US, China agree to cooperate on climate crisis with urgency
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States and China, the world´s two biggest carbon polluters, agreed to cooperate to curb climate change with urgency, just days before President Joe Biden hosts a virtual summit of world leaders to discuss the issue.
The agreement was reached by U.S.
special envoy for climate John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua during two days of talks in Shanghai last week, according to a joint statement.
The two countries «are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands,» the statement said.
China and the United States are the world´s top carbon polluters, pumping out nearly half of the fossil fuel fumes that are warming the planet´s atmosphere.
Their cooperation is key to a success of global efforts to curb climate change, but frayed ties over human rights, trade and China´s territorial claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea have been threatening to undermine such efforts.
Kerry´s Shanghai trip marked the highest-level travel to China by a U.S.
official since Biden took office in January. From Shaghai, the former secretary of state flew to South Korea for talks.
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Worldwide COVID-19 death toll tops a staggering 3 million
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The global death toll from the coronavirus topped a staggering 3 million people Saturday amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, India and France.
The number of lives lost, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Kyiv, Ukraine; Caracas, Venezuela; or metropolitan Lisbon, Portugal.
It is bigger than Chicago (2.7 million) and equivalent to Philadelphia and Dallas combined.
And the true number is believed to be significantly higher because of possible government concealment and the many cases overlooked in the early stages of the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019.
When the world back in January passed the bleak threshold of 2 million deaths, immunization drives had just started in Europe and the United States.
Today, they are underway in more than 190 countries, though progress in bringing the virus under control varies widely.
While the campaigns in the U.S. and Britain have hit their stride and people and businesses there are beginning to contemplate life after the pandemic, other places, mostly poorer countries but some rich ones as well, are lagging behind in putting shots in arms and have imposed new lockdowns and other restrictions as virus cases soar.
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AP PHOTOS: Photographers reflect on single shot of pandemic
ROME (AP) — The images show the intimacy of husbands and wives saying goodbye for the last time, or reuniting after months apart.
They honor the courage of nurses, funeral workers and clerics who risked their own health to do their jobs. They witness life slipping away, and being snatched back from death.
To mark the milestone of 3 million COVID-19 deaths worldwide, The Associated Press asked 15 photographers in 13 countries to pick the single image they shot that had the greatest impact, and explain why.
Their selections document the staggering human toll as COVID-19 robbed people of their lives, basic freedoms and day-to-day routines over the past year.
But their reflections tell a deeper story, guiding the viewer to see and understand a once-in-a-century pandemic through the eyes of people who had the privilege and horror of witnessing it first-hand.
Just like their subjects, the AP photographers were terrified they might get infected and bring the virus home.
Just like their subjects, they remain haunted by what they saw. Just like their subjects, they found moments of hope.
Alexander Zemlianichenko still stays in touch with the Russian Orthodox priest who made house calls to bless the sick and dying in Moscow, saying accompanying him was «an experience that transformed me, helping overcome my own fear» of the virus.
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Sikh community calls for gun reforms after FedEx shooting
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Members of Indianapolis´ tight-knit Sikh community joined with city officials to call for gun reforms Saturday as they mourned the deaths of four Sikhs who were among the eight people killed in a mass shooting at a FedEx warehouse.
At a vigil attended by more than 200 at an Indianapolis park Saturday evening, Aasees Kaur, who represented the Sikh Coalition, spoke out alongside the city’s mayor and other elected officials to demand action that would prevent such attacks from happening again.
«We must support one another, not just in grief, but in calling our policymakers and elected officials to make meaningful change,» Kaur said.
«The time to act is not later, but now. We are far too many tragedies, too late, in doing so.»
The attack was another blow to the Asian American community a month after authorities said six people of Asian descent were killed by a gunman in the Atlanta area and amid ongoing attacks against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.
About 90% of the workers at the FedEx warehouse near the Indianapolis International Airport are members of the local Sikh community, police said Friday.
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Black Americans experiencing collective trauma, grief
Carlil Pittman knows trauma firsthand.
As the co-founder of the Chicago-based youth organization GoodKidsMadCity-Englewood, he grieved the loss of Delmonte Johnson, a young community activist, more than two years ago to the very thing the teen fought fiercely against: gun violence.
He´s also been angered and frustrated by the onslaught of stories of Black Americans killed at the hands of police across the nation throughout the past year.
First, there was Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky, home last March.
Then there was George Floyd, whose Memorial Day killing by a Minneapolis officer sparked global protests. Just this week, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota — just minutes from where Floyd died.
And on Friday, Pittman spent much of the day planning a demonstration with other Chicago organizers to protest the police killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was Latino.
«We´re constantly turning on the TV, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and seeing people that look like us who are getting murdered with no repercussions,» said Pittman, an organizer for A New Deal for Youth.
«It´s not normal to see someone get murdered by the click of a video on your phone, yet it has become the norm for our people, our Black and brown communities.»
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In Minneapolis, armed patrol group tries to keep the peace
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn.
(AP) — As protests intensified in the Minneapolis suburb where a police officer fatally shot Daunte Wright, a group of Black men joined the crowd intent on keeping the peace and preventing protests from escalating into violence.
Hundreds of people have gathered outside the heavily guarded Brooklyn Center police station every night since Sunday, when former Officer Kim Potter, who is white, shot the 20-year-old Black motorist during a traffic stop.
Despite the mayor’s calls for law enforcement and protesters to scale back their tactics, the nights have often ended in objects hurled, tear gas and arrests.
The Black men at the edge of the crowd wear yellow patches on protective vests that identify them as members of the Minnesota Freedom Fighters, a group formed to provide security in Minneapolis’ north side neighborhoods during unrest following the death of George Floyd last year.
They are not shy about casting a forceful image — the group’s Facebook page features members posing with assault-style weapons and describes itself as an «elite security unit» — but on Friday the Freedom Fighters didn’t appear to be armed and said they intended only to encourage peaceful protesting.
As several people began to rattle a fence protecting the Brooklyn Center police department, the Freedom Fighters communicated to each other over walkie-talkies.
They declined to say how many are in their group.
On recent nights, the Freedom Fighters have moved through the crowd in formation, wearing body armor and dark clothing, weaving past umbrella-wielding demonstrators to create separation along a double-layer perimeter security fence.
Their passive tactics are intended to deescalate the tension, preventing agitators from pressing forward and provoking the law enforcement officers standing at attention with pepper-ball and less-lethal sponge grenade launchers at the ready.
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After child dies, US regulator warns about Peloton treadmill
NEW YORK (AP) — Safety regulators warned people with kids and pets Saturday to immediately stop using a treadmill made by Peloton after one child died and 歡迎光臨 others were injured.
The U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission said children and at least one pet were pulled, pinned and entrapped under the rear roller of the Tread+ treadmill, leading to fractures, scrapes and the death of one child.
The safety commission said in a news release and in emails that it knows of 39 «incidents» with the treadmill, involving «multiple» or «dozens» of children, but it did not specify a number of children. It said the majority of the incidents resulted in injuries, including the one death.
The commission posted a video on its YouTube page of a child being pulled under the treadmill.
Of the 39 incidents, 23 involved children, according to New York-based Peloton Interactive Inc.; 15 included objects like medicine balls, and one included a pet, it said.
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The queen says goodbye to Philip, continues her reign alone
WINDSOR, England (AP) — Sitting by herself at the funeral of Prince Philip on Saturday, Queen Elizabeth cut a regal but solitary figure: still the monarch, but now alone.
The queen sat apart from family members at the simple but somber ceremony at Windsor Castle, in accordance with strict social distancing rules during the coronavirus pandemic.
But if the ceremony had been for anyone else, at her side would have been her husband of 73 years, who gave a lifetime of service to the crown.
Wearing a face mask, the queen was dressed all in black, except for the diamond brooch that flashed on her left shoulder — a piece she had often worn on engagements with her husband.
The monarch´s four children — Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward — sat nearby, as did the queen and Philip´s eight grandchildren. The stripped-back service made their loss somehow more personal for people who often live their lives in public.
Just 30 mourners were allowed to attend the service for the prince, who died April 9 at the age of 99.
The entire royal procession and funeral took place out of public view within the grounds of the castle, a 950-year-old royal residence 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of London, but was shown live on television.
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AP PHOTOS: Reflections on a royal funeral amid a pandemic
WINDSOR, England (AP) — As military bands played and a procession of royals escorted his coffin to the church, Prince Philip was laid to rest Saturday in a funeral ceremony that honored his lifetime of service to the U.K., the crown and his wife of 73 years, Queen Elizabeth II.
The widowed British monarch, setting an example amid the coronavirus pandemic, sat alone at the ceremony, dressed in black and with her head bowed in prayer.
Philip, who died on April 9, two months shy of his 100th birthday, was honored at Windsor Castle in a service that was steeped in military and royal tradition but also pared down and infused with his own personality.
The entire royal procession and funeral took place out of public view on the grounds of the castle, a 950-year-old royal residence 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of London, but was shown live on television.
People across Britain observed one minute of silence in honor of Philip just before the funeral got underway.
Coronavirus restrictions meant that instead of the expected 800 mourners, only 30 people were allowed inside the castle´s St.
George´s Chapel, including the queen, her four children and her eight grandchildren.
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Navalny’s doctor: Putin critic ‘could die at any moment’
MOSCOW (AP) — A doctor for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, says his health is deteriorating rapidly and the 44-year-old Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death.
Physician Yaroslav Ashikhmin said Saturday that test results he received from Navalny´s family show him with sharply elevated levels of potassium, which can bring on cardiac arrest, and heightened creatinine levels that indicate impaired kidneys.
«Our patient could die at any moment,» he said in a Facebook post.
Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union, said on Twitter that «action must be taken immediately.»
Navalny is Russian President Vladimir Putin´s most visible and adamant opponent.