Month: June 2019

“… 2020 presidential [candidate] Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is facing scrutiny over her mishandling of clergy sex abuse during her tenure as San Francisco district attorney less than a decade ago. It was widely reported that DA Harris conducted her investigation of clergy sex abuse too secretively, resulting in no prosecutions despite compelling truth to the contrary. … As San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris was perceived as operating in a secretive fashion that benefited accused priests to the detriment of justice for their alleged victims. …”

RFE/RL – An investigative journalist in Ukraine’s central city of Cherkasy has died six weeks after being attacked by an unknown assailant.

Serhiy Tomilenko, the head of Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists, wrote in a posting on Facebook on June 20 that Vadym Komarov had succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the May 4 attack, which remains under investigation.

“The only reason for the attack, now the killing, according to journalists in Cherkasy, is Vadym Komarov’s professional activities. He was inconvenient for many local politicians. He pushed forward with inconvenient questions regarding corruption in Cherkasy and touched on topics that resonated,” Tomilenko wrote.

Tomilenko added that the journalists’ union “continues to demand real, not just declared, protection of rights for Ukrainian journalists.”

Komarov was hospitalized and underwent unspecified surgery following the attack in Cherkasy, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Kyiv, and had remained in a coma ever since.

International media freedom watchdogs and the United States urged Kyiv to thoroughly investigate the attack and ensure that it does not go unpunished.

The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said it was “deeply saddened” by Komarov’s death and urged “a thorough, transparent” probe into the attack.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said it was “shocked” by the journalist’s death, adding that it is “high time to do more to protect journalists and fight impunity in Ukraine.”

“We demand from the police a rapid investigation to find those who are guilty,” said Oksana Romaniuk of Ukraine’s Institute of Mass Information, a Kyiv journalists’ watchdog.

Harlem Desir, the representative on freedom of the media for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said that “impunity would be a victory for those who wanted to silence Komarov and to intimidate the press.”

In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists said the brutal assault on Komarov came amid a “range of threats” faced by investigative reporters in Ukraine, including “surveillance, harassment, and assault from government and private entities.”

Ukraine is ranked 102nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

“… Trump said … Friday he aborted a military strike to retaliate for Iran’s downing of an unmanned U.S. drone because it could have killed 150 people, and signaled … [openness] to talks …. An Iranian [SAM] destroyed a U.S. … surveillance drone … Thursday. … [according to the United States] in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz[, while Iran alleged it was over Iranian territory]. … White House national security adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Haspel, along with the rest of Trump’s team, favored a retaliatory strike, a senior Trump administration official said. …”

“So much for Notre Dame establishing a “Notre Dame Family” or identifying with something like a “Catholic” Church that is universal in scope. They have difficulty even welcoming all members of a class year to a reunion without exhorbitant barriers to screen out the frugal.

Even for something as simple and straightforward as a class reunion, Notre Dame apparently wanted to limit attendance to those willing and able to pay $400 for the weekend, not including lodgings ($250 for a single day and $99 for a single evening). There were slight reductions for early registration, such as $350 for the weekend instead of $400. …”