Scientists tell FB CEO to rein in hate
nWASHINGTON: Tens of thousands of people marched in Washington DC in what was described as the city’s largest yet demonstration against institutional racism in the wake of the custodial death of African-american George Floyd.
They walked to the White House, National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol, singing and chanting slogans — “No justice, no peace”, “Black lives matter” and “Defund the police”. Similar weekend protests were held in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and other places, as well as in many cities globally.
President Donald Trump, who is treating the protests as partisan and aimed at him, sought to underplay them. “Much smaller crowd in DC than anticipated,” he tweeted. “National Guard, Secret Service, and DC Police have been doing a fantastic job. Thank you!”
Reports quoting US officials said on Sunday that Trump had wanted to call in 10,000 active duty troops, not the reservists of the National Guards now in DC and other cities. But he was persuaded against it by his top officials at a reportedly “contentious” meeting.
A senior aide of the president’s re-election campaign, Mercedes Schlapp, has apologised for retweeting a video of a chainsaw wielding man running after protestors shouting racial slurs.
With protests increasingly peaceful, law enforcement presence is being wound down across the country. National Guards are expected to begin leaving DC on Monday, as Trump confirmed in a tweet, with a warning that they can “quickly return”.
Officials in New York city, which had another day of relative peace, decided to lift the curfew. Two police officers of Buffalo, New York state, were charged earlier for shoving an elderly man to the ground during protests, videos of which have gone viral triggering outrage . In Richmond, capital of Virginia state, a small group of protesters pulled down a statue of Confederate general Williams Carter Wickham.
Around the world, protesters echoed the rage of American demonstrators. Dozens of people protested in front of the US consulate in Hong Kong on Sunday.
In Bristol, England, protesters venting their anger at the country’s colonial history by toppling a statue of a 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston. In London people defying official warnings not to gather lay down outside the US embassy. Police said 14 officers were hurt on Saturday during clashes with protesters in London. In the French port city of Marseille, police fired tear gas and pepper spray during clashes with protesters whose rally drew more than 2,000 people.
BOSTON :Dozens of scientists doing research funded by Mark Zuckerberg say Facebook should not be letting President Donald Trump use the social media platform to “spread both misinformation and incendiary statements.”
The researchers, including 60 professors at leading US research institutions, wrote the Facebook CEO on Saturday asking Zuckerberg to “consider stricter policies on misinformation and incendiary language that harms people,” especially during the current turmoil over racial injustice.
The letter calls the spread of “deliberate misinformation and divisive language” contrary to the researchers’ goals of using technology to prevent and eradicate disease, improve childhood education and reform the criminal justice system.
Their mission “is antithetical to some of the stances that Facebook has been taking, so we’re encouraging them to be more on the side of truth and on the right side of history as we’ve said in the letter,” said Debora Marks of Harvard Medical School, one of three professors who organized it. All have grants from a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative programme working to prevent, cure and treat neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
DUBAI: The number of coronavirus cases in Saudi Arabia exceeded 100,000 on Sunday following a rise in new infections over the past 10 days.
The Saudi Ministry of Health reported 3,045 new cases on Sunday, taking the total to 101,914, with 712 deaths. The number of new daily cases exceeded 3,000 for the first time on Saturday.
The country of 30 million people recorded its first Covid-19 infection on March 2. Health authorities said in April the virus could eventually infect between 10,000 and 200,000 people in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s numbers are the highest in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which have recorded 272,625 cases and 1,406 deaths.
Coronavirus infections in the region had initially been linked to travel. But despite taking early measures to combat the virus, Gulf states have seen a spread among low-income migrant workers living in cramped quarters. Saudi closed down 39 mosques after infections were suspected.
GLOBAL DEATHS (BY CASES)