Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spoke on Wednesday with the family of the Black man shot by police in Wisconsin, and emerged from the conversation calling for justice and condemning violent protest in Jacob Blake’s name.
 
Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been rocked by civil unrest and violence since Sunday, when police shot Blake, 29, in the back at close range in an incident captured on video. Blake is paralyzed and is being treated for his injuries.
 
“I spoke to Jacob’s mom and dad and sister and other members of the family just a little bit earlier, and I told them justice must and will be done,” Biden said in a video posted to his campaign’s social media accounts.
 
He said he agreed with Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, who said violence in the streets does not reflect her son or family.
 
“Protesting brutality is a right and absolutely necessary but burning down communities is not protest,” Biden said. “It’s needless violence. Violence that endangers life. Violence that guts businesses and shutters businesses that serve the community. That’s wrong.”
 
A 17-year-old identified as Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested and charged with homicide on Wednesday in connection with gunfire that killed two people and wounded a third during a third night of protests on Tuesday.
 
Republican President Donald Trump on Wednesday said had spoken with Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, who he said agreed to accept U.S. law enforcement support to deal with the unrest. The president has not publicly discussed Blake’s shooting.
 
Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, said on Wednesday that she took part in the conversation with Blake’s family.
 
“There are still two systems of justice in America,” she said at a campaign event.
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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday the alliance is “watching developments in Belarus closely,” and that NATO supports “a sovereign and independent Belarus.” Stoltenberg made the comments to reporters after meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two leaders met to discuss pressing European diplomatic issues ahead of meetings with European Union defense ministers in Berlin.
 
In their bilateral talks, the two leaders also discussed the territorial dispute between Greece and Turkey, and the situation in Afghanistan.
 
Additionally, Stoltenberg mentioned the U.S. decision to pull troops out of Germany earlier this year and put additional personnel in Poland. The NATO chief said, “It is important that allies continue to consult closely because the U.S. presence in Europe is important both for the security of Europe and for the security of the United States.”
 
Ahead of the meeting with EU defense ministers, Stoltenberg added his voice to growing calls for a “transparent” investigation into the case of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Stoltenberg said there was “no reason to doubt” German doctors’ conclusions that the Kremlin critic was poisoned.  
 
Navalny’s supporters say he was poisoned by a cup of tea at a Siberian airport. Navalny later became ill on a flight to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, where he was hospitalized before he was airlifted to Germany for treatment last Saturday.
 
Russia has not opened an investigation into the incident and a Kremlin spokesman said there was “no pretext” to do so. The EU leaders are meeting in Berlin because Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union Council.
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A New Zealand court has handed down a life sentence without parole to a self-avowed white supremacist who admitted to killing 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in New Zealand last year.Australian Brenton Tarrant did not speak when Christchurch High Court Judge Cameron Mander handed down the sentence Thursday on the last day of a four-day sentencing hearing. It is the first time a life sentence without parole has ever been imposed in New Zealand.Judge Mander called Tarrant’s actions “inhuman” as he handed down the sentence and described the 29-year-old as “entirely self-absorbed.”“You are empty of any empathy for your victims,” the judge told Tarrant.Tarrant told the judge through his court-appointed lawyer that he did not oppose his life sentence without parole. He had dismissed his original lawyers last month.About 90 survivors and family members of the March 15, 2019, attacks at the al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch gave victim statements during the sentencing hearings. Tarrant sat impassively as the witnesses testified in varying degrees of emotions, from red hot anger to expressions of forgiveness.Tarrant unexpectedly pleaded guilty back in March to 51 counts of murder, 40 charges of attempted murder and one charge of terrorism. Hours before carrying out the shootings, Tarrant published a long manifesto online explaining his reasonings for the attacks. He then livestreamed the attacks on Facebook, which was viewed by scores of people around the world before it was taken down.It was the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s history. The massacre led to a ban on military-style semi-automatic rifles and a new nationwide firearms registry that traces every gun in New Zealand.
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Laura has officially made landfall in the southeastern state of Louisiana after a long journey through the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.Forecasters say Laura touched down early Thursday morning in the coastal town of Cameron, Louisiana, located about 86 kilometers south of Lake Charles.  The NHC says the storm is carrying  maximum sustained winds of 240 kph, making it a Category 4 storm on the five-level scale that measures a hurricane’s potential destructiveness.The NHC says parts of Louisiana are already experiencing extreme winds, catastrophic storm surges and flash floods as Hurricane Laura rapidly closes in on Lake Charles and the neighboring city of Port Arthur, Texas, at a speed of 24 kph.Hurricane warnings have been issued along a 446-kilometer stretch between San Luis Pass, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana.Officials say heavy rain and fierce winds are expected, but the biggest danger is from the expected 7-meter-high storm surge, which the NHC has described as “unsurvivable,” leaving entire towns underwater and causing floods and power outages farther inland, with conditions that could last for days.Forecasters say Hurricane Laura will move inland across southwestern Louisiana Thursday morning, then continue northward across the state throughout the day.Laura is also predicted to soak parts of the South with massive rainfall as it moves inland and weakens.But forecasters say it could strengthen back to a tropical storm as it moves into the warm Atlantic by early next week and threaten the northeast.Laura killed 24 people in the Dominican Republic and Haiti when it struck there as a tropical storm earlier this week.   
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Greek and Turkish leaders dug in their heels Wednesday even after their foreign ministers proposed talks to settle rival claims to energy-rich sections of the Mediterranean.   Greece announced plans Wednesday to extend its territorial waters along its western coastline and held a second day of military exercises in waters where Turkey challenges Greek claims of jurisdiction.  Turkey carried out military exercises nearby.  Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Athens has the right to extend its territorial waters along its western coastline across from Italy from 11 to 22 kilometers.  This section of the Ionian Sea is not part of the dispute with Turkey, but Mitsotakis said Greece was giving up years of what it calls a “passive” foreign policy. Turkey would regard a similar extension in the Aegean, which is between Greece and Turkey, as blatant hostility.  “Everyone must see that Turkey is not a country whose patience can be tried, whose determination, capabilities and courage can be tested. If we say we’ll do something we’ll do it and pay the price,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday. “If anyone wants to stand before us and face the consequences, they are welcome to. If not, stay out of our way and we will continue with our work.” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a televised address following a weekly Cabinet meeting, in Ankara, Turkey, Aug. 24, 2020.The White House said U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Mitsotakis by telephone Wednesday and expressed concern over the tensions between Greece and Turkey.  “President Trump reaffirmed that Greece and Turkey must commit to dialogue, which is the only path to resolving their differences,” a White House statement said.  Greece and Turkey are locked in a dispute over boundaries in the Mediterranean and the rights to drill for offshore gas and oil deposits.  Greece claims a Turkish research ship is in its waters, in which it has exclusive rights to whatever is under the sea floor.   Turkey insists the exclusive economic zones of Greek islands in the Agean near the Turkish coast should be greatly reduced.  Turkey accuses Athens of trying to grab an unfair share of the eastern Mediterranean’s resources while Greece is also angered by Turkish energy exploration in waters where Cyrus claims exclusive economic rights. Cyprus is split between an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish-Cypriot north that only Turkey recognizes.  
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After more than two weeks of massive street protests in Belarus, police arrested at least 50 protesters on Wednesday, and prosecutors opened criminal inquiries against opposition activists who set up a Coordination Council. The U.S. has called for all detained protesters to be released and for the people of Belarus to be allowed to decide their own future. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
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All three NBA playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, with players around the league choosing to boycott in their strongest statement yet against racial injustice.Called off: Games between Milwaukee and Orlando, Houston and Oklahoma City, and the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland. The NBA said all three games would be rescheduled, yet did not say when.The dramatic series of moves began when the Bucks — the NBA’s team from Wisconsin, a state rocked in recent days by the shooting by police officers of Jacob Blake, a Black man — didn’t take the floor for their playoff game against the Magic. The teams were set to begin Game 5 of their series shortly after 4 p.m., with the Bucks needing a win to advance to the second round.Players had been discussing boycotting games in the bubble after the shooting of Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. More discussions among players on teams still in the bubble were scheduled Wednesday, presumably on how — or whether — to go forward, but even before that the Bucks apparently decided they would act.”Some things are bigger than basketball,” Bucks senior vice president Alex Lasry tweeted. “The stand taken today by the players and [the organization] shows that we’re fed up. Enough is enough. Change needs to happen. I’m incredibly proud of our guys and we stand 100% behind our players ready to assist and bring about real change.”Thursday scheduleThree other playoff games are scheduled Thursday. It was unclear whether they would be affected.Several NBA players, including the Lakers’ LeBron James, tweeted out messages demanding change, and the Boston Celtics’ official Twitter account did the same.”We weren’t given advance notice about the decision but we are happy to stand in solidarity with Milwaukee, Jacob, and the entire NBA community,” Orlando guard Michael Carter-Williams said. “Change is coming.”Magic players and referees were on the basketball court for the game but Milwaukee never took the floor. Eventually everyone else left and the arena staff soon took the balls, towels and tags that go on player chairs back inside.National Basketball Players Association President Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder and guard Russell Westbrook of the Houston Rockets were seen emerging from a conversation, not long before it became known that their teams also decided to not play their scheduled game Wednesday.”Today we stand united with the NBA Office, the National Basketball Players Association, the Milwaukee Bucks and the rest of the league condemning bigotry, racial injustice and the unwarranted use of violence by police against people of color,” the Magic and its ownership group, the DeVos family, said in a statement.A reporter sits beside an empty court after a postponed NBA basketball playoff game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic, Aug. 26, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.Demanding societal change and ending racial injustice has been a major part of the NBA’s restart at Walt Disney World. The phrase “Black Lives Matter” is painted on the arena courts, players are wearing messages urging change on their jerseys and coaches are donning pins demanding racial justice as well.Many players wrestled for weeks about whether it was even right to play, fearing that a return to games would take attention off the deaths of, among others, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in recent months.Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot when police officers burst into her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation in March. The warrant was in connection with a suspect who did not live there and no drugs were found. Then on May 25, Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into the Black man’s neck for nearly eight minutes — all captured on a cellphone video.Bucks guard George Hill said after Blake’s shooting that he felt players shouldn’t have come to Disney.Coach’s emotional speech”We’re the ones getting killed,” Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who is Black, said in an emotional postgame speech Tuesday night. “We’re the ones getting shot. We’re the ones that were denied to live in certain communities. We’ve been hung. We’ve been shot. And all you do is keep hearing about fear. It’s amazing why we keep loving this country and this country does not love us back. And it’s just, it’s really so sad.”The Celtics and Toronto Raptors met Tuesday to discuss boycotting Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series, which had been scheduled for Thursday. Members of the National Basketball Players Association were also part of those meetings, and Miami forward Andre Iguodala — a union officer — said around 2:15 p.m. that he did not believe a boycott plan had been finalized.Less than two hours later, the Bucks wouldn’t take the floor.”When you talk about boycotting a game, everyone’s antenna goes up,” Iguodala said. “It’s sad you have to make threats like that — I wouldn’t say threats — but you have to be willing to sacrifice corporate money for people to realize there’s a big problem out there.”The postponed NBA games came on the fourth anniversary of Colin Kaepernick’s very first protest of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before an NFL preseason game. Kaepernick sat through the anthem for his first protest, which he said was to protest racial inequality and police mistreatment of minorities. Then he famously kneeled during the anthem going forward.
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The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday that it is considering investigating four states over rules requiring nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients, saying the mandates may have led to the deaths of thousands of elderly patients.The four states — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan — are all led by Democratic governors. Republican lawmakers and other critics have long claimed that the rules have caused disproportionately high numbers of deaths at long-term care facilities in those states.In separate letters to the governors of the four states, Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband requested a wide range of information, from the number of people who were admitted to nursing homes after contracting COVID-19 to the number of fatalities at these facilities.More than 40% of the nearly 180,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States are linked to nursing homes, according to a New York Times analysis.In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo faced criticism over an order issued in March that required nursing homes to accept coronavirus-infected patients.“No resident shall be denied readmission or admission to (a nursing home) solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” Cuomo’s March 25 order read.In Hammonton, New Jersey, EMTs load a patient into an ambulance outside of the Hammonton Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare one of numerous nursing homes to have staffing shortages, May 19, 2020.Under pressure, he changed the order in May, saying only patients testing negative could be sent to nursing homes.Now the Justice Department said it is looking into whether to open investigations under a federal law governing the civil rights of nursing home residents.“The Civil Rights Division seeks to determine if the state orders requiring admission of COVID-19 patients to nursing homes is responsible for the deaths of nursing home residents,” the Justice Department said in a statement.VOA is seeking comments from spokespersons for the governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
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