All 36 of Nigeria’s governors resolved to declare a state of emergency over rape and other gender-based violence against women and children in the country.The decision was made after a meeting among the governors earlier this week.As a part of their initiative, the governors aim to impose tougher federal laws punishing rape and violence against women and children, and to set up sex offender registers in all of the states.The emergency declaration comes after a buildup of the country’s concerns about gender-based violence.Within the span of a few days, from May 28 to June 1, two Nigerian students were raped and killed in separate incidents. The women were Vera Uwaila Omosuwa, 22, and Barakat Bello, 18.Women’s rights activists protested nationwide and the hashtag #WeAreTired circulated on social media.Out Here!#WeAreTiredpic.twitter.com/UXJ2UFGjP1
— Oreoluwa Eyan Nla (@NoraAwolowo) June 5, 2020In November 2019, Nigerian authorities launched the first nationwide register of sex offenders, but the recent state of emergency declaration and recent protests signal that the country seeks to do more to combat gender-based violence.There has been a global increase in gender-based violence since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.According to the United Nations, Argentina, Canada, China, France, Germany, Spain, Britain and the United States, among other countries, have observed a higher number of domestic violence cases.Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Nigeria already had reported an alarming prevalence of sexual violence.In Kaduna, Nigeria, the U.N. children’s fund has said, one in four boys and one in 10 girls under age 18 have been victims of sexual violence.Barrister Zainab Aminu Garba, the chairperson of the International Federation of Women Lawyers in Kaduna, described rape as an “epidemic” in northwestern Nigeria.Since the pandemic, Nigeria has seen a threefold increase in the number of calls to domestic and sexual violence hot lines.
…

The U.S National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports global temperatures for the month of May 2020 are tied with May 2016 as the warmest on record.In its monthly Global Climate Report released this week, NOAA said the 10 warmest Mays – in terms of land and ocean surface temperatures – in the 141 years since records have been kept, have occurred since 1998. The report also says the last seven Mays, dating back to 2014, have been the warmest on record.  NOAA says last month marked the 44th consecutive May, and the 425th consecutive month in which temperatures were higher than at this time a century ago.The agency reports the areas with the biggest departures from average temperatures included northern and southeastern Asia, northern Africa, Alaska, the southwest contiguous United States, and the northern Pacific Ocean, where readings were at least 1.5°C above the 1981-2010 average.NOAA says May 2020 was also the warmest on record for global land-only surface temperatures at 1.39°C above the 20th century average of 11.1°C (52.0°F).  The 10 highest May global land-only surface temperature departures have occurred since 2010.
…

The U.S. ambassador to Iran mistakenly told the shah in 1953 that Britain’s newly enthroned Queen Elizabeth II backed a plan to overthrow the country’s elected prime minister and America maintained the fiction even after realizing the error, historians now say.  
The revelation, based on U.S. diplomatic cables cited by the historians, shows how America has struggled even to this day to offer a full, unvarnished account of its actions in the coup that cemented Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s power and lit the fuse for Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
 
“There’s an acceptance that you’re never going to have the whole story,” said Richard Aldrich, a professor at the University of Warwick whose research on the cables will be featured in a Channel 4 documentary in Britain on Sunday. “You’re on a journey to try and achieve a better history but you’re never going to have the complete story.”  
The 1953 coup ended up successfully empowering the shah, even after he fled to Baghdad and onto Italy when it looked as though it would fail. He would rule until 1979, when he fled the country before the Islamic Revolution, secretly and fatally ill with cancer.  
The coup had roots in the nationalization of Iran’s oil industry, which at that time was majority owned by Britain. Mohammad Mosaddegh, who supported nationalization, then became Iran’s prime minister. Britain launched a blockade on the country and ultimately saw its Tehran embassy ordered closed.
The British, who had begun drawing up plans for a possible coup, then turned to the U.S. under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower, fearful of the spread of communism amid the growing Cold War with the Soviet Union, gave the go-ahead for TPAJAX — the CIA codename for the coup plot.  
Papers show the CIA at one point  “stockpiled enough arms and demolition material to support a 10,000-man guerrilla organization for six months,” and paid out $5.3 million for bribes and other costs, which would be equivalent to $48 million today. One CIA document casually refers to the fact that “several leading members of these (Iranian) security services are paid agents of this organization.”  
But the coup faced problems, chief among them the shah himself. Diplomats and spies referred to him as a “weak reed” and “petulant.” The CIA dismissively referred to him as “Boy Scout,” Aldrich said.
The shah grew fearful of Mosaddegh’s growing power and prepared to flee Iran in February 1953, months before the coup. U.S. Ambassador Loy W. Henderson rushed to the palace to try to see him. Instead, he got to Hosein Ala, the shah’s minister of court, who called the shah on a palace telephone line.  
Despite fears the telephone may be tapped, Henderson spoke through Ala to the shah, as the Channel 4 documentary “The Queen and the Coup” and a later diplomatic cable by Henderson recounted.  
“I had just received message indicating that very important personage for whom shah had most friendly feelings had also expressed sincere hope that shah could be dissuaded from leaving country,” Henderson wrote.
That cable, part of others released by the U.S. State Department’s historian in 2017, included a footnote mentioning another cable from the U.S. Embassy in London.
“Foreign Office this afternoon informed us of receipt message from (Foreign Minister Anthony) Eden from Queen Elizabeth expressing concern at latest developments re shah and strong hope we can find some means of dissuading him from leaving country,” the footnote reads.  
That suggests Queen Elizabeth herself had sent a message. Instead, Eden at the time was aboard the vessel RMS Queen Elizabeth on his way to Canada, which is what American diplomats in London had meant to say.  
The U.S. Embassy in London realized its mistake and fired off another cable that warned “Queen Elizabeth refers, of course to vessel and not … to monarch.” But Henderson at that point already had spoken to the shah.  
Realizing the mistake, the U.S. Embassy in London wrote back that it “does not (repeat not) propose to inform British of incident.” But that intervention likely ended up helping goad the shah into staying in Iran for several more months — until the CIA launched the coup.  
“In terms of the kind of chain of events, it’s important because, you know, frankly, the shah is a coward,” Aldrich told The Associated Press. “I don’t think the 1953 coup would have happened if the shah had fled then. At this point, there’s no doubt that he’s packed his bags and was pretty much going to the airport when this intervention happened.”  
But those two cables acknowledging the error, which the historians found at the National Archives in Washington, don’t appear in the 2017 release by the State Department, which itself was meant to offer a fuller, warts-and-all accounting of American actions.  
An initial 1989 release outlining the years surrounding the 1953 coup in Iran whitewashed the U.S. role in the coup. That led to the resignation of the historian in charge of a State Department review board and to Congress passing a law requiring that a more reliable historical account be made.
The State Department did not respond to an AP request for comment. However, over 65 years later, historians still struggle to extract documents from the CIA and other government agencies surrounding the coup.  
These new cables suggest more remains to be discovered, said Malcolm Byrne, who studies Iran at the non-governmental National Security Archive at George Washington University.
“We’ve known that all along,” Byrne said.
Widespread Iranian anger over the Western coup fed into the revolution and its aftermath, which saw Iranian students seize control of the U.S. Embassy and hold those inside captive for 444 days.  
To this day Iran’s Shiite theocracy portrays the U.S. as a hostile foreign power bent on subverting and overthrowing its government. Hard-liners still refer to Britain as “the old fox,” a sly adversary.  
The 1953 coup is their first piece of evidence.
…

Долар подорожчав на 12 копійок, свідчать дані на сайті Національного банку України.

Довідкове значення курсу гривні до долара встановлене на рівні 26 гривень 72 копійок.

Коливання курсу відбуваються на тлі зниження облікової ставки до рекордних 6%.
…

When much of the world was staying at home to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, Elbin Sales Perez continued to rise at 4:30 a.m. to report to his landscaping job in a rural Florida town.  
Now, a couple of months later, as state-imposed restrictions are lifted and Floridians begin to venture out, the Guatemalan immigrant is ill and isolated at home with his wife and children in Immokalee, a poverty-stricken town in the throes of one of the sharpest COVID-19 upticks in the state.
“We had to work. If we don’t, then who does it?” said Sales Perez, 31, who noted that his job was deemed essential. “We had to battle every day with the threat of the virus looming, until we caught it.”  
Immokalee is among several immigrant communities in Florida — and numerous rural areas across the U.S. — that have recently experienced outbreaks of the coronavirus. Once thought likely to be spared because of their remote locations and small populations, such communities have seen spikes in infections while having fewer resources to deal with them.  
Per capita, Florida ranks relatively low in its rate of new COVID-19 cases, at about 31st in the country, according to data complied by Johns Hopkins University. But the state has seen an upswing in new COVID-19 cases since it began gradually lifting restrictions on businesses and movement last month, especially in the past week. The increase may at least partly be due to expanded testing. Still, the uptick has been pronounced in some communities, including Immokalee.
The secluded town of 25,000 north of the Everglades has reported more than 1,000 cases, outpacing in recent weeks the rate of infection in Orlando, which has a population 10 times bigger and is home to a busy international airport. The number of total cases in Immokalee has surpassed those in Miami Beach, with more than 900, and St. Petersburg, which has more than 800, according to state health department statistics.
Meanwhile, the percentage of tests that have come back positive in Collier County, home to Immokalee, is the highest in the state among counties that have tested more than 5,000 people.  
Sales Perez knows many people who have gotten sick in this rural town known for its tomato farms. A close friend got ill, the friend’s brother was hospitalized and a cousin of the two brothers died with the virus.  
Outbreaks have also erupted in other impoverished and immigrant communities in rural Florida, such as Indiantown, a small community with a large population of Guatemalan and Mexican immigrants northwest of West Palm Beach, and Belle Glade, a predominantly black town south of Lake Okeechobee.
Efforts to conduct broad local testing in Immokalee did not begin in earnest until early May, just when officials began lifting restrictions statewide to restart the economy. It wasn’t for lack of trying: The nonprofit Coalition of Immokalee Workers had requested tests in March, at the same time authorities had set up mass testing sites elsewhere in the state.  
With no response from the state, the coalition contacted international aid group Doctors Without Borders, which sent a COVID-19 response team in April. Team members found that farmworkers were traveling in crowded buses and had no easy access to testing. Some drove 45 minutes to get tested in Fort Myers and Naples.  
“They are in high-volume areas in trailers with multiple people and that puts them at a higher risk for spreading the disease easily,” said Dr. Adi Nadimpalli, who coordinated the group’s arrival in Florida.
Dr. Seth Holmes, a physician and medical anthropologist at UC Berkeley who is volunteering with the group, said it has been evident since early May that the virus was “spreading like wildfire.” There was a lack of contact tracing — identifying the people with whom an infected person has been in contact — and overcrowded living conditions were likely contributing to the spread, he said.
Holmes was critical of the state for not starting mass testing sooner — and of the way it eventually began: He noted that vehicles with flashing lights sat at the entrance to the first testing site, scaring away some farmworkers who do not have legal permission to be in the country.  
As part of its outreach to the community, Doctors Without Borders set up mobile clinics in the evenings and on weekends and called in team members who speak Spanish and Haitian Creole.
Kristine Hollingsworth, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department in Collier County, said that in the past week the state has hired people from the community to conduct outreach and has been been broadcasting public service announcements from car loudspeakers in Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Mam, an ancient Maya language.
On Monday, there were signs of progress: At the town’s health department offices, truck drivers dropped off groups of landscapers and construction workers who followed a path bordered with yellow caution tape to get tested for the virus. Others waited outside for proof of their positive results so they could show bosses and ask for sick pay.
This week, health authorities expanded testing from weekends to weekdays after seeing hundreds lining up in the Florida heat two Sundays in a row.
Flora Garcia, 38, took her three children after learning her husband, a roofer, tested positive.
“We are worried as we hear a lot of people are getting sick,” she said, holding her 4-year-old daughter’s hand. “Mostly, she worries me because she is little, and I don’t know how to protect her from this.” 
…

 Around the world, COVID-19 lockdowns have disrupted religious traditions from worship services, pilgrimage traditional celebrations, customary cultural ceremonies, and much more. The week on #VOAOurVoices, we take a look at how lockdowns are impacting religious communities and people’s faith. We’ll introduce you to clergy who are adapting to the pandemic by using technology and putting safety measures in place as restrictions ease for religious gatherings.
…

Україна отримала 2,1 мільярда доларів першого траншу від Міжнародного валютного фонду, повідомив 12 червня у твітері голова Національного банку України Яків Смолій.

«Україна щойно повністю отримала $2,1 млрд першого траншу від МВФ. Чи знали ви, що кошти надходять не напряму від МВФ, а від країн-членів Фонду? Відучора кошти надходили частинами у доларах, євро, єнах, фунтах і юанях – валютах, що входять у SDR. Зараз процес завершено», – написав Смолій.

За його словами, ці кошти, надійшовши в держбюджет, допоможуть державі з подоланням коронавірусу і забезпеченням макрофінансової стабільності. 

«Одночасно отриманий перший транш разом із надходженням пов’язаної фінансової допомоги від ЄС вже збільшив міжнародні резерви до $28,7 млрд», – додав голова НБУ.

9 червня Рада директорів Міжнародного валютного фонду схвалила 18-місячну програму співпраці з Україною на п’ять мільярдів доларів. 

 
…

Protesters gathered at a shopping center in Hong Kong Friday to demonstrate against China’s plans to impose a new national security law on the territory, passed two weeks ago in the National People’s Congress.Observing coronavirus restrictions, protesters chanted slogans and held posters reading “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times.”A banner read “SOS,” another called for U.S. troops to help the people of Hong Kong, and yet another one demanded “Hong Kong Independence.”China is expected to enforce the new security law in Hong Kong by the end of summer, if not sooner.Critics say it would undermine the Joint Declaration which returned the former British colony to China in 1997 under the framework of “one country, two systems.”The new security law drew immediate condemnation from the United States and the European Union last month, with both saying it constituted a “flagrant breach” of that declaration and a “comprehensive assault on the city’s autonomy, rule of law and fundamental freedoms.”  
…

The World Health Organization said the rate of infection of the novel coronavirus is accelerating across Africa.The WHO warned Thursday it took 98 days to reach 100,000 cases on the continent and just 19 days to reach 200,000 cases.South Africa, which has one of the highest coronavirus rates on the continent, is representative of the rapid surge in cases and deaths.Late Thursday, South Africa’s Health Ministry reported 74 more coronavirus deaths, and more than 3,157 new cases over a 24-hour period.The WHO said South Africa is the hardest-hit country, accounting for 25 percent of the continent’s total cases.So far, South Africa has confirmed more than 58,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 1,200 deaths.
…