In Nairobi’s Kibera neighborhood, those who depend on day-to-day wages have been hit hardest by the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. While Kenya’s government is providing some support, a local charity has formed to pick up the slack.  The “Adopt a Family” campaign connects well-off Kenyan families with those less fortunate during the COVID-19 pandemic.  So far, the initiative has connected more than 400 families, providing relief to many families in desperate need.  Rael Ombuor reports from Nairobi.Camera: John Kamau 
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Hundreds of people gathered in Taiwan’s capital Sunday to participate in one of the few LGBTQ Pride events held around the world.   Participants flew a giant rainbow flag in the city’s Liberty Square in central Taipei as they marched in front of a memorial to Chaing Kai-shek, who ruled the island with an iron fist after he was driven off mainland China after losing the 1949 civil war to Mao Zedong’s communist forces.Participants march during the “Taiwan Pride March for the World!” at Liberty Square at the CKS Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, June 28, 2020.But since his death in 1975, the self-ruled island has since become a symbol of liberal democracy in Asia, becoming the first in the region to legalize same-sex marriage last year. The event in Taipei was staged in honor of the many cities who have been forced to cancel their LGBTQ celebrations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Taiwan has earned worldwide praise for its response to the pandemic, imposing strict restrictions and carrying out widespread contract tracing throughout the island of 23 million people, with just 447 confirmed cases and seven deaths.   
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Iran would become the “arms dealer of choice” for terrorists if a U.N. weapons embargo is allowed to expire, a senior U.S. official says.Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, spoke to the Associated Press during a visit to the United Arab Emirates.The U.N. imposed its current arms embargo on Iran in 2010, and it is set to expire in October.  FILE – ​U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook speaks at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies forum in Washington, Dec. 10, 2019. (VOA Persian) ​Hook said the world should ignore Iranian threats of retaliation if the embargo is extended.“If we play by Iran’s rules, Iran wins,” he told the AP. “It is a mafia tactic where people are intimidated into accepting a certain kind of behavior for fear of something far worse.”The U.N. arms embargo has stopped Iran from openly buying fighter jets, tanks, warships and other weaponry. But it has not stopped Iran from sneaking weapons into such war zones as Yemen, where Iran backs the Houthi rebels.Iran has denied supplying arms to the rebels. But Hook says if the embargo expires, it may not have to use alleged smuggling as a tactic anymore.  “If we let it expire, you can be certain that what Iran has been doing in the dark, it will do in broad daylight and then some,” he told the AP.The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency predicted last year that Iran would try to buy Russian fighter jets, tanks and anti-aircraft missile systems if it were allowed to.  But U.S. economic sanctions on Iranian oil sales have nearly wrecked the Iranian economy.When a reporter asked Hook how Iran could pay for such expensive equipment, he said it is “a good thing for the region” that Iranian revenues are way down, adding that it also complicates Iranian efforts to back such allies as Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.  “We have put this regime through our strategy on the horns of a dilemma,” Hook said. “They have to choose between guns in Damascus or butter in Tehran.”
 
Iran did not immediately commented on Hook’s remarks. But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday called 2020 Iran’s “most difficult year” because of U.S. economic sanctions and the coronavirus outbreak. 
 
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Performing as a police officer pressed his knee on his neck, replicating the last moments of George Floyd’s life, multi-platinum rapper DaBaby rapped a verse from the Black Lives Matter remix of his hit song “Rockstar” at the BET Awards. Sunday’s show, a virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic, featured a number of highly produced, well-crafted and pre-taped performances. DaBaby’s clip, featuring Roddy Ricch, also featured images from protests, a reflection of the current world in the wake of Floyd’s death and the death of others, including Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. The BET Awards, celebrating its 20th anniversary, kicked off Sunday with a performance featuring Black artists rapping and singing anthems about the Black experience and fighting for equal rights. The 12-year-old sensation Keedron Bryant, who turned heads on social media with his passionate performance about being a young Black man in today’s world, started the show with an a cappella performance of his poignant song “I Just Wanna Live,” which earned him a record deal. That was followed by an all-star performance of Public Enemy’s 1989 anthem “Fight the Power,” featuring Nas, Black Thought, Rapsody and YG adding new lyrics to the song, even namedropping Taylor and others. Chuck D kicked off the performance, replacing the year 1989 with 2020. “Fight the Power” topped the Billboard rap charts more three decades ago and was featured in Spike Lee’s epic “Do the Right Thing.” Flavor Flav, Questlove and Black Thought and Chuck D’s artist Jahi were also part of the performance. Sunday’s show also celebrates BET’s 40th year as a network. The three-hour show, airing on CBS for the first time, is being hosted by comedian, actress and TV personality Amanda Seales, who starred in several skits, including one about women who identify as “Karen,” a common stereotype and term for racist and privileged white women. Other artists were political during their performances, including Ricch, who wore a Black Lives Matter shirt while he rapped, Alicia Keys, Anderson Paak and Jay Rock, as well as brothers SiR and D Smoke, who performed with their mother Jackie Gouché. Lil Wayne paid tribute to NBA icon Kobe Bryant, who died in January, with a performance of his 2009 song “Kobe Bryant,” weaving in new lyrics. Wayne Brady, in a glittery suit, rolled around on top of a piano as he sang a medley of Little Richard hits. Nipsey Hussle, who was named best male hip-hop artist and earned the humanitarian award at last year’s BET Awards, won video of the year for “Higher,” a clip he filmed with DJ Khaled and John Legend shortly before he died.Guests wear T-shirts in tribute to Nipsey Hussle, whose given name was Ermias Asghedom, at the late rapper’s Celebration of Life memorial service, April 11, 2019, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.“This is for Nipsey Hussle and hip-hop,” Khaled said in a taped video. “Nipsey Hussle, thank you for working with me on this ‘Higher’ record. I appreciate you. Nipsey’s family, we love you.” The BET Awards, one of the first awards shows to air virtually, featured performances that were sharp with artsy stage production, giving extra life to the songs being performed. It was a welcomed break from the “living room” and homebound performances hundreds of artists have shared on social media since the pandemic hit in March. Megan Thee Stallion went to the desert with background dancers as she twerked and rapped her No. 1 hit “Savage.” She won best female hip-hop artist, beating out Cardi B and Nicki Minaj. “Oh my God, I probably recorded this video like 10 times. It feels so crazy doing this from my house,” she said. “I used to watch the BET Awards all the time thinking, ‘One day that’s going to be me going up there accepting my award’ — and now it is.” Later in the show Beyoncé will earn the humanitarian award, to be presented by Michelle Obama. The show is an annual celebration of Black entertainment and culture, and this year’s ceremony is the first major awards show since the May 25 death of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, which sparked global protests aimed at reforming police actions and removing statues and symbols considered racist from public places. 
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JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI — Mississippi legislators were working Sunday to change the state flag by removing a Confederate battle emblem that’s broadly condemned as racist.The House passed a bill 91-23 with broad bipartisan support, sending it to the Senate for more debate.  The flag’s supporters resisted efforts to change it for decades, but rapid developments in recent weeks have changed dynamics on this issue in the tradition-bound state.As protests against racial injustice recently spread across the U.S., including Mississippi, leaders from business, religion, education and sports have spoken forcefully against the state flag. They have urged legislators to ditch the 126-year-old banner for one that better reflects the diversity of a state with a 38% Black population.The bill being considered Sunday will remove the current flag from state law in the next few days — as soon as the bill is signed by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who has said he will do so. A commission would design a new flag that cannot include the Confederate symbol and that must have the words “In God We Trust.”The state House and Senate met Saturday and took a big step: By two-thirds margins, they suspended legislative deadlines so a flag bill could be filed. Spectators cheered as each chamber voted, and legislators seeking the change embraced each other.”There are economic issues. There are issues involving football or whatever,” Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said Saturday. “But this vote came from the heart. That makes it so much more important.”Democratic Sen. David Jordan, who is African American, has pushed for decades to change the flag. He smiled broadly after Saturday’s vote and said, “This is such a metamorphosis.”Mississippi has the last state flag with the Confederate battle emblem — a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars. The flag has been divisive for generations. All of the state’s public universities have stopped flying it, as have a growing number of cities and counties.White supremacists in the Mississippi Legislature set the state flag design in 1894 during backlash to the political power that African Americans gained after the Civil War.In 2000, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the flag lacked official status. State laws were updated in 1906, and portions dealing with the flag were not carried forward. Legislators set a flag election in 2001, and voters kept the rebel-themed design.Former state Rep. Steve Holland was at the Capitol on Sunday urging legislators to change the flag. As a Democratic House member in 2000, Holland served on a commission that held public hearings about the flag. He said Sunday that he and other commissioners received death threats back then.Holland, who is white, said he voted in the 2001 election to keep the flag, but he now sees the rebel symbol as harmful.”People have changed,” Holland said. “The country’s changed. The world has changed.”Former Ole Miss basketball player Blake Hinson told his hometown Daytona Beach (Florida) News-Journal that the Mississippi flag played a part in his decision to transfer to Iowa State.”It was time to go and leave Ole Miss,” Hinson said. “I’m proud not to represent that flag anymore and to not be associated with anything representing the Confederacy.”Reeves and many other politicians have said people should get to vote on a flag design in another statewide election. The new design — without the Confederate symbol — will be put on the ballot Nov. 3, but it will be the only choice. If a majority voting that day accept the new design, it will become the state flag. If a majority reject it, the commission will design a new flag using the same guidelines.People wanting to keep the Confederate-themed flag could gather more than 100,000 signatures to put that design up for statewide election. It’s too late to get it on the ballot this November, though, because of timelines set in state law.
 
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France President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party received a drubbing Sunday in municipal elections, as the Greens celebrated victories in several big cities after a surge in support.Macron had hoped the elections would help anchor his young party in towns and cities across France, including Paris, ahead of an anticipated 2022 reelection bid.But aides had more recently been playing down expectations, and the sweeping wins by the Greens, who in some cities joined forces with leftist allies, may compel Macron to reshuffle his government to win back disenfranchised left-wing voters.In a rare bright spot for Macron, his prime minister, Edouard Philippe, won his bid to become mayor of the northern port city of Le Havre. Although the French constitution allows Philippe to name someone to act as mayor while he remains prime minister, his win deepens questions over his job as premier.’Green wave’
Exit polls showed the Greens winning in Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Strasbourg, building on the momentum created by their strong performance in France in last year’s European Parliament elections.Yannick Jadot, a European Parliament lawmaker from the Europe Ecology – The Greens, hailed an historic victory.”It’s an incredible green wave,” he said.In Paris, the biggest prize of all, the incumbent Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo celebrated victory after a shambolic campaign by Macron’s camp.France’s 35,000 mayors set policy on issues from urban planning to education and the environment. While local factors typically drive voter choices, they give the electorate an opportunity to support or punish a president midmandate.”We have a government that is completely disconnected from reality,” said Naouel, a voter in Paris’ 9th district who said she was backing the center-right opposition candidate.In Perpignan, Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) claimed victory, the first time the protectionist, anti-EU party has taken control of a town with a population of more than 100,000 people.Reshuffle?In this second round of voting, turnout was low and people wore masks because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The first round was held just days before Macron imposed one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns in mid-March.Turnout was just 40.5%, interior ministry data showed.The weak performance of Macron’s La Republique en Marche will prompt much soul-searching for the president, who in the run-up to the vote said he wanted to reinvent his presidency with two years left in his mandate.Early in his presidency, Macron’s left-wing opponents derided him as a ‘president of the rich’ as he eased taxes on companies and relaxed worker protections as he enacted reforms to liberalize France’s regulation-choked economy.The reforms were bearing fruit: growth was robust among euro zone peers and stubbornly high unemployment was falling.But the past three years have been mired in social unrest and the pandemic’s impact is reversing some of Macron’s hard-fought gains, as disillusion among the leftist faction of his party grows. 
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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday mostly blamed young people ignoring precautions to prevent the spread of coronavirus for the sharp increase in recent days of the number of confirmed cases in the country. Pence, in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” show, said it is “inarguable” that increased testing in the U.S., with 500,000 per a day, has led to confirmation of more people with coronavirus infections. But he said “younger Americans have been congregating in ways that may have disregarded the guidance that we gave on the federal level for all the phases of reopening businesses.” Lines of cars wait at a coronavirus testing site outside of Hard Rock Stadium, in Miami Gardens, Fla., June 26, 2020.The number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. has risen sharply in recent days, particularly in a trio of states across southern tier of the U.S. in Florida, Texas and Arizona that are separated by hundreds of kilometers. In total, the U.S. reported more than 40,000 new cases Friday, a single-day record for reports of the pandemic in the U.S. over the last six months.  Pence has cancelled political trips this coming week to both Florida and Arizona out of caution because of the increased number of cases in the two states.  Pence said the U.S. is better equipped medically to handle the hospitalization of more coronavirus patients than it was early in the year.  But he said President Donald Trump and he support measures taken by governors in Florida and Texas to again close bars to prevent people from gathering there shoulder to shoulder while ignoring frequent admonitions from health experts to wear masks and to socially distance from each other by at least two meters. “It’s clear testing isn’t the only reason that we’re seeing more cases, but it’s a significant reason,” while adding, “It’s clear across the Sunbelt that there’s something happening, particularly among younger Americans.” Pence said. But he said the Trump administration does not think it is necessary to impose national mandatory directives to wear a face mask. Trump has rarely worn a mask, saying he does think it is for him.  Vice President Mike Pence, second from left, walks off of the stage following the conclusion of a briefing with the Coronavirus Task Force at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, June 26, 2020.Pence has more frequently put on a mask, again on Sunday as he attended a church service in Dallas, Texas. He rejected the suggestion that Trump could help slow the spread of coronavirus by setting an example nationally by wearing a mask. “We believe people should wear masks wherever social distancing is not possible, wherever it’s indicated by either state or local authorities,” Pence said. But he added, “We believe that every state has a unique situation. One of the elements of the genius of America is the principle of federalism, of state and local control…we want to defer to governors, defer to local officials. And people should listen to them.” In all, the U.S. has now recorded more than  2.5 million coronavirus cases and more than 125,000 deaths, both far and away the biggest national figures across the world. Health officials are predicting that tens of thousands more Americans will die in the coming months. 
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President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted approvingly of a video showing one of his supporters chanting “white power,” a racist slogan associated with white supremacists. He later deleted the tweet and the White House said the president had not heard “the one statement” on the video. The video appeared to have been taken at The Villages, a Florida retirement community, and showed dueling demonstrations between Trump supporters and opponents.  “Thank you to the great people of The Villages,” Trump tweeted. Moments into the video clip he shared, a man driving a golf cart displaying pro-Trump signs and flags shouts ‘white power.” The video also shows anti-Trump protesters shouting “Nazi,” “racist,” and profanities at the Trump backers. “There’s no question” that Trump should not have retweeted the video and “he should just take it down,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told CNN’s “State of the Union.” Scott is the only Black Republican in the Senate. Shortly afterward, Trump deleted the tweet that shared the video. White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement that “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”  The president’s decision to highlight a video featuring a racist slogan comes amid a national reckoning over race following the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans. Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man, died after a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes.  Protests against police brutality and bias in law enforcement have occurred across the country following Floyd’s death and there has also been a push to remove Confederate monuments, an effort Trump has opposed.  Trump’s tenure in office has appeared to have emboldened white supremacist and nationalist groups, some of whom have embraced his presidency. In 2017, Trump responded to clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white nationalists and counter-protesters by saying there were “very fine people on both sides.” 
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