WHAT'S BREWING
MICHIGAN GOVERNER DECRIES SWASTIKAS AT ANTI-LOCKDOWN PROTEST Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on Sunday condemned the racist symbols, including Confederate flags and swastikas, displayed by some attendees of an anti-lockdown protest at the state’s Capitol building last week. Photos showed hundreds crammed inside the building, many not wearing masks and flouting federal social distancing guidelines. The protest’s stated purpose was to demand Whitmer ease coronavirus restrictions, though some protesters were seen holding up racist and anti-Semitic symbols during the event. [HuffPost]
TRUMP BASHES BUSH'S CALL FOR UNITY A video message from former President George W. Bush released Saturday appealed to Americans’ better natures, encouraging citizens to help one another and put aside their differences during these extraordinary times. “We rise or fall together,” Bush said. “In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants. We are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God.”In response, Trump quoted “Fox & Friends” co-host Pete Hegseth, who had criticized Bush for not backing Trump when he was impeached on charges of obstruction of Congress and abused of power late last year. [HuffPost]
CHASING SAFETY: FACING THE U.S. IMMIGRATION SYSTEM More than 3 million Yemenis had been displaced by the ongoing conflict as of last year, and over 65,000 Yemenis had fled the country entirely. Trump signed an executive order in 2017 that barred entry to the U.S. from several Muslim-majority countries, including Yemen. The U.S. closed itself to Yemenis in spite of its own complicity in the war there: It has provided billions of dollars in weaponry and intelligence support to Saudi Arabia, which backs the Yemeni government, further escalating the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. [HuffPost]
PANDEMIC THREATENS NEW EVICTION CRISIS The coronavirus has put America’s housing market on hold. As residents shelter in place, real estate listings have slowed to a trickle. State and federal policymakers, facing an unprecedented spike in unemployment and a pandemic simultaneously, have banned evictions to ease economic hardship during the crisis. But when the eviction bans expire, millions of Americans will find themselves on the hook for months of back rent. Thirty million Americans — overwhelmingly the poor and renters — are newly jobless as unemployment hits previously unthinkable levels.
MISSING PAKISTANI JOURNALIST FOUND DEAD IN SWEDEN A Pakistani journalist living in exile in Sweden who had been missing since March has been found dead in a river. Sajid Hussain, who was granted political asylum in Sweden in 2019 after fleeing Pakistan, was last seen boarding a train to Uppsala, a city 35 miles north of Stockholm. “His body was found on 23 April in the Fyris river outside Uppsala,” a police spokesman, said. [The Guardian]
SOUTH KOREA: TROOPS EXCHANGED FIRE ALONG NORTH KOREA BORDER North and South Korean troops exchanged fire along their tense border on Sunday, the first such incident since the rivals took unprecedented steps to lower front-line animosities in late 2018. The U.S. said the clash appeared to be a mistake. While Sunday’s incident is a reminder of persistent tensions, it didn’t cause any known casualties on either side and is unlikely to escalate. [AP] |
