Washington may impose sanctions on China over a new proposed law on security in Hong Kong, White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said Sunday.
 
“It looks like, with this national security law, they’re going to basically take over Hong Kong,” O’Brien said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
 
“And if they do … Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo will likely be unable to certify that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy and if that happens there will be sanctions that will be imposed on Hong Kong and China,” he said.WATCH: What is the U.S. prepared to do if Beijing goes through with moving Hong Kong away from a democracy? #MTP@robertcobrien: “There will be sanctions. It’s hard to see how Hong Kong will remain the Asian financial center … if China takes over.” pic.twitter.com/Bma3Ya5mPq— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) May 24, 2020 
China Friday revealed its plan to bypass Hong Kong’s legislature to impose a national security law on Hong Kong to prevent and punish acts of “secession, subversion or terrorism activities” that threaten national security.
 
The move, which would also allow Chinese national security factions to set up agencies in Hong Kong, has been widely criticized around the world, with the U.S. threatening consequences for China. 
…

Britain and other Western countries have been naive in thinking they can tame China’s Communist leaders by “cozying up” to them, says Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong. As protests rage in Hong Kong over a new security law, Christopher Patten says successive governments have fallen for a myth about China “that somehow at the end of all the kowtowing there’s this great pot of gold waiting for us.” “We keep on kidding ourselves that unless we do everything that China wants we will somehow miss out on great trading opportunities. It’s drivel,” he told Britain’s The Times newspaper on Saturday. In an excoriating interview, focused mainly on Hong Kong and the Chinese government’s decision this week to sidestep the island’s legislature and to force through a new draconian national security law that would allow Beijing to stifle political dissent in the enclave, Patten said,“ What we are seeing is a new Chinese dictatorship.” Patten, who served in the Cabinets of British prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and is now chancellor of Oxford University, oversaw Britain’s handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.  He was Britain’s lead negotiator in the talks that led to the Joint Declaration, an international treaty meant to guarantee political and economic freedoms in Hong Kong until 2047. The declaration established the principle of “one nation-two systems.” His intervention came as clamor mounted in Britain’s parliament for a review of the country’s relationship with China.  British lawmakers accuse China of using the coronavirus pandemic, which they say spread globally as a result of Beijing’s efforts to cover up the initial outbreak, to extend its global reach.  A newly-formed Conservative group in the House of Commons called the China Research Group, is urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take a robust line with China’s communist leaders, saying that Beijing’s move to stamp out political opposition in Hong Kong should serve as a “final wake-up call.” Hong Kong Police Use Force to Disperse Rally Against Beijing Security LawChina reveals plans to bypass Hong Kong’s legislature to impose a new national security law to prevent and punish acts of ‘secession, subversion or terrorism activities’Last week British newspapers reported that Johnson had instructed officials to draft plans to end Britain’s reliance on China for vital medical supplies and other strategic imports in light of the coronavirus crisis.  According to a recent think tank report, Britain is strategically dependent on China for 71 critical goods categories.  These include pharmaceutical ingredients and consumer electronics including mobile phones and laptops, according to trade data analyzed by the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank based in London. Prime Minister Johnson is also reportedly considering reversing a previous decision and to reduce the role of Chinese tech giant Huawei in the building of Britain’s future 5G phone network. U.S. officials have been urging London for months on security grounds to block Huawei from participating in the development of the network. Patten welcomed the idea of possibly excluding Huawei’s involvement, saying,“ If people argue we should deal with Huawei because they’re just like any other multinational company, that is for the birds: if they come under pressure from the Communist government to do things which are thought to be in Beijing’s interest they will do it.” “We need an urgent rethink of our approach,” says Neil O’Brien, a Conservative lawmaker and co-founder of the China Research Group. He and other like-minded MPs are now calling for the British government to offer political asylum to any citizens of Hong Kong who fear the loss of basic rights such as freedom of speech and to make it easier for Hong Kongers to live and work in Britain. On Friday, Dominic Raab, Britain’s foreign secretary, issued a joint statement with his Canadian and Australian counterparts expressing “deep concern.” The foreign ministers said:“ Making such a law on Hong Kong’s behalf without the direct participation of its people, legislature or judiciary would clearly undermine the principle of ‘one country, two systems ’under which Hong Kong is guaranteed a high degree of autonomy.” Their condemnation was echoed by Mike Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state.  China has defended the new security law for Hong Kong, saying that pro-democracy agitation in Hong Kong poses a security risk to the whole of the country.  Analysts say while the world is distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, Beijing is becoming more expansionist. Critics note that last week the National People’s Congress reaffirmed its traditional goal to “reunify” with Taiwan, but for the first time dropped the word “peaceful” in the text outlining the aim. The omission has rattled Taiwan. According to Chinese media reports, a war games exercise is being planned by the People’s Liberation Army in the coming weeks which will involve a simulated large-scale landing on Taiwanese territory. “It’s not just Hong Kong,” says Patten. “We need to have a review across government and get real. China cheats, it tries to screw things in its own favor, and if you ever point this out these ‘wolf warrior ’diplomats try to bully and hector you into submission. It’s got to stop otherwise the world is going to be a much less safe place and liberal democracy around the world is going to be destabilized,” he warned.  
…

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus is expected to reach 100,000 in a few days.  To mark the solemn landmark, the front page of the print version of the Sunday New York Times is a simple list of names of dead victims of the disease and brief personal details about them scoured from media around the country.   Sunday’s headline is “U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An incalculable Loss.” The U.S. death toll early Sunday was more than 97,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The global total of COVID-19 infections has risen to more than 5.3 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 342,000 deaths. A medical worker in protective suit conducts tests for residents in Wuhan, the Chinese city hit hardest by the coronavirus disease, Hubei province, China, May 15, 2020.China, the country where the coronavirus outbreak began, reported no new infections Saturday, the first time since it started reporting cases in January.  The pandemic has countries struggling to keep people safe while simultaneously reopening their economies, and has disrupted collective celebrations by Muslims throughout the world observing the end of Ramadan, as well as the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the U.S., when millions traditionally head to beaches and national parks. The U.S. continues to be the epicenter of the contagion with 1.6 million cases, nearly one-third of all cases worldwide.   Gravediggers bury an alleged COVID-19 victim at the Vila Formosa Cemetery, in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 22, 2020.Brazil comes in second with more than 347,000 infections, followed by Russia with almost 336,000 cases.  “In a sense South America has become the new epicenter of the disease,” said Michael Ryan, director of the WHO emergency program. “The most affected is clearly Brazil at this point,” he added. Brazil’s Health Secretary Wanderson de Oliveira announced Sunday that he would resign the following day. De Oliveira attempted to resign last month but stayed on at the request of then-health minister Luiz Mandetta, who was shortly thereafter fired by Brazil’s president. The country’s Health Ministry has been at odds with President Jair Bolsanaro, who has rejected recommendations by health experts in favor of protecting the economy. Brazil and Mexico reported record numbers of cases and fatalities almost every day this week, reinforcing criticism that their presidents failed to impose more stringent lockdowns measures. However, in Chile, Ecuador and Peru, which put in place early and aggressive containment measures, infections also continued to climb, overwhelming intensive care units in those countries. Beaches are beginning to open in a few places to domestic tourists in Europe. On Sunday, beaches at La Grande Motte in southern France opened with a two-day wait list, but parks in Paris remained closed. Municipal police officers wearing face masks talk to a woman, at the Promenade des Anglais, as they check that safety restrictions are being practiced, after France reopened its beaches to the public in Nice.Germans will be allowed to visit the Baltic Sea coast beginning Monday. A few dozen people gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on Sunday to receive the traditional blessing for the first time in nearly three months.Pope Francis waves to people at St. Peter’s Square after the Regina Coeli prayer, which was held without public participation due to the COVID-19 outbreak, at the Vatican, May 24, 2020.The pope has been delivering a virtual message streamed on the internet from his library for the past few months, moving on to bless an empty square. European Union countries are planning to reopen their borders especially to migrant workers in the coming weeks, though it is unclear when they may allow intercontinental travel. 
…

With the coronavirus pandemic still a threat, this year’s Memorial Day holiday will look different from those of the past, as cities across the United States host ceremonies on virtual platforms to uphold the tradition of commemorating fallen service members.  Many towns around the country, such as Woodland Park, New Jersey; and San Clemente, California, have said that they will honor America’s fallen military and law enforcement heroes with virtual Memorial Day ceremonies. “Honoring our fallen heroes will always be a priority,” the Borough of Woodland Park said in a statement. Officials in both cities cite fears of spreading the coronavirus at large public gatherings for their decisions to transition events online.  Other cities, such as Antigo, Wisconsin, will be holding Memorial Day parades, but with requests for safety precautions such as masks and social distancing.  A man looks for a grave while visiting Leavenworth National Cemetery, May 23, 2020 in Leavenworth, Kan.Organizers of larger national celebrations and ceremonies have also decided to host their events remotely, foregoing live audiences. The PBS National Memorial Day Concert, traditionally held live on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, is just one of many large concerts altering its format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  “In this unprecedented time, when the nation needs it most, we will bring Americans together as one family to honor our heroes,” said Executive Producer Michael Colbert. “This has been the mission of the National Memorial Day Concert for 30 years, and we look forward to sharing stories and music of support, hope, resilience and patriotism.” The 2020 National Memorial Day Concert will be livestreamed on PBS.org, YouTube and Facebook. 
 
Similarly, instead of hosting a Memorial Day celebration at the Vietnam War Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) will be holding FILE – With the Washington Monument in the background, people visit the Vietnam Memorial in Washington on May 27, 2016, on the start of the Memorial Day weekend.The organization is also encouraging those attending the ceremony to share who they will be remembering this Memorial Day by writing a personal message or recording a video message on the VVMF website.  This Memorial Day, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) will hold their annual moment of silence to commemorate and honor those who lost their lives in the line of duty.  
 
“Any loss of a service member is a tragedy, but the loss of a veteran to suicide is not only tragic, it is completely preventable,” said Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “The pandemic has spiked overall mental health challenges, making COVID-19 a recipe for disaster for our veterans. This Memorial Day, we urge all Americans to #GoSilent in honor of those we have already lost and stand with us to protect those who have sacrificed so much to protect us.” Memorial Day is one of the first holidays to be celebrated during the coronavirus pandemic, setting a precedent of what is to be expected for future festivities that will take place during the crisis. 
…

The first astronauts launched by SpaceX are breaking new ground for style with hip spacesuits, gull-wing Teslas and a sleek rocketship — all of it white with black trim.   The color coordinating is thanks to Elon Musk, the driving force behind both SpaceX and Tesla, and a big fan of flash and science fiction.   NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken like the fresh new look. They’ll catch a ride to the launch pad in a Tesla Model X electric car.   “It is really neat, and I think the biggest testament to that is my 10-year-old son telling me how cool I am now,” Hurley told The Associated Press.   “SpaceX has gone all out” on the capsule’s appearance, he said. “And they’ve worked equally as hard to make the innards and the displays and everything else in the vehicle work to perfection.”   The true test comes Wednesday when Hurley and Behnken climb aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and, equipment and weather permitting, shoot into space. It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011.   It will also mark the first attempt by a private company to send astronauts into orbit. Only governments — Russia, the U.S., and China — have done that.   SpaceX employees work on the Crew Dragon spacecraft that will astronauts to and from the International Space Station, from American soil, as part of the agency’s commercial crew Program, in Hawthorne, Calif., Oct. 10, 2019.The historic send-off deserves to look good, according to SpaceX. It already has a nice ring. Musk named his rocket after the “Star Wars” Millennium Falcon. The capsule name stems from “Puff the Magic Dragon,” Musk’s jab at all the doubters when he started SpaceX in 2002.   SpaceX designed and built its own suits, which are custom-fit. Safety came first. The cool — or wow — factor was a close second.   “It’s important that the suits are comfortable and also are inspiring,” explained SpaceX’s Benji Reed. a mission director. “But above all, it’s designed to keep the crew safe.”   The bulky, orange ascent and entry suits worn by shuttle astronauts had their own attraction, according to Behnken, who like Hurley wore them for his two previous missions. Movies like “Armageddon” and “Space Cowboys” stole the orange look whenever actors were “trying to pretend to be astronauts.”   On launch day, Hurley and Behnken will get ready inside Kennedy’s remodeled crew quarters, which dates back to the two-man Gemini missions of the mid-1960s. SpaceX techs will help the astronauts into their one-piece, two-layer pressure suits.   Hurley and Behnken will emerge through the same double doors used on July 16, 1969, by Apollo 11′s Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins — the Operations and Checkout Building now bears Armstrong’s name.   But instead of the traditional Astrovan, the two will climb into the back seat of a Tesla Model X for the nine-mile ride to Launch Complex 39A, the same pad used by the moonmen and most shuttle crews. It’s while they board the Tesla that they’ll see their wives and young sons for the last time before flight.   Making a comeback after three decades is NASA’s worm logo — wavy, futuristic-looking red letters spelling NASA, the “A” resembling rocket nose cones. The worm adorns the Astro-Tesla, Falcon and even the astronauts’ suits, along with NASA’s original blue meatball-shaped logo.   The white-suited Hurley and Behnken will transfer from the white Tesla to the white Dragon atop the equally white Falcon 9.   “It’s going to be quite a show,” Reed promised. 
…

Over 25 years, the massive pork plant that dominates this small city brought jobs, new residents and an economic lifeline to a slowly shrinking farming community.Attracted by relatively good wages at Seaboard Foods, immigrants like Felix and Pilar Jimenez arrived by the hundreds to slaughter hogs and process meat for shipment all over the world. The Mexican couple started work in Guymon, on the vast plains of Oklahoma’s panhandle, about a year after the plant opened, followed in time by their sons Michael, now 26, and Anthony, 22.In recent months, as in so many U.S. cities with meat- packing operations, COVID-19 ripped through the plant and surrounding community, bringing economic uncertainty, fear and — in the case of the Jimenez family — tragedy.Seaboard reports that, as of May 21, 641 of its some 2,700 employees tested positive for the virus — roughly a quarter of its workforce. Pilar, Michael and Anthony Jimenez all got sick. So did Felix, 56, who had been mostly homebound as he recovered from heart bypass surgery. He died May 9.Guymon is part of the coronavirus’ new frontier — mostly rural communities with large meatpacking plants where employees often work inches apart, carpool to their jobs and live in crowded or multi-generational homes.Anthony, 22; Pilar, 53; and Michael Jimenez, 26, have all tested positive for COVID-19. Here, they stand beside their Guymon, Okla., home May 14, 2020, six days after their father and husband, Felix Jimenez, died after testing positive for the virus.Interviewed at the family’s apartment days after his father’s death, Michael Jimenez said Guymon residents need to wake up to the dangers of the coronavirus, something that extends beyond the plant and especially threatens older and medically fragile people like Felix.“I just hope the whole community realizes how fatal this can be,” said Michael Jimenez, speaking through a protective mask.It’s difficult to pin down how each of the Jimenez family members got the disease. Pilar and her sons say any of them could have caught it at the packing plant, then infected Felix.“I think we brought the virus home to him,” said Pilar Jimenez, 53, who lived with both Anthony and Felix.Michael Jimenez said Felix never left the apartment except to walk the dog, and then only with a mask, adding that he and Anthony worked alongside a coworker who they later learned was ill.On the other hand, the virus is circulating in the wider community, not just at the plant. Texas County, where the plant is located, had recorded 820 cases as of Friday morning, including four deaths.Despite the high rate of infection among plant workers, the company has reported no deaths among employees.Duke Sand, chief executive officer of Seaboard Foods, told Reuters the company is adhering to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance on how to contain the virus at the plant, including timetables on when affected employees should return to work and what safety equipment, such as screens and masks, to give them.Sand said the company, a subsidiary of Seaboard Corp, has been fortunate in that it saw its first case in mid-April, well after other meatpacking facilities around the country. Other plants have been less transparent with their numbers – -for instance, Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest hog processor, declined in a May 8 statement to Reuters to confirm case totals at its numerous facilities, citing the need to respect employees’ privacy.Asked about Felix Jimenez’ death, Seaboard’s Sand said: “The purpose of this testing is that we don’t have any tragedies such as that.”Divided sentimentsAs in many meatpacking towns around the country, local leaders and residents are torn about how to address the new threat, which pits the economic needs of employees and local businesses against rapidly growing health risks to everyone in the community.The Seaboard plant, where wages start at $16 per hour, is by far the largest employer in the city of fewer than 11,300 people. The plant is both a linchpin of the local economy and a hot spot in the nation’s battle against the new coronavirus.Opinions about the dangers of the virus do not necessarily fall along neat or predictable lines, interviews with about two dozen local residents show. Although the population is small, Guymon and Texas County are demographically and politically complex.The county, where about 70 percent of plant workers live, is a Republican stronghold in the heart of the U.S. Bible Belt, and it overwhelmingly supported President Donald Trump in 2016. Yet residents have diverse backgrounds: Plant workers come from North America, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Some 41 percent of households in the county speak languages other than English at home, according to the most recent U.S. Census figures.The city of Guymon, which was majority white at the turn of the century, is now more than half Hispanic or Latino. The plant dominates the economy, but many agricultural businesses operate around it, mostly owned by whites.As different as residents are, their lives intersect. The city’s many businesses rely on the immigrants as customers and workers, and some local businesses are owned by minorities and immigrants. Nearly everyone seems to either work at the plant or know someone who does.An abandoned homestead is seen in a county that suffers one of the worst coronavirus disease outbreaks in the country, in Guymon, Oklahoma, U.S., May 14, 2020.Support for the company seems to run hot and cold depending on feedback from a friend or a brother-in-law. Several workers expressed fear of going to work but fear, in equal measure, of losing their jobs if they complained.The main point of contention appears to be how seriously to take the threat of the coronavirus.For now, Seaboard confirmed, its employees appear to account for roughly half of Texas County’s COVID-19 cases. The numbers are in flux: Not every employee has been tested and the county’s confirmed caseload is steadily rising with expanded testing.What’s certain is that the virus respects no boundaries, said Dr. Martin Bautista, who already is working with other physicians to contain infections at Guymon’s nursing home, where he said one patient has died.“It’s a virus. It doesn’t recognize the color of your skin, socioeconomic status, nothing.”Still, some people in Guymon are dismissive of the COVID-19 risk, calling mask wearers “sheep” or suggesting God will protect those who have faith.“Being country people, it seems like our immunity is a lot higher, and we have Jesus,” says Kalye Griffin, 42, owner of the Top Hand Western Store.Local leaders say language barriers can hamper basic health messages about what precautions to take.“There are multiple languages in Guymon, said City Manager Joe Dunham. “People just don’t understand the gravity of the situation that we’re in.”Other residents are eager to get the economy back on track.Oklahoma was one of a handful of states that did not issue statewide stay-at-home orders as the coronavirus picked up steam. Texas County closed nonessential businesses relatively late, compared to the rest of the country, on March 28. And it was among the first to reopen, on April 24.”I don’t think we should have closed,” said Suzanne Bryan, as she waved at passing motorists outside her food and gift shop on Guymon’s red cobbled Main Street. “It’s like the flu, there is a 98-99 percent survival rate.”Although the precise mortality rate for the coronavirus is not known, medical experts say they believe it exceeds 1 percent, more than 10 times the rate for the flu.In any event, Bryan, a member of the evangelical Christian Guymon Church of the Nazarene, said God is in control of what happens. “It’s not about me,” she said. “It’s God’s plan.”Several Hispanic business owners with family or friends at the plant told Reuters that Seaboard should be doing more to protect employees. They said they knew of people pressured to return to work too soon after being ill.”They care about production, not workers,” said Cuban immigrant José Francisco Linares, who runs the Papachongo’s Restaurant and Market close to the Jimenez home.Reuters was not able to independently confirm allegations of pressure to return to work. Seaboard CEO Sand said the company is advising workers to follow CDC guidance: Allowing at least 10 days to elapse since symptoms such as fever first appeared, and at least three days since they resolved.Business owner Ivan Lorenzo said he is baffled as to why the plant has not shut in a county that has no health facilities capable of treating coronavirus. As in many rural areas in the United States, the local hospital is tiny, with limited equipment, beds and medical personnel.“This is what happens when a big company like that comes to a little town like this,” said Lorenzo, 42, speaking from his shop, Ivan Barber Studio, on Main Street, where he said employees wear masks and gloves and work six feet apart. “They do whatever they want.”Asked whether he was prepared to close the plant depending on test results, Sand said: “I wouldn’t rule out anything that would be in the best interests of the employees.”Thousands infected, dozens deadThe coronavirus pandemic has dealt a blow to the $185 billion U.S. meat and poultry processing industry, which employs 68,000 people as slaughterers and meat trimmers, according to 2019 data from the U.S. Labor Department.Such plants have proved devastatingly effective vectors of disease.In the meatpacking industry generally, thousands of employees have been infected with the coronavirus and dozens have died, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). Seaboard jointly operates another pork processing plant in Sioux City, Iowa, where 59 cases have been reported among workers.Although Seaboard never shut its plants, about 30 facilities operated by other companies temporarily closed in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and several other Midwestern states, according to the UFCW. Pork and beef slaughter capacity dropped by 30 percent to 40 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.To avoid further decline in a major food supply, U.S. President Donald Trump at the end of April ordered meat plants stay open during the pandemic.At least 14 plants have reopened, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with some installing barriers between work stations and taking other safety measures.Trump says that has reduced the risk of exposure to the coronavirus.“They had a disproportionately high number of people that had the problem, and that’s going away,” the president said at a White House news conference on Tuesday. “The plants are very, very clean now.”Sickness and fearInfections in Texas County surfaced slowly, in rural communities surrounding Guymon, with the first one emerging March 28, according to Texas County data.Around mid-April, a Seaboard employee tested positive, according to the company. After that, the plant offered to pay for voluntary testing at local clinics for employees who reported symptoms or had close contact with infected people. The case count spiraled upward.By mid-May, when the company offered mass testing, sickness and fear had pushed absentee rates as high as 30 percent, and daily slaughter fell from the normal 22,000 hogs per day to as low as 10,000 some days, according to plant General Manager Rick Sappington.Martin Rosas, the local UFCW president, said he appreciated the company’s response to the crisis.Seaboard agreed to a union proposal for paid sick leave to motivate workers to report symptoms and self-quarantine at home, Rosas said. It also agreed to test the temperatures of all workers entering the plant and to pay them an extra $2 an hour to compensate for the hazards of working during the outbreak, he said.“We have had a very positive response from Seaboard,” Rosas said.Like other plants, Seaboard has instituted attendance bonuses – separate from hazard pay – which amount to an extra $100 a week. Some critics, speaking about businesses generally, have said giving bonuses for showing up can incentivize employees to work when ill.Seaboard CEO Sand said that is not the company’s purpose.”We are being very upfront about making sure employees know that if you’re feeling any symptoms, not feeling right, report that to us, see your doctors, stay home,” he said.‘No pullback’Guymon Mayor Sean Livengood, 30, said the reopening of the city will continue apace. “At this point there’s no pullback,” he told Reuters.A production manager at the Seaboard plant, he is optimistic about the town’s reemergence from the shutdown, and stresses that residents should use their best judgment on whether it is safe for them, personally, to venture out.“The big thing for us is if you don’t feel comfortable going out, please don’t go out,” he said.Harold Tyson, the county emergency manager, is less sanguine about reopening, urging painstaking caution.Workers line up to be tested for COVID-19 at the Seaboard Foods hog-processing plant in Guymon, Oklahoma, U.S., May 13, 2020.“I would like for us to slow down,” Tyson said, “and we’re not.”Nancy Schmid, CEO of the county’s only hospital, Memorial Hospital of Texas County, is worried, too. Recently released from quarantine because of exposure to COVID-positive employees, she has tested negative for the virus and is busy running a 25-bed facility that’s ill-equipped for a pandemic.She said the facility lacks air purification machines to prevent the spread of the virus inside. The hospital is being overwhelmed with potential COVID-19 patients seeking diagnostic services such as X-rays and CT-scans, she said, but it does not have enough doctors and other medical staff to treat the people as inpatients. As a result, county residents need to be sent as far away as Oklahoma City, a four-hour car ride, for care.“We need doctors more than New York City,” she said.’Always there’Though his family initially took Felix Jimenez to a local clinic, he rapidly deteriorated to the point that he couldn’t be treated in Guymon.Within days of falling ill in early May, he was rushed to a hospital in Liberal, Kansas, 40 miles away, and later placed on a ventilator. Then, doctors opted to fly him by helicopter to Amarillo, Texas, for dialysis.He grew gravely ill mid-flight and the pilot turned around. Felix died where the helicopter landed, in the parking lot of the Kansas hospital.Michael Jimenez is troubled, not just by his father’s ordeal, but by the prospect that an experience just as horrible might await other vulnerable members of the Guymon community.Residents don’t always appreciate plant workers like his parents, he said. “They don’t understand some of these people left everything they had to provide for their families.”After immigrating with Pilar from Mexico 30 years ago, Felix Jimenez spent his life bouncing among meatpacking jobs in Iowa, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. He was known in Guymon not just for the friendships he built at work, but for his involvement with the city’s Catholic Church and youth sports group.After his retirement for health reasons seven years ago, Felix began buying, fixing and selling cars, his son said. He earned a reputation for being able to start any motor.Kids who missed the school bus knew they could knock on his door to get a lift, Michael Jimenez said. Felix’s sons leaned on him too. “The one who was always there was my dad,” Michael Jimenez said.Growing up, the Jimenez brothers thought of finding jobs in the oil and gas industry, but Felix steered them toward the plant, citing its stable hours and steady pay. The four of them worked all over the facility, from the “kill floor” to pork-belly freezing to shipping.Now that his father is gone and others in the family have mostly recovered from COVID-19, Michael is worried about their return to work.Pilar has diabetes and a heart stent, and Michael fears she could be reinfected. Experts say reinfections appear unlikely in the short term, but they don’t know how long immunity in recovered patients may last.“She’s vulnerable,” Michael Jimenez said of his mother. “We have to protect her.”He added that the family also must pay the rent. 
…

Hong Kong police fired tear gas and pepper spray at hundreds of people protesting a proposed new security law they believe infringes on the city’s freedoms.The demonstrators chanted pro-democracy slogans as riot police using loudspeakers ordered them to disperse, calling the gathering unlawful.The proposed bill introduced Friday at the opening session of China’s national legislative body forbids secessionist and subversive activities, and what it labels foreign interference and terrorism.About 200 political figures from around the world, including 17 members of the U.S. Congress, signed a joint statement Saturday saying Beijing’s proposed laws are a “comprehensive assault on the city’s autonomy, rule of law and fundamental freedoms.”The statement also said the proposed bill constituted a “flagrant breach” of the Joint Declaration which returned the former British colony to China in 1997 under the framework of “one country, two systems.” 
…

Brazil registered 965 new coronavirus deaths on Saturday, taking the total number of fatalities to 22,013, the Health Ministry said.The country now has 347,398 confirmed cases, according to the ministry, up 16,508 from Friday, when it surpassed Russia to become the world’s virus hot spot behind the United States.The actual number of cases and deaths is believed to be higher than the official figures disclosed by the government, as the testing capacity of Latin America’s largest country still lags.Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has been fiercely criticized for his handling of the outbreak, which has led to the exit of two health ministers amid his insistence in opposing social distancing measures while advocating the use of unproven drugs for treatment.The former army captain has seen his opinion poll ratings drop as an unfolding political crisis adds to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
…

More than 40 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus following a church service in Frankfurt, Germany’s financial center, earlier this month, the head of the city’s health department told a news agency Saturday.“Most of them are not seriously ill. As far as we know only one person has been admitted to hospital,” Rene Gottschalk told the dpa agency.The service took place on May 10 at a Baptist church, the department’s deputy chief Antoni Walczok told local newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau. On its website the church says it holds services in both German and Russian.“The situation is very dynamic,” Walczok told the paper, adding that the church did not violate official guidelines aimed at containing the spread of the virus.Churches in the German state of Hesse, where Frankfurt is located, have been able to hold services since May 1 provided they adhere to official social distancing and hygiene rules.Frankfurt’s health department was not available for comment outside business hours Saturday.
…

A fire engulfed a warehouse on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf early Saturday, sending thick smoke over the waterfront and threatening to spread to a historic World War II-era ship before firefighters brought the flames under control.One firefighter sustained a hand injury while battling the fire at the warehouse the size of a football field on Pier 45, San Francisco Fire Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter said.Baxter said that after the fire subsided, investigators scoured the building to determine whether homeless people were inside.”That is something of grave concern,” he told KGO-TV. “To our knowledge … nobody is supposed to be in the building and we are hoping … that there is no victim.”At least two workers told the San Francisco Chronicle they were inside the fish processing and storage warehouse when the fire broke out before dawn.Alejandro Arellano, who works for La Rocca Seafood, was cleaning out a fish storage locker when the fire began, shortly after 4 a.m.”I saw a lot of smoke. A few minutes later, fire everywhere,” he said. “It was very, very scary. I’ve never seen anything like it.”Firetruck threatenedThe fire tore through the warehouse near the end of the concrete pier, causing its walls to collapse, Baxter said. The flames singed the first firetruck to respond to the scene, forcing firefighters to turn their hoses on the vehicle to save it, he said.More than 130 firefighters fought the flames, with some using ladder trucks to drench the warehouse from above. A fire boat was used to protect the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, a liberty ship that stormed Normandy on D-Day in 1944.”Our firefighters absolutely saved the SS Jeremiah O’Brien during this fire as flames were pinching on the side of this vessel,” Baxter said.A fire official is shown reflected in a puddle in a warehouse after a fire broke out before dawn at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, May 23, 2020.The ship docks by Pier 45 and is among numerous tourist attractions on the wharf, a maritime hub for cruises around San Francisco Bay as well as fishing boats hauling in the catch of the day. Visitors come for the Dungeness crabs, clam chowders served in sourdough bread bowls, the sea lions that hang out on the floating docks and shops and curiosities on Pier 39.Shops and restaurants on the wharf have been shut by the city’s stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the coronavirus and were expected to reopen on May 31.The fire was confined to the end of the pier, well away from the Musée Mécanique and its historic arcade games and the popular restaurant Alioto’s.’It’s surreal’Fishing companies that have been operating out of Pier 45 said the fire exacerbated an already tough business climate caused by the pandemic.Kenny Belov, owner of the seafood wholesaler TwoXSea, told the Chronicle his building near the warehouse was not damaged but he worried a power outage on the pier could ruin the fish in his freezer.”Not that it would ever need this, but the seafood industry didn’t need this now,” Belov said. “It’s surreal. We’ve obviously had a tough go the last couple months, with restaurants [closed]. … Of all the problems in the world, this is not a big one. But it’s frustrating.”Coast Guard crew members and police assisted by keeping other vessels away from the pier.Fire investigators were assessing any damage to the pier and were looking into the cause of the blaze, Baxter said.
…

The Taliban declared a three-day Eid cease-fire in Afghanistan starting Sunday, via a tweet on Saturday from the hardline Islamist group, and the country’s president said the government would reciprocate.The move came as fighting between the two sides had intensified despite the coronavirus pandemic.”Do not carry out any offensive operations against the enemy anywhere, if any action is taken against you by the enemy, defend yourself,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, tweeted. He added that the cease-fire was declared solely for Eid festivities marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani welcomed the Taliban’s cease-fire announcement and extended the offer of peace. “As Commander-in-Chief I have instructed ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] to comply with the three-days truce and to defend only if attacked,” he said in a tweet.Last month, the Taliban rejected a government call for a cease-fire across Afghanistan for Ramadan, saying a truce was “not rational” as they ramped up attacks on Afghan forces.At least 146 civilians were killed and 430 wounded by the Taliban during Ramadan, Javid Faisal, a spokesman for the country’s main intelligence and security office in Kabul, said Saturday.
…

Somalia was among Muslim countries Saturday that performed Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Islamic observance of Ramadan.Many Muslims across East and West Africa are celebrating the holiday, though the majority of Muslim nations observe it Sunday.Muslims decide when Eid will be observed by the sighting of the moon. In countries where the moon is not sighted on the 29th day of Ramadan, people must complete the 30th day before celebrating. Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, will observe Eid Sunday.The Muslim holiday is always marked with celebrations, the reunion of family and friends, and a lot of feasting. This year, however, it is different due to coronavirus restrictions.While most Somalis celebrated the holiday in their homes with their families, the frontline heroes helping COVID-19 patients have willingly sacrificed their celebrations and chose to stay at hospitals.VOA’s Somali Service spoke with two of them.Ahmed Hassan Kulmiye, a 31-year-old nurse and father of three, works at Martini Hospital’s COVID-19 isolation center in Mogadishu. He worked his regular shift as his wife and his three children celebrated Eid at home.”I marked Eid today with a mixture of happiness and sadness. I am happy that I have sacrificed for my patients and that I am saving lives. On the other hand, I was very sad that it was the first Eid I did not celebrate with my children and wife or friends,” Kulmiye said.Instead, of wearing new clothes and shoes, as Muslims usually do on Eid, Kulmiye was in his protective gear to help patients recovering from COVID-19 at the isolation center.“To at least revive the spirit of the Eid, we had breakfast and lunch together, of course in our protective gear, at our isolation center, and we invited COVID-19 patients who have recovered. Also, we sang Eid songs for the lonely patients at the center who, like us, could not be with their families and friends,” Kulmiye added.Fardowso Mohamed Hassan, a 27-year-old nurse, was on duty at the isolation center and marked Eid away from her husband.“I am happy to be doing a life-saving job, which is more important than a celebration of any kind,” said Fardowso. “Although I did not celebrate with my husband, friends and relatives, it made my day to take time with my patients and my colleagues at work.”Fardowso said she used her break time at work by calling her husband and relatives via video to share the happiness of the day.Kulmiye and Fardowso said they have spent the entire holy month of Ramadan fasting while working at Martini Hospital.“Being [here] is very risky, but we have willingly chosen to help our fellow humans, Fardowso said.“My conscience did not allow me to take a day off to celebrate and leave patients on ventilators behind. They needed us more than any other person,” Kulmiye said. 
…

A court in Zimbabwe has jailed two journalists who are charged with breaking the country’s COVID-19 lockdown regulations. Rights lawyers say the arrests confirm their fears that freedom of the press in Zimbabwe remains in dire jeopardy.
 
Paidamoyo Saurombe of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who is representing journalists Frank Chikowore and Samuel Takawira, said Saturday the magistrate court would hold the men until it makes a bail ruling Tuesday. Paidamoyo Saurombe, of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told reporters in Harare, May 23, 2020, that it was disturbing that journalists were being arrested for doing their job. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)“It is disturbing. These are journalists who were in the course of what they should do when they were arrested. So, it is quite surprising.  Why would you arrest someone who is going to work? You never know. It becomes scary that if you are arrested while going to work, what else will happen?” Saurombe asked.
 
According to court papers, the two journalists broke COVID-19 regulations when they entered a hospital to interview three members of the political opposition who were being treated for injuries sustained after being abducted and tortured by suspected security agents.  
 
Dewa Mavhinga, the southern Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said Harare must drop the charges against the journalists.
 
“Failure to do so severely undermines any image of Zimbabwe as under a new dispensation and reaffirms the sense that Zimbabwe is now a pariah or rogue state that is not respectful of the rights of journalists, of the constitutional rights to the freedom of the media. There is need to ensure that journalists, in the course of [the performance of] their duties are free to do their work without fear that the police will arrest them without cause,” Mavhinga said.
 
Zimbabwe’s minister of information, Monica Mutsvangwa, told VOA that she would only comment on the matter after the courts have completed the case.
 
Tabani Moyo, who the Media Institute in Southern Africa in Zimbabwe, called it an assault on the country’s press.
 
“Journalism is in the line of fire. There is a daily threat when you are a journalist in Zimbabwe. For us to defeat this pandemic – we have said it again and again – all hands should be on the deck, focusing on the pandemic rather than pointing in a misplaced manner at what is presumed to be the weaker targets; that is the media,” Moyo said.
 
Rights groups say they have recorded 14 cases of harassment of journalists and nearly 300 cases of citizen assaults by Zimbabwe authorities since late March when the government imposed a lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic.   
…

Violet Manuel hastily abandoned her uncle’s funeral and grabbed two empty containers when she heard a boy running down the dirt road shouting, “Water, water, water!”The 72-year-old joined dozens of people seeking their daily ration in Zimbabwe’s densely populated town of Chitungwiza.“Social distancing here?” Manuel asked tartly. She sighed with relief after getting her allotment of 40 liters (10.5 gallons) but worried about the coronavirus.“I got the water, but chances are that I also got the disease,” she told The Associated Press. And yet her plans for the water did not include hand-washing but “more important” tasks such as cleaning dishes and flushing the toilet.Such choices underscore the challenges of preventing the spread of the coronavirus in slums, camps and other crowded settlements around the world where clean water is scarce and survival is a daily struggle.Some 3 billion people, from indigenous communities in Brazil to war-shattered villages in northern Yemen, have nowhere to wash their hands with soap and clean water at home, according to the charity group WaterAid. It fears that global funding is being rushed toward vaccines and treatments without “any real commitment to prevention.”Definitively linking COVID-19 cases to water access isn’t easy without deeper investigation, said Gregory Bulit with UNICEF’s water and sanitation team, “but what we know is, without water, the risk is increased.”In the Arab region alone, about 74 million people don’t have access to a basic hand-washing facility, the United Nations says.Nearly a decade of civil war has damaged much of Syria’s water infrastructure, and millions must resort to alternative measures. In the last rebel-held territory of Idlib, where the most recent military operations displaced nearly 1 million people, resources are badly strained.Yasser Aboud, a father of three in Idlib, said he has doubled the amount of water he buys to keep his family clean amid virus fears. He and his wife lost their jobs and must cut spending on clothes and food to afford it.In Yemen, five years of war left over 3 million people displaced with no secure source of water, and there are growing fears that primitive sources such as wells are contaminated.And in Manaus, Brazil, 300 families in one poor indigenous community have water only three days a week from a dirty well.“Water is like gold around here,” said Neinha Reis, a 27-year-old mother of two. To wash their hands, they depend on donations of hand sanitizer. Reis and most of the other residents have fallen ill with symptoms similar to those of COVID-19 in the past month.FILE – A woman wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus collects water on the side of a road to take home, in Caracas, Venezuela, April 22, 2020.Across Africa, where virus cases are closing in on 100,000, more than half of the continent’s 1.3 billion people must leave their homes to get water, according to the Afrobarometer research group.Where it is made available via trucks or wells, the long lines of people could become “potentially dangerous breeding grounds for the virus,” said Maxwell Samaila, program manager with the aid group Mercy Corps in Nigeria.In rural parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where most have to travel up to three hours for water, “you have 200 people touching the (well) handle one after the other,” said Bram Riems, an adviser on water, sanitation and hygiene with Action Against Hunger.At an open area surrounded by filthy apartment blocks in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, women in orange T-shirts ticked off names of people fetching water from a row of communal taps that Doctors Without Borders provided in poor suburbs. Many services in the country have collapsed, along with its economy.Kuda Sigobodhla, a hygiene promotion officer for the aid group, said training sessions had been organized before the outbreak arrived in Zimbabwe so that water distribution points did not become epicenters of contagion.“We had to do something,” Sigobodhla said.But while the empty buckets were neatly spaced 1 meter apart, their owners huddled in groups, chatting and occasionally exchanging cigarettes and high-fives while waiting their turn.One man shouted about social distancing but only a few seemed to listen. A hand-washing bucket was available, but most did not use it.To encourage hand-washing in some parts of Africa, aid groups are using measures such as placing mirrors and soap at makeshift taps.“We know people like to look at themselves when they wash their hands, so putting a mirror helps,” said Riems, of Action Against Hunger. His organization is piloting the project in Ethiopia, where only a third of the population has access to basic water services.Fear also could be a motivating factor, he said, citing a recent GeoPoll survey that found more than 70% of people in Africa are “very concerned” about the coronavirus. GeoPoll surveyed 5,000 people in 12 countries.Meanwhile, investment in water and hygiene has been precariously low.“Of 51 major announcements of financial support from donor agencies to developing countries, only six have included any mention of hygiene,” WaterAid has said of COVID-19?emergency funding from governments and aid groups in the past two months.Africa alone needs an annual investment of $22 billion, according to the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa, an initiative of the Group of 20 most-developed countries and international financial institutions. But the investment by African governments and external financiers currently hovers around $8 billion to $10 billion, it said.Some fear such woeful funding could now come with a huge human cost.“Funding for (water, sanitation and hygiene) has been going down,” Riems said. “Not enough people will have access to water, not enough people will be able to wash their hands and more people will get sick.”
 
…