on the Russia investigation.

Mr. Rosenstein was a key figure in the inquiry. In May 2017, he appointed Robert S. Mueller III to serve as special counsel overseeing the investigation into possible links between Russia’s 2016 election interference and Trump associates. Mr. Trump has long attacked the investigation and other efforts by national security officials to understand Moscow’s election subversion operations as instead a plot to undercut him.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, invited Mr. Rosenstein to appear before the panel and said in a statement that he would be the first of several witnesses to testify about the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein left the Justice Department in May 2019 and was hired this year by the law firm King & Spalding.

Mr. Trump has publicly pressured Mr. Graham to hold hearings on the Russia investigation and interrogate his perceived enemies. The president has long attacked many of the inquiry’s key figures — including Mr. Mueller, the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and Mr. Comey’s deputy, Andrew G. McCabe — and he has recently ramped up unsubstantiated accusations that former President Barack Obama masterminded a scheme against him.

Mr. Graham is among the Trump allies who have sought to conflate the broader Russia investigation with narrower aspects of it that an independent watchdog has faulted. Mr. Graham said that Mr. Rosenstein would address findings in a report by the Justice Department inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, that investigators’ applications to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, were riddled with errors and other problems.

Mr. Rosenstein signed off on one of the renewal applications. But in a statement, he seemed to be distancing himself from others involved in the Russia investigation. He said that he had learned that “even the best law enforcement officers make mistakes, and that some engage in willful misconduct.”

“Independent law enforcement investigations, judicial review and congressional oversight are important checks on the discretion of agents and prosecutors,” Mr. Rosenstein said. “We can only hope to maintain public confidence if we correct mistakes, hold wrongdoers accountable and adopt policies to prevent problems from recurring.”

Mr. Mueller’s investigators ultimately found insufficient evidence to charge anyone in Mr. Trump’s orbit with conspiring with Russia’s election interference. They detailed the president’s attempts to impede their inquiry and ultimately chose not to charge him, citing legal and factual constraints, but pointedly declined to exonerate him.

Attorney General William P. Barr has also chipped away at the results of the investigation. Weeks after being sworn in last year, Mr. Barr said that he would scrutinize its origins, and he has made clear that he believes it was opened without legitimate rationale. He also raised the possibility that members of the Trump campaign were inappropriately spied on, and this month he moved to withdraw the Justice Department’s case against the former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in the Russia inquiry.

Mr. Trump and his allies point to the department’s decision to investigate and prosecute Mr. Flynn as evidence that Obama-era officials sought to undermine the president before he even took office. Republican senators recently released a list of Obama administration officials who, during the presidential transition, asked for the identity of an unnamed American that appeared in National Security Agency intelligence reports. The process, called unmasking, revealed that the American was Mr. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s incoming national security adviser; however, it was unclear what the intelligence reports were about.

The people who requested the unmasking included several former intelligence officials who were vocal critics of Mr. Trump, including John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, and Mr. Comey, as well as former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. After the names were made public, Mr. Trump accused the Obama administration of trying to undermine him.

Mr. Barr has now appointed John F. Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, to review “certain aspects of unmasking,” Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said Wednesday night in a television interview.

“The frequency, the motivation and the reasoning behind unmasking can be problematic,” she said on Fox News. “Looking specifically at who was unmasking whom can add a lot to the understanding about motivation and big picture events.” The findings of the unmasking review would help support the criminal inquiry being conducted by John H. Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, into why the F.B.I. sought to investigate the Trump campaign in 2016.

After the Mueller report was released, Mr. Barr asked Mr. Durham, to investigate the department’s decision to open the inquiry, known internally as Crossfire Hurricane.

Former law enforcement officials involved in the investigation have long defended the decision to open it, saying that to ignore the mounting suspicions about Russia’s interference and information that a Trump campaign adviser had inside information about it would have been derelict.

The Russia investigation dominated the public perception of Mr. Rosenstein’s tenure. The president has said that he fired Mr. Comey upon a recommendation from Mr. Rosenstein, who had ascended to the No. 2 job in the Justice Department days earlier and written a memo supporting the dismissal.

As law enforcement officials debated in the chaotic ensuing days over whether to investigate Mr. Comey’s dismissal as obstruction of justice, Mr. Rosenstein suggested that he wear a wire to secretly record Mr. Trump in the White House, according to memos by Mr. McCabe and other F.B.I. officials. Mr. Rosenstein also discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office for being unfit. Mr. Rosenstein has denied those accounts.

Mr. Rosenstein decided to install Mr. Mueller to take over the inquiry days after the president fired Mr. Comey, and Mr. Graham told Fox News that he intended to ask Mr. Rosenstein about his legal rationale for the appointment.

Mr. Rosenstein later complained to others at the Justice Department that he had been manipulated and used by the White House to provide cover for the dismissal of Mr. Comey, which Democrats and some Republicans condemned.



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George Floyd’s death another wound for Minneapolis’ black community: ‘Why can’t I just be black in the state of Minnesota?’

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George Floyd’s death another wound for Minneapolis’ black community: ‘Why can’t I just be black in the state of Minnesota?’

Tyler Davis and Ryan W. Miller, USA TODAY
Published 4:42 p.m. ET May 27, 2020 | Updated 10:55 p.m. ET May 27, 2020

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The FBI is investigating the death of George Floyd after he was restrained by police in Minneapolis.

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MINNEAPOLIS – Bernard Miles has lived in the Powderhorn neighborhood for 30 years and at age 50 said he still fears harassment and aggression from the Police Department. 

“If I had my knee on somebody’s neck, I’d already be in prison,” he said.

He was referring to the incident Monday, when Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck as the 46-year-old black man gasped for air and said he couldn’t breathe. Video of the encounter showed some of Floyd’s last moments and prompted the firing of Chauvin, who is white, and three other officers amid a national outcry.

In the neighborhood where Floyd was killed and in Minneapolis at large, residents and community leaders say a mistrust between police and the black community persists.

“You cannot talk to any African American young person, especially male, who will not have a story about their interactions with police,” said Pastor Hans Lee of Calvary Lutheran Church, a block south of the intersection where Floyd died.

Clifford Tyson, 43, grew up in Powderhorn but moved because of violence in the streets and from officers. He recalls a time a time as a teenager when he was hanging out near the Cup Foods with a group of friends with officers approached them saying they were loitering.

“I wasn’t selling drugs. I had my letterman jacket on. It was just too many black people on the corner I guess,” he said.

History of police killings

In nearby Falcon Heights, Minnesota, Philando Castile was fatally shot by a police officer while being pulled over during a traffic stop in 2016. A jury acquitted St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer Jeronimo Yanez in Castile’s killing.

The year before, the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark, 24, by Minneapolis officers responding to a paramedic call led to a protest occupying the area around the department’s 4th Precinct. After the officers were cleared of wrongdoing, Bob Kroll, head of the city’s police union, called Black Lives Matter a “terrorist organization,” according to theMinneapolis Star Tribune. 

Kroll was also at the center of controversy in 2019 when a department policy banned off-duty officers from wearing their uniforms to political events. The change was made before a rally for President Donald Trump, and Kroll responded by selling red “Cops for Trump” shirts before appearing at the event.

In 2010, David Smith, who had bipolar disorder, was held down and restrained by Minneapolis police officers before he died of asphyxiation. Smith was face-down, groaning on the floor of a YMCA as an officer drove his knee into his back and another was on his legs, the Star Tribune reported. The officers involved were cleared of wrongdoing, but the city paid a $3 million settlement to Smith’s family.

In 2002, Christopher Burns was killed when two officers used an authorized chokehold on the 44-year-old, the Star Tribunereported.

“I’ve never known the city of Minneapolis not to have issue with police brutality or overaggressive policing,” said John Thompson, who was friends with Castile and became a prominent activist in the area after his death. “Why do I have to feel this way? Why can’t I just be black in the state of Minnesota?”

Though Thompson said he felt that steps were being taken toward meaningful reform in the department under the leadership of Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, Floyd’s killing could be a setback.

A ‘vibrant’ black community

Wednesday, more than 50 people milled outside Cup Foods at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, the site of Floyd’s arrest. Some solemnly held signs, others made speeches. The police responded Monday to an employee at Cup Foods allegedly receiving a counterfeit $20 bill.

Carmen Means, executive director of the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization, said the intersection is not “foreign to tragedy.” A young woman was shot there in April, now this. 

“Minneapolis historically has been home to a small but vibrant African American population. From the 1930s to the 1970s, an African American neighborhood flourished” in the area surrounding the intersection, according to the Minnesota Historical Society.

Means said a highway built west of where Floyd was killed divided the neighborhood, and many faced the issue of redlining, the discriminatory denial of services, especially bank loans, to communities of color.

The historical society said the neighborhood changed from the 1980s to 2000s, facing higher crime and the crack epidemic. In 1982, Central High School, Prince‘s alma mater, closed.

“We don’t have a trust for the police in this neighborhood. Period,” Means said, adding that her community is not an isolated one but part of a larger mistrust many in the black community feel toward police throughout the city and the entire USA.

Tyler Davis reports for The Des Moines Register.

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