In the U.S. southeastern state of Virginia Tuesday, a statue of Christopher Columbus was torn down by protesters, set on fire and thrown into a lake.The protesters gathered in the capital city of Richmond’s Byrd Park and called for the statue to be taken down.The Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper reported a member of the local indigenous person’s society spoke, drawing parallels between the struggles of indigenous people and black people in America.Video taken at the scene shows a crowd gathered around the statue at about dusk. They used ropes to remove the statue from its pedestal, and painted the words “Columbus represents genocide” on the side before throwing it into a lake.The newspaper reports there was no police presence in the park, but a police helicopter was seen circling the area after the city-owned figure had been torn down.The Times-Dispatch says the Columbus statue was dedicated in Richmond in December 1927 and had been the first statue of Christopher Columbus erected in the South.The toppling of the statue comes amid national protests over the death of George Floyd, the African American man who died while in custody of Minneapolis Police last month. The incident sparked international outrage and calls for reforms to address racism in police departments. 
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An increased number of Nigerian children are in the labor force right now because schools have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.  Experts monitoring child labor in the country say since the pandemic shutdown, more children are working as hawkers, cleaners or on city streets begging to earn money to help their families.  Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.VIDEOGRAPHER: Simpa Samson  
PRODUCER: Barry Unger
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Members of the U.S. Congress are examining national police reform proposals, while local and state officials announce more steps to change funding and authorizations for the use of force in their police departments. The House Judiciary Committee is set to hear Wednesday from Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, the African American man whose death in police custody after an officer held a knee to his neck for almost nine minutes sparked nationwide protests urging reforms. Other witnesses include Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and Vanita Gupta, former head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and current president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Gupta wrote on Twitter that she would testify “on the need for transformative policing policies that promote accountability, reimagine public safety, and respect the dignity of all people.” House Democrats have proposed a package of reforms that includes bans on racial profiling and choke holds, making it easier to sue officers in civil court and establishing a national database tracking officer misconduct.  A vote is planned this month. Republican leaders in the Senate have tasked Senator Tim Scott with leading the creation of their own package of proposals, an effort White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters Tuesday he hopes will come “sooner than later.”Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) delivers remarks during a news conference on the coronavirus relief bill, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 25, 2020.Scott said Tuesday he held a productive discussion with colleagues on the plan and they would be releasing a draft “in the near future.” “I am hopeful that this legislation will bring much-needed solutions,” Scott said. Senator Lindsey Graham, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, has set a hearing on police use of force for next week. With the two parties each controlling one of the chambers, and President Donald Trump repeatedly stressing the need for “law and order” amid the protests, it is unlikely the sides will agree on all of their proposals, but there is some common ground, including the misconduct database. Local bans on choke holds have been among the steps already taken by city and state leaders in places such as California, Denver and in Minneapolis, the city where Floyd died.  The latest such move came from the police department in Phoenix, Arizona, which announced the immediate ban of the technique Tuesday. In Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler said his package of reforms includes halting the use of patrol officers on public transit and moving $7 million from the city’s police budget to programs for communities of color.  Other cities have pledged similar funding shifts, including New York and Los Angeles, heeding what has become one of the major initiatives promoted by protesters. New York state lawmakers also voted Tuesday to repeal a decades-old law that made the disciplinary records and misconduct complaints against officers secret.  Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he will sign it. Floyd was entombed Tuesday in Pearland, Texas, after a Houston funeral attended by hundreds of family members, friends and prominent figures. WATCH: Floyd funeral serviceSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 6 MB480p | 8 MB540p | 11 MB720p | 23 MB1080p | 43 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioCivil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton gave the eulogy, saying Floyd touched people all over the country, and in other parts of the world who have also joined in protest, “marching with your name.” “People are walking out in the streets, not even following social distance because you’ve touched the world. And as we lay you to rest today, the movement won’t rest until we get justice. Until we have one standard of justice. Your family is gonna miss you, George. But your nation is going to always remember your name because your neck was one that represented all of us. And how you suffered represented our stuff,” Sharpton said. Among those in attendance were the parents of Eric Garner, Botham Jean and Michael Brown, three victims of earlier police violence whose deaths brought calls for reforms. “Until we know the price for black life is the same as the price for white life, we’re going to keep coming back to these situations over and over again,” Sharpton told those assembled at The Fountain of Praise Church. Hundreds of people gathered along the funeral procession route to pay their final respects to Floyd, and to express their grief and their frustration at the history of police violence against African Americans and the lack of action to eliminate it. “We’ve been kneeling. Nothing happened.  We’ve been peacefully protesting. Nothing happened,” Xavier Bradley told VOA.  “Only until something gets destroyed they’ll listen. Now we’ve got their ear, hopefully we can put it to good use.” 
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A cabbage crop being grown on a tropical islet will help China solidify its claims in a wider, disputed Asian sea by allowing more people to live there and proving that the tiny feature can sustain itself.   Chinese navy personnel last month harvested 750 kilograms of crops on Woody Island in the South China Sea’s Paracel archipelago, Beijing-based Global Times online reported. The personnel used domestically developed “sand-to-earth” technology to grow bok choy cabbage, baby cabbage and lettuce among other vegetables, the news outlet says.   Vietnam and Taiwan claim the same islets as well as the surrounding sea. Further south in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines compete with Chinese claims in the Spratly Islands. Rival governments prize much of the sea for fish and energy reserves. China has taken a military lead over the other parties since 2010. The crop will help China prove economic activity on a disputed island, a plus in its search for an internationally recognized legal basis to control the Paracels ,scholars believe.   “Other than military usage, you need to do something substantive in order to bolster your sovereignty claims,” said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. “You need to do something which can advance (the) so-called local economy.”   Technology behind China’s crop on Woody Island can “support communities” there, the Global Times said, citing experts. About 1,000 people already live on the islet. They rely largely on food shipments from mainland China.FILE – Soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy patrol at Woody Island, in the Paracel Archipelago, Jan. 29, 2016.The Permanent Court of International Justice considers a continual display of authority over a land feature as an effective administrative use of the South China Sea. China lost a world court arbitration case in 2016 to the Philippines over the legal basis for its maritime sovereignty claims. Officials in Beijing cited historical records to argue that about 90% of the waters belong to them. China’s installation of hangars and radar equipment on some islets – following a multi-year land reclamation effort – had alarmed Manila among other claimants.  The farming breakthrough on Woody Island goes against a court statement in 2016 that islands in the sea could not support “communities of their own”, the Chinese government-run Global Times said. “You can factor this in as part of a holistic strategy to demonstrate habitation capability,” said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines have promoted crop planting on islands under their control in the contested sea but without any clear legal gains, analysts say. Taiwan ex-president Ma Ying-jeou argued in 2016 that the consumption of corn, sweet potatoes and chickens raised on Taiping Island in the Spratly chain proved that the Taiwanese coast guard-administered feature could support a human population. The islet is therefore entitled to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone in the sea around it, Ma said. Some of the 300 Filipinos living on Thitu Island in the same chain plant their own crops. Vietnamese strive to raise crops on South China Sea islets under their control, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.   China had grown crops on its maritime holding even before the recent cabbage harvest announcement, he said. Eventually, farming will run up against a lack of space given each islet’s tiny size and competing land uses such as human habitation, he suggested. “Where is the crossover point where you can make enough to feed everyone on the island and significantly reduce the imports?” Thayer asked. “I’m being skeptical that we’re making a leap.” 
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That massive fence erected around Lafayette Park has become a do-it-yourself gallery of protest art. Messages, posters and portraits, ranging from loving to enraged, almost blot out the view of the White House across the way.  One block away at the corner of 16th and I streets — a constant flash point for most of last week — the calliope version of “La Cucaracha” rang out from an ice cream truck parked just outside the police roadblock. In front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, it was so tranquil Monday afternoon you could hear the birds chirping while a white visitor paid for a $20 Black Lives Matter T-shirt with Venmo.  As the nation’s capital emerges from a violent and chaotic 10-day stretch of protests and street battles, a different mood is taking hold. The anger has given way to something closer to a street fair as community leaders, members of Congress and the D.C. government have rallied to the protesters’ cause.  “For me this is exactly the sort of atmosphere it should be,” said Leigh McAlpin, a writer and veteran activist from Baltimore, who was staffing a medical relief tent offering water and snacks. “Last night we were doing the ‘Cha Cha Slide’ in the street.” Police have turned a several-block area north of Lafayette Park, in front of the White House, into an open air pedestrian space. The area is pristine, with no sign of broken glass and only minimal graffiti visible. The clearest sign of last week’s protests — other than the massive yellow “Black Lives Matter” painted in the middle of 16th Street — is the sheets of plywood covering almost every window on the block. At the medical relief tents, the number-one priority was no longer dousing people with milk and antacid to counter the effect of smoke bombs and pepper balls. “Please stay hydrated. We have free water here,” said one volunteer over a loudspeaker. “Donald Trump is not your friend and neither is the sun on a day like this.”  The National Park Service says part of Lafayette Park will reopen Wednesday. Spokeswoman Katie Liming said Monday that most of the temporary fencing will be removed. Some fencing will remain in Lafayette Park around damaged areas to allow workers to make repairs and address safety hazards. Liming gave no time for when the rest of the square would reopen. Tia Farrell, left, Tangee Massey, and Shalonda Harris, all of Richmond, Va., wear clothes designed and crocheted by Massey, as people visit the site of protests, June 9, 2020, near the White House in Washington.Lafayette Park is one of the country’s most prominent sites for political protests and other free-speech events. But it’s been closed off since last Monday by a towering black chain link fence that was hastily erected after U.S. Park Police used smoke bombs, pepper pellets and officers on horseback to violently clear peaceful protesters. Immediately afterward, President Donald Trump staged a brief photo op in front of St. John’s, the historic church that had been damaged in the protests. The exact decision-making around that series of events continues to be a topic of lingering controversy and examination. On Monday, White Press press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said there were “no regrets on the part of this White House” over the handling of peaceful protesters that night. McEnany said it was Attorney General William Barr who made the decision to expand the security perimeter around the White House. “Park Police also had made that decision independently when they saw all the violence in Lafayette Square,” she said.  McEnany noted that the protests since that night have been increasingly peaceful and she credits Trump’s calling in the National Guard. As the violence subsided and the weather improved, the mood outside the the White House turned festive over the weekend. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah marched with the protesters. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who engaged in a weeklong public feud with Trump over his deployment of armed National Guard units in Washington, renamed the intersection in front of St. John’s as Black Lives Matter Plaza. Bowser also commissioned the painting of a massive yellow “Black Lives Matter” on 16th street leading up to the White House. “It’s way too early for a victory lap, but this does feel hopeful,” said McAlpin, the relief station volunteer and a veteran of multiple previous protests over black deaths at police hands. “There are a lot of new faces and white supporters. But they’re not just chanting ‘No Justice/No Peace’. They’re coming up and asking what’s next? What groups should they join and support and donate to? And then they’re really doing it in their phones in front of you. That’s what feels different.” But the undercurrent of defiance remains: local activists both welcomed Bowser’s support and dismissed the street painting as a political performance. They added their own, much more politically sensitive, message: “Defund the Police.”  Bowser on Monday, took pains to avoid conflict over the issue, refusing to say whether the Defund the Police addition would be removed.  “That’s not part of the mural,” she said at a press conference. “But we recognize it as expression, and especially right now, acknowledging and affirming expression is important to the discussion we have to have as a community.”  
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Україна очікує перший транш від Міжнародного валютного фонду в червні, повідомив прем’єр-міністр Денис Шмигаль у Facebook.

«Перший транш у розмірі 2,1 мільярда доларів ми очікуємо вже цього місяця. Кошти будуть спрямовані до державного бюджету для підтримки економіки та допомоги людям», – написав Шмигаль в ніч на 10 червня.

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

«Нова програма має за ціль допомогти Україні впоратися зі спричиненими COVID-19 викликами», – повідомили в МВФ.

Міжнародний валютний фонд серед пріоритетів нової угоди назвав:

пом’якшення впливу кризи на економіку, включно з підтримкою домогосподарств та бізнесів;
забезпечення незалежності центрального банку та гнучкості курсу валют;
захист фінансової стабільності під час відновлення коштів банківського регулювання;
просування в ключових урядових та антикорупційних заходах, щоб підтримати та поглибити нещодавні здобутки.

Рішення Ради директорів МВФ дозволяє надати Україні перший транш у розмірі 2,1 мільярда доларів.

Міжнародний валютний фонд очікує, що валовий внутрішній продукт України у 2020 році впаде на 8,2 відсотка.
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The Black Lives Matter protests that have erupted in the U.S. following the death of an African American man after being in police custody have increased pressure on Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, to pick a black running mate. While Biden has already promised to name a woman as his vice-presidential nominee, VOA’s Brian Padden reports, the changing political landscape has raised the prospects for some female African American leaders that had not been considered top contenders.Produced by: Brian Badden
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Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has died after suffering what the government said was a heart attack, two months before he was scheduled to leave office.Nkurunziza died at the Karusi Hospital in eastern Burundi late Monday, two days after he reported feeling unwell and was taken to the facility, the government reported in a news release posted Tuesday on social media.URGENT: Le Gouvernement de la République du Burundi annonce avec une très grande tristesse le décès inopiné de Son Excellence Pierre Nkurunziza, Président de la République du Burundi, survenu à l’Hôpital du Cinquantenaire de Karusi suite à un arrêt cardiaque ce 8 juin 2020. pic.twitter.com/PP46kKzAM5
— Burundi Government (@BurundiGov) The Burundian national flag is taken down at the independent square in downtown Bujumbura as Burundi mourns the death of Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, June 9, 2020.In late 2018, Burundi ordered the U.N. Human Rights Council to close its office in eastern Burundi, after a report alleging the “involvement of the regime in systematic abuses and a risk of genocide.”In mid-May, Burundi expelled four officials from the World Health Organization without explanation, despite the coronavirus pandemic. Nkurunziza – a born-again Christian and, like his wife, a pastor – had claimed God gave special protection to faithful Burundians.Burundi Expels WHO OfficialsHealth Ministers expelled prior to election despite pandemic fearsThe country officially had 83 confirmed cases and one death as of Tuesday, though the French news agency, Agence France-Presse, said doctors in Bujumbura confidentially spoke of many unreported cases and deaths.Gervais Rufyikiri, who served in the Senate and then, from 2010 to 2015, as second vice president, told VOA that he and Nkurunziza “worked together on many projects, some of which contributed to Burundi’s development.” Rufyikiri didn’t specify what he considered his accomplishments, but he acknowledged “the national economy did not turn out as we had hoped.”Burundi remains one of the globe’s poorest countries, according to the World Bank, with most people living in poverty, especially in rural areas. The late president found his strongest support in those areas, where he was considered a man of the people because he helped with harvests and organized prayer services. After the coup attempt in 2015, he moved from the then-capital, Bujumbura, to his northern hometown of Ngozi.The two men’s relationship ruptured in 2015 when Nkurunziza decided to seek a third term. Rufyikiri fled the country.Speaking from exile in Switzerland, he added, “My wish for Burundi is not to go back into violence as we experienced in the past. … Whenever there is war, many people shed tears.”  Nkurunziza had not intended to surrender all the privileges of leadership after leaving the presidency. The ruling CNDD-FDD party anointed him its Eternal Supreme Guide in 2018. The government said that when he stepped down, it would send him off with 1 billion Burundi francs – about $535,000 – plus a villa.VOA Central Africa Service’s Geoffrey Mutagoma also contributed to this report.
 
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Family, friends, and people who never knew him filed into the pews of the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston Tuesday for the funeral of George Floyd — the African American man whose death while in the custody of white Minneapolis police lit the fuse of protests against racism around the world.A line of Houston police officers stood by while Floyd’s gold coffin was wheeled into the church.“George Floyd was not expendable. This is why we’re here,” Democratic Congressman Al Green of Houston told the crowd. “His crime was that he was born black. That was his only crime. George Floyd deserved the dignity and respect that we accord all people just because they are children of a common God.” Philonise Floyd, brother, of George Floyd pauses at the casket during a funeral service for Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church, June 9, 2020, in Houston.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who met with Floyd’s family Monday, taped a eulogy played at the funeral.”No child should have to ask questions that too many black children have had to ask for generations: Why? Now is the time for racial justice. That is the answer we must give to our children when they ask why,” Biden said. Award-winning singer Ne-Yo performed, saying Floyd “changed the world.” And like many funerals, there were some light moments. His aunt, Kathleen McGee, chuckled as she remember Floyd as a child, recalling him to be a “pesky little rascal, but we loved him.” Floyd’s casket is being taken by a horse-drawn carriage to the Houston suburb of Pearland, where he will be buried next to his mother.  Hundreds are enduring the legendary Texas sun and heat, lining the streets between the church and cemetery.  A mourner adjusts his protective face mask as he waits for the funeral for George Floyd at the Houston Memorial Gardens cemetery in Pearland, Texas, June 9, 2020.Many of those marches turned violent, prompting governors to deploy the National Guard to restore order. There are also calls for cities to defund police departments. The Minneapolis city council overwhelmingly backs such plan in the face of opposition by Mayor Jacob Frey.  Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced he will sign an executive order that bans chokeholds in the city. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s police training program to stop teaching chokeholds.     Denver’s police chief has also banned chokeholds and Washington Seattle Governor Jay Inslee says he wants to make it mandatory for police officers to report bad behavior by other officers and not just stand by while an atrocity may be committed.  
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Національний банк України встановив на 10 червня курс 26 гривень 64 копійки за долар, це на чотири копійки більше за офіційний курс на 9 червня.

Регулятор послабив національну валюту вперше від 28 травня, коли курс уперше за місяць сягнув позначки 27 гривень за долар. У цілому в коридорі 26,5–27 гривень котирування американської валюти перебувають уже понад два місяці, від кінця квітня.

Торги на українському міжбанківському ринку завершилися на рівні 26 гривень 64,5–66,5 копійки за долар, свідчать дані Finance.ua.

«Нацбанк продовжить поповнювати резерви за рахунок інтервенцій при надлишку долара на торгах. Додасть пропозиції валюти на сесії і зарахування українським компаніям валютної виручки практично за два дні через вихідний у нас понеділок. Попит же може зрости за рахунок виходу на торги тих «дочок» іноземних компаній, хто поки ще не закрив свої обсяги виведення дивідендів. Це періодично може стимулювати зростання котирувань протягом дня на невеликі проміжки часу», – відзначали на початку торгів експерти сайту «Мінфін».

Ринок також очікує на рішення МВФ – 9 червня очікується вердикт щодо виділення Україні першого траншу за новою програмою співпраці.
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Voters in five U.S. states went to the polls Tuesday for political party primary elections, but the balloting in the southern state of Georgia was slow, with voters reporting long lines and officials saying there were problems with voting machines not working.In the state’s largest city, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms urged voters to be patient, saying the long lines and voting machine issues were widespread.”This seems to be happening throughout Atlanta and perhaps throughout the county,” Lance Bottoms wrote on Twitter. “If you are in line, PLEASE do not allow your vote to be suppressed. PLEASE stay in line.”A person stretches as voters wait in a line in Georgia’s primary election at Park Tavern in Atlanta, June 9, 2020.Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, had warned ahead of the election of the possibility of long lines because of the continuing recommendations in many parts of the U.S. that people in public places maintain a two-meter distance from each other to curb the spread of the coronavirus.Jon Ossoff, a 33-year-old chief executive of an investigative TV production company, leads a large field of Georgia Democrats seeking the party’s nomination to oppose incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue, a close ally of President Donald Trump, in the November election.Ossoff faces six other Democrats in the party primary but needs 50% of the vote to avoid an Aug. 11 runoff election. Perdue has no Republican challengers in his bid for a second six-year term in the Senate.Elections also are being held in Nevada, South Carolina, North Dakota and West Virginia.The spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. has pushed state election officials to institute new measures to allow absentee voting by mail, even as Trump has contended, without evidence, that mail-in voting will lead to widespread voting fraud.On Tuesday, Nevada is staging an all-mail election, while North Dakota, Georgia and West Virginia sent applications for absentee ballots to voters to allow them to vote by mail if they desire. 
 
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The Turkish city of Sanliurfa, close to the southern border, is home to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on the city’s migrants, as jobs have all but dried up and there is little aid money to help them through. Henry Ridgwell reports.Camera: Memet Aksakal 
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