May 12// May 19// May 26// June 2// June 9// plus 2 days
+ equals increase over prior day - equals decrease over prior day
Last 7 days Moving Averages: ending June 11
New Cases: 20,806 + 2nd day---------------New Deaths: 840 - 9th day
Number of tests 23,073,470 tested positive 2,089,701 = 9% = 4th day
Serious or in Critical Condition: 16,827 - 2nd day
Active Cases: 1,157,581 +7th day
Recovered - 816,463
Case Fatality Rate = deaths/(recovered + dead) = 12% =
Start on -------------5/12 ------------------5/19 ---------------------- 5/26--------------------------6/2---------------------6/9 ----------------------6/11
Total Cases: -----1,408,636 -------------1,570,583 ----------------1,725,275----------------1,881,205------------2,045,549--------------2,089,701
New Cases:-------22,802 ---------------20,289 ---------------------19,049 -----------------21,882 ------------------19,056 ------------------23,300 + 4th day
(CNN) Last Sunday, four-star Gen. Robert Abrams, who commands all US forces in South Korea, held a town hall with black service members on the subject of race that was then broadcast on Facebook to thousands.
Abrams made it a point to have everyone attending the event wear civilian clothes -- an important symbol to lessen signs of military rank. Abrams told the audience "we're going to develop an action plan with real meat on the bones to get after this. We are not going to put up with this one second longer this time."
Abrams, who is white, spoke in deeply personal terms. "From my time of service, I've tried real hard to be part of the solution, and it was really difficult for me to come to grasp this week that I have fallen way short in helping eliminate racism and bigotry in our own ranks."
Abrams' town hall is just one example of how America's top military leaders are attempting to move ahead on their own to address the issue of racism in the ranks without waiting for President Donald Trump to decide if he wants to speak to the country following nationwide protests prompted by death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. There is no indication top brass are coordinating their efforts, but the message is unmistakable. Service members at all levels are speaking out and commanders are listening. The military -- which Trump often uses to bolster himself as a commander in chief -- is taking a renewed stand against racial injustice and moving on from the President on this key issue.
They are well aware they risk incurring the anger of the President but are determined to speak up and push for improvements in a military that strives to be diverse.
There's a conversation happening across all ranks and at installations around the globe via social media, speeches, videos, and unexpected moments.
One general told CNN that a few days ago a young black service member on his staff told him, "I don't feel like anybody ever really sees me," when moving around the Pentagon's corridors.
The general's reaction? "We have to start listening to what people are saying," he told CNN, describing the conversation.
Painful revelations are being shared at all ranks in a military that does not often see its members publicly express emotion.
-------- As Trump loses his generals, he clings to the legacy of Confederate failure https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/12/politics/braxton-bragg-confederate-legacy/index.html -------- The Army's most senior enlisted soldier, Sgt. Maj. Michael A. Grinston, posted a video on Twitter .. https://twitter.com/16thSma/status/1268993462143197193 .. about the difficulties he has faced as a biracial American. Grinston spoke candidly about an occasion when he was told he couldn't mark himself as black on a form and there was no option to describe his mixed-race identity.
He added, "I'm thinking about a history of racial issues and my own experiences that didn't always sing of liberty."
"I'm thinking about wearing the same flight suit with the same wings on my chest as my peers and then being questioned by another military member: 'Are you a pilot?'" he said.
The Air Force's inspector general is now investigating the service's history on military discipline and career opportunities for black service members.
An extraordinary apology from the country's top general
Military leaders have also been navigating the challenges presented by a President who has at times attempted to drag the services into party politics.
On Thursday, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued an extraordinary apology for his presence in Lafayette Square during the President's walk to St. John's church for a photo-op after peaceful protests were forcefully dispersed.
Milley noted that his presence "sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society. I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it."
Trump is already angry at Defense Secretary Mark Esper for publicly opposing the use of active duty troops on the streets of Washington during the protests -- something Milley and Esper had to talk the President out of doing, several sources have told CNN.
Pentagon officials initially tried to suggest Esper had not broken from the President, but it become so serious that Esper became aware last week that the President might have fired him.
Trump has already shut down one Pentagon effort to address the country's painful racial divide.
On Wednesday, the President tweeted that he would "not even consider" renaming Army bases currently bearing the names of Confederate generals. It was by any measure a direct rebuke of Pentagon leadership.
Esper and Milley had let it be known they endorsed an Army plan presented by its top political appointee, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, to begin a bipartisan national conversation about removing Confederate generals' names from ten US Army installations. The Army on Wednesday had begun discussing names of individuals it might ask to serve on a blue-ribbon panel examining the issue.
But the President moved quickly to shut down a dialog initiated by his most senior military leaders, stating in a series of tweets, "my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations," adding, "Respect our Military!" He did not address the fact that the idea came from his own senior military and defense team.
It's also not clear if Trump will now try to stop both Navy Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday and Marine Corps Commandant General David Berger's efforts to ban Confederate symbols from their military installations. Both military leaders —who are members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff-- have made the point that symbols of division cannot be tolerated in a military that depends on unity among troops to fight and win battles.
The Air Force and Army are also expected to issue similar orders and Esper may consider a similar ban at civilian facilities, even though they are aware the President could overturn their decisions, defense officials say.
In recent days, each of the heads of the military services, as well as Milley and Esper, have put out public messages addressing racism in the military. It was the same strategy they used after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 to remind troops that racism is not tolerated and reach a wider audience across the country.
In contrast, the President appeared to condone the white supremacists at that rally by praising the "very fine people on both sides."
Black officers are still underrepresented at the highest ranks making up 19% of enlisted service members but only 9% of officers. And when he takes the helm of the Air Force, Brown will be the first black chief of staff of any military branch. An historic first 72 years after President Harry Truman's July 26, 1948, executive order that desegregated the US military.
Bowing to Russia, U.N. Halts Funding for Pandemic Relief in Northeastern Syria
"America’s Abandonment of Syria "For Syrian Kurds, a leader's killing deepens sense of U.S. betrayal Trump’s Syria retreat blamed for murder of pro-democracy leader "Does Donald Trump Know What His Syria Policy Is? "How Trump just destroyed his own Syria strategy""""
With Putin’s help, Assad has constrained the capacity of the United Nations to deliver health supplies in opposition-controlled territory, which faces rising risk of the coronavirus.
By Colum Lynch | May 13, 2020, 12:02 PM
A woman wearing a protective mask walks along a Qamishli market street in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province on March 22. Deprived of cross-border aid and already low on medical supplies, northeastern Syria is grappling with the threat of a coronavirus outbreak that aid groups and officials fear could ravage the region. DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images
Facing pressure from Russia, the chief ally to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, U.N. relief agencies have been instructed to stop funding programs by private charities transporting lifesaving health services across the Iraqi border to northeastern Syria, dealing a blow to international efforts to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in opposition-controlled territory, according to diplomatic and relief sources and confidential U.N. guidance.
The United Nations informed its relief agencies several weeks ago that they were permitted to fund private charities operating in northeastern Syria only if they were registered in Damascus and authorized to work there by the Syrian government, which has proved unwilling, or unable, to meet the region’s health needs. The funding freeze comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) and other U.N. relief agencies have raised concerns .. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/01/who-warns-of-pandemics-catastrophic-impact-on-syria/ .. that they lack sufficient access rights to respond to the health needs of some 2 million people in the region.
The aid crisis in northeastern Syria—which is inhabited predominantly by Kurds, displaced civilians, and anti-government groups—has worsened since the U.N. Security Council, acting under pressure from Russia, shut down a U.N.-sanctioned humanitarian aid hub on Jan. 10 at the Yaroubia crossing on the Iraqi-Syrian border. That deprived the U.N. of an explicit legal mandate to serve the region. The border crossing served as a key pipeline for WHO and private relief groups delivering medical assistance into northeastern Syria. Efforts by the U.N. to identify alternate routes to fill the gap have so far proved unsuccessful.
“[N]ew options are needed to fill the significant gaps and to continue the humanitarian assistance previously delivered through Ya’rubiyah,” WHO warned .. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/01/who-warns-of-pandemics-catastrophic-impact-on-syria/ .. the U.N. Security Council last week in a confidential memo reviewed by Foreign Policy. “The urgency to respond is not only to control transmission in NES [northeastern Syria], but also to limit the spread of other areas of Syria that have not yet been affected.”
A bipartisan coalition of U.S. congressional leaders has urged the Trump administration to counter efforts by Russia, backed by China, to eliminate the aid crossings and to either ensure that U.N. agencies can continue to fund vital cross-border aid operations or form a coalition of like-minded countries to pick up the financial slack.
“[T]he closure of the Ya’rubiyah border crossing between Iraq and northeast Syria has hindered the overall humanitarian response and disrupted the UN’s ability to deliver specialized medical equipment,” the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote .. https://www.foreign.senate.gov/download/05-12-20-syrian-border-crossing-letter .. Tuesday in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “Without access to these border crossings, the UN has been forced to suspend funding for many of its NGO partners, who must now rely on alternative, woefully inadequate, and easily manipulated means to deliver aid, such as land-based convoys from Damascus.”
Following the council vote on Yaroubia, Mark Lowcock, the undersecretary-general and emergency relief coordinator in the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), appealed to the U.N. Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) to advise on the legality of continuing U.N. financial support for aid operations in northeastern Syria, according to four diplomatic and relief sources. OLA, according to those sources, concluded that the U.N. could only fund agencies registered and approved by the Syrian government. An internal U.N. paper, reflecting the new understanding, outlined more than two dozen U.N. activities that would “remain lawful” in northeastern Syria after the closure of Yaroubia. It recognized only the “funding to NGOs operating in NES who are authorized to operate by the Government of Syria.” U.N. officials, meanwhile, advised aid groups that the funding spigot would be turned off.
It is unclear whether Russia directly pressed the U.N. to cut funding to aid groups. But Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, recently made it clear that Moscow vigorously opposed reopening Yaroubia. “The Government of Syria is doing its utmost to fight the spread of COVID-19 despite cruel unilateral sanctions,” Nebenzia told .. https://russiaun.ru/en/news/syr_hum_290420 .. the council in late April. “We strongly urge our colleagues not to waste their time on looking for a way to advocate, explicitly or implicitly for getting Al-Yarubiah back and saying that this be the ‘only solution.’”
A boy pulls a cart in the mud at the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp for the displaced in northeastern Syria on Jan. 14. Kurdish authorities warned that a U.N. vote to scrap the Yaroubia entry point for cross-border aid would hamstring at least half of the health care response in the overcrowded desert camp brimming with tens of thousands of civilians. DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images
The decision triggered fierce pushback from some U.N. relief agencies and private aid groups, which privately protested that the policy would result in a steep deterioration in humanitarian conditions in northeastern Syria, where the vast majority of people live in camps and communities outside of government control. Lowcock’s office subsequently backtracked, informing front-line relief groups that they shouldn’t consider any U.N. guidance on the legality of funding legally binding. One official familiar with the debate said the U.N. agencies are exploring ways in which they can help private aid agencies continue their work. But officials said new financial support from the U.N. has stopped.
Zoe Paxton, the relief coordinator’s chief spokesperson, denied the claims that the U.N. lawyers had ever issued an official opinion prohibiting funding for cross-border operations. “OCHA did not seek, receive or share official guidance from OLA that UN agencies could only provide funding to NGOs that operate in northeast Syria with the approval of the Government of Syria,” she told Foreign Policy. “Similarly, OCHA did not seek, receive or share official OLA guidance that UN agencies could not fund NGOs that provide cross-border assistance.”
[Insert: Well OCHA either sought and received an opinion there or they didn't. How is it that we get conflicting stories about something as simple as that. Who is not telling the truth? And why?]
“The Security Council decided not to renew the United Nations’ use of Al Yarubiyah border crossing,” Paxton added. “The United Nations continues to do everything possible to get help to people in need in northeast Syria, including by advocating for expedited and unhindered cross-line humanitarian access.”
The U.N. Security Council granted the legal authority to U.N. and private relief agencies in 2014 to deliver humanitarian assistance to millions of civilians in opposition-controlled territory through crossing points in Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey. The arrangement was established in response to Syrian efforts to use food and other humanitarian aid as a weapon of war .. https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/03/23/exclusive-syrias-u-n-aid-jam/ , cutting off humanitarian assistance to communities suspected of sympathizing with anti-government forces. Syrian opposition forces also laid siege to government-controlled towns—though on a far smaller scale. Syrian authorities also routinely removed medical supplies from trucks entering rebel-held territory from Damascus, claiming they could be used to treat fighters.
The cross-border assistance has provided millions of civilians in opposition-controlled territory in northwestern and northeastern Syria with their main source of humanitarian assistance. Only a fraction of assistance to opposition-held lands comes via cross-line aid shipments that travel from Damascus to opposition-controlled territory and are approved by the government.
Syria has long opposed the cross-border aid pipelines as a violation of its sovereignty, claiming that aid trucks are used to supply weapons to anti-government forces. In December, Russia and China vetoed .. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-security-un/russia-backed-by-china-casts-14th-u-n-veto-on-syria-to-block-cross-border-aid-idUSKBN1YO23V .. a Security Council resolution that would have extended the mandate to run cross-border operations for more than a year. But several weeks later, on Jan. 10, Moscow negotiated a compromise that permitted aid to continue to flow through Turkey to northwestern Syria but ended Security Council approval for the Yaroubia crossing, the key entry point for medical supplies provided by WHO.
In a recent paper prepared for the 15-nation council, WHO raised concerns that the remaining aid pipeline from Damascus would not be able to meet the needs of civilians in northeastern Syria. “[I]n recent months the supply chain from Iraq has become less effective and reliable,” according to the WHO paper.
The Yaroubia border crossing between Syria and Iraq is pictured on July 23, 2012. The crossing, which the U.N. Security Council shut down in January under pressure from Russia, served as a key pipeline for the World Health Organization and private relief groups delivering medical assistance into northeastern Syria. AFP/Getty Images
An early draft of the paper called for the “re-opening of Yaroubia crossing as a matter of urgency,” but the proposal to reopen Yaroubia—which is vehemently opposed by Russia—was subsequently eliminated from the final paper. Instead, the revised version merely noted that the Damascus aid pipeline would not be able to address the needs posed by the coronavirus and that there was a need to find alternate routes.
The U.N., meanwhile, has explored the possibility of filling the supply gap by channeling aid through informal Iraqi crossing points, including the Kurdish-controlled border crossings at Walid and Fishkabour, which relies on damaged pontoon bridges, or a larger crossing point in Tal Abyad, Turkey.
“UN and NGO partners agree that the cross-line option cannot be adequately expanded to meet the needs in NES and will not be sufficient to support an effective response to COVID-19,” WHO reported. “Over the past three months only 31% of NGO-supported facilities have received medicines, supplies and equipment through cross-border mechanisms, including hospitals in Tabqa, Ar-Raqqa and Al-Hasakeh, and facilities in IDP [internally displaced persons] camps.”
Hardin Lang, the vice president for programs and policy at Refugees International, said much of the aid that does reach the north remains in government control.
“Anyone who thinks northeast Syria is going to be a priority for the regime is dreaming,” Lang said. The Syrian government, he added, “has a well-established reputation of manipulating humanitarian assistance coming into the country.”
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who has interviewed health providers throughout the region, echoed Lang’s concern.
She noted that the vast majority of aid flowing into northeastern Syria following the closure of Yaroubia went to a state hospital in Qamishli. Facing criticism, she said, WHO has since sought to distribute health care assistance more widely throughout the region. But she said very little coronavirus-related material is finding its way into opposition-held territory. The challenge at Qamishli, she said, is that patients must cross government checkpoints to get to the hospital. Most military-age men, she added, are unwilling to go to the hospital for fear of being recruited into the military or reserve service.
“A large share of the population cannot access the services at Qamishli hospital,” Tsurkov said. “It is only accessible to people perceived as loyal to the regime.”
Colum Lynch is a senior staff writer at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @columlynch
Biden’s Syria Strikes Fuel New Debate on War Powers
"America’s Abandonment of Syria "For Syrian Kurds, a leader's killing deepens sense of U.S. betrayal Trump’s Syria retreat blamed for murder of pro-democracy leader "Does Donald Trump Know What His Syria Policy Is? "How Trump just destroyed his own Syria strategy""""
Democrats in Congress signaled they were uneasy with the move and are demanding answers from the White House.
By Robbie Gramer, Jack Detsch | February 26, 2021, 5:44 PM
U.S. President Joe Biden walks toward reporters on on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Feb. 16. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
U.S. President Joe Biden’s directive to carry out airstrikes in Syria has fueled new debates about the president’s war powers authorities, with top Democratic allies on Capitol Hill voicing unease about military action without prior congressional approval.
Biden authorized strikes on Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria on Thursday, marking the first significant military action of his presidency. Almost immediately, senior Democratic lawmakers began pressuring the White House for answers on what legal justifications were used to carry out the strikes, reviving questions on a president’s constitutional war powers authorities that became a fixture of former President Donald Trump’s foreign-policy battles with Capitol Hill.
“I am very concerned that last night’s strike by U.S. forces in Syria puts our country on the path of continuing the forever war instead of ending it,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders in a statement. “This is the same path we’ve been on for almost two decades. For far too long administrations of both parties have interpreted their authorities in an extremely expansive way to continue military interventions across the Middle East region and elsewhere. This must end.”
Biden’s response to renewed pressure from Capitol Hill, congressional aides said, will be an important bellwether of how he manages relations with Congress and whether he accedes to pressure from the left flank of his party on foreign policy.
Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Chris Murphy also issued statements signaling unease at the strikes, with Kaine calling on the administration to fully brief Congress on the matter “expeditiously.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden briefed congressional leaders on the action last night and has been briefing lawmakers and congressional staffers today. “There will be a full classified briefing early next week at the latest,” she said in a statement. The White House did not respond to additional requests for comment.
During his four years in office, Trump fended off .. https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/04/congress-makes-history-war-yemen-powers-bill/ .. repeated attempts by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to pare back the president’s ability to carry out military operations without congressional approval. The political battles in Washington stemmed from debates about constitutional powers and struck at the heart of the murky ways that the United States has carried out military engagements in the Middle East for the past two decades.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday that Article II of the U.S. Constitution gave Biden “not only the authority but the obligation” to order the airstrikes. The Pentagon said it utilized two F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft in the strikes, which destroyed nine facilities used by Iran-backed militias along the border between Syria and Iraq, and rendered two more structures unusable.
Did Biden Wait Too Long to Engage Iran? Held back by infighting and hard-liners on the Hill, the administration may have squandered precious time to save the Iran nuclear deal, critics say. Analysis | Michael Hirsh https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/24/biden-iran-nuclear-deal-trump/
“I have inherent trust in the national security decision making of President Biden, and I know how seriously he takes Congress’s war making powers,” said Murphy. “But Congress should hold this administration to the same standard it did prior administrations, and require clear legal justifications for military action, especially inside theaters like Syria, where Congress has not explicitly authorized any American military action.”
Legal scholars say that Trump’s approach to war powers authorities leaves thorny and open-ended questions for the Biden administration to grapple with over the powers of the presidency, laid out in Article II of the Constitution. “The picture that emerges from Trump’s war powers reporting to Congress is one of an extraordinarily broad vision of the president’s authority to use force abroad without congressional authorization, and of a willingness to exploit loopholes in reporting requirements in a way that obscures information on the use of force from the public,” wrote Tess Bridgeman, a former legal advisor in the Obama administration’s National Security Council and co-editor in chief of Just Security.
The U.S. strikes in Syria, reprisals for rocket attacks targeting U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq earlier this month, highlight Iran’s influence in the wider Middle East and its threat to U.S. troops through the use of proxy groups. It also underscores the highly charged tensions between Washington and Tehran even as the Biden administration works to revive Iran nuclear negotiations.
Some critics of Biden, including Republican lawmakers who sharply oppose the president’s efforts to open diplomatic negotiations with Iran, praised the airstrikes as a necessary response to Iranian aggression to deter future attacks.
“After several unanswered attacks against U.S. interests, I welcome the administration’s decision to authorize airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias operating in eastern Syria,” said Sen. James Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We must not allow the Iranian regime to hide behind Iranian-supported militias that pose significant threats to U.S. national security interests.”
Meanwhile, some dovish Republicans criticized Biden’s decision to strike. “I condemn meddling in Syria’s civil war,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul tweeted on Friday. “I also condemn attacking a sovereign nation without authority.”
Some experts expect attacks from Iranian proxy forces to continue, even if Tehran agrees to reopen talks on curbing its nuclear weapons program with the United States and its European allies.
“The Biden team is learning that extending an olive branch to the regime in Tehran does not impact Iran’s objective of pushing the U.S. from the region, nor alter their methods for pursuing it,” said Kirsten Fontenrose, an expert with the Atlantic Council and a former senior National Security Council official in the Trump White House.
Robbie Gramer is a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @RobbieGramer
Jack Detsch is Foreign Policy’s Pentagon and national security reporter. Twitter: @JackDetsch
Trump's last wish as president war with Iran. He's wanted one, and pushed for it, for four years, so i don't think there is any doubt he craves it for his last grand hurrah. On all the evidence it's virtually certain the U.S. and Saudi Arabia were in on the assassination of Fakhrizadeh. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=159774319
Could be. If we take Israeli strikes on Iran allies anywhere in ME as proxy American there is no doubt. "I believe the US has numerous strikes on Iran fortifications in the past 24 months." A timeline of recent escalation between Israel and Iran's allies https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=159558753
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The Republican Embrace of QAnon Goes Far Beyond Trump "Why conspiracy theories flourish on the right "Think QAnon Is on the Fringe? So Was the Tea Party "...Joe Biden camp calls Donald Trump 'abhorrent' amid Kamala Harris conspiracy""" https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=157775648
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