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Rand Paul has promised to wage a vigorous review into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship.

FANCY FARM, Ky. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul wants to subpoena the records of the countrys top infectious disease expert, the senator's wife said while standing in for him at Kentucky's premier political event Saturday.

Paul, a Republican, has repeatedly clashed with Dr. Anthony Fauci over the government's COVID-19 policies and the origins of the virus that caused the global pandemic. Paul's wife, Kelley, waded into the dispute while promoting her husband's candidacy during the political speaking at the Fancy Farm picnic in western Kentucky. Paul is seeking a third term and is being challenged by Democrat Charles Booker on November's ballot.

Now I promise you this, come November when we win, Rand Paul will subpoena every last document of Dr. Faucis, Kelley Paul said.

Rand Paul and the state's senior senator, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, missed the stump-style speaking event because of Senate duties in Washington.

Sen. Paul and other conservative critics have focused their ire at how the pandemic was handled on Fauci. Paul has promised to wage a vigorous review into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship. The Senate currently has a 50-50 split, but Democrats have the edge with Vice President Kamala Harris tie-breaking vote.

Continuing her comments about Fauci, Kelley Paul said: Now some people ask why me, why is Rand so hard on poor Dr. Fauci? Well it's simple, because the American people deserve the truth.

We deserve the truth about the origins of a virus that killed millions of people, she added.

U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe Chinas leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according a Biden-ordered review that was released last summer.

Booker, a former state lawmaker, told the picnic crowd that Paul votes against the interests of Kentuckians, denouncing him as a terrible senator and an embarrassment to the state.

Rand Paul is voting against infrastructure because he doesnt care about Kentucky," Booker said. "He is not going to invest in our health care because he doesnt care about Kentucky.

Meanwhile, Paul has access to "the best health care your tax dollars can buy, Booker said.

The event gave Booker a chance to make inroads against Paul, with a statewide television audience watching the speeches that also featured GOP candidates running for governor in 2023. The Fancy Farm political speaking is the traditional start of the fall campaign in Kentucky.

Speaking to jeering Paul supporters, Booker said: Even if you boo, I'm fighting for you to get quality health care.

Booker and Paul's wife spoke to a boisterous crowd of Republicans and Democrats. The event is a rite of passage for statewide candidates, who are tested in stump-style speeches in the August heat while facing taunts and shouts from partisans from the other party.

In her speech, Kelley Paul also focused on surging inflation, and the strain it's putting on family budgets, at a time when Democrats control the White House and Congress.

Democrat policies are killing the middle class," she said. "Record inflation, soaring gas prices, empty shelves. The economy is tanking and every American knows it.

Booker is a progressive who promotes such social programs as Medicare for All and a basic universal income, saying the initiatives would help people in both poor urban neighborhoods and struggling rural communities. He also supports a clean-energy agenda and criminal justice changes.

Paul was first elected to the Senate in the tea party-driven wave of 2010. Paul rails against socialism and big-government programs he says encroach on individual liberties and drive up the nations debt.

Booker is the first Black Kentuckian in state history to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.

Kentucky hasnt elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in three decades.

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Paul's wife says senator wants to subpoena Fauci records - WHAS11.com

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted no on the PACT Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, which seeks to give healthcare funds to veterans who were exposed to toxic waste pits and Agent Orange.

Paul was one of eleven Republican senators to vote against the bill, which would have expanded access to healthcare for those seeking help after being exposed to Agent Orange, a herbicide mixture used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, according to the Aspen Institute.

The healthcare bill would also help those exposed to toxic waste pits, which were pits built to dispose of waste on military bases. The practice of the pits occurred in most American wars until the mid-2010s. The waste often included plastics, rubber, chemical, and medical waste.

Paul said he voted against the bill because it has potential economic implications for the country.

We must take care of our veterans and keep our country strong, Paul said on the Senate floor. This bill puts our economy, though, at risk by creating presumptions of service connection for the most common of ailments.

A presumption of service connection is when Veterans Affairs assumes a veteran has a condition because of their military service.

The ailments Paul referred to include hypertension and asthma.

According to the CDC, 50% of men and 44% of women in the United States have hypertension, Paul said, arguing that this bill will cost hundreds of billions of dollars at a time when the national debt is climbing over $30 trillion and inflation is at a 40-year high.

Charles Booker, the Democratic candidate challenging Paul for the Senate, Tweeted that Pauls vote is a slap in the face to veterans.

Kentucky is home to 300,000 veterans, Booker Tweeted. What Rand Paul did yesterday is a slap in the face to every single one of them.

Paul also said the national debt is the fault of Congress, and veterans shouldnt pay for the governments mismanagement.

I propose we pay for this bill by establishing a 10-year moratorium on foreign aid, Paul said.

Booker said he would vote in favor of veterans.

Unlike Rand Paul, I wouldve voted to provide increased VA benefits to toxic exposed veterans, he Tweeted.

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Rand Paul votes no on veterans health care bill - LINK nky

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has been ordered to disclose thousands of records of how the force procured and used facial recognition technology against Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters, after the New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of Amnesty International and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) on their joint Article 78 lawsuit.

New Yorkers demanding racial justice have a right to know the full details of NYPDs use of facial recognition technology during the BLM protests.

New Yorkers demanding racial justice have a right to know the full details of NYPDs use of facial recognition technology during the BLM protests. This ruling recognizes that the NYPD broke the law in withholding this information and is a significant step in holding the NYPD accountable for its use of discriminatory surveillance. It is a damning indictment of the NYPDs lack of transparency and accountability to the public that it took a lawsuit to achieve this, said Matt Mahmoudi, Amnesty Internationals Researcher on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights.

A ban on facial recognition for mass surveillance is a much-needed first step towards dismantling racist policing in New York. We all have a right to peacefully protest without fear of surveillance.

New York Supreme Court Judge, Justice Laurence Love, declared on Friday that the NYPDs withholding of documents and argument that the volume of information would impart a burden on the police department had been utterly refuted by Amnesty International.

Justice Love ordered the NYPD to share 2700 of documents and emails between March 1, 2020, to September 1, 2020, related to procurement and usage of facial recognition surveillance at the BLM protests, upon resubmission of Amnestys original FOIL request. This will enable Amnesty International and S.T.O.P. to thoroughly investigate the NYPDs procurement and usage of facial recognition technology throughout New York City.

It was wrong for the NYPD to surveil BLM protesters, and it was wrong to hide the evidence, said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn.

This department systematically hides the ways it watches us, but today the surveillance cover up just wont work. This ruling was crystal clear: the NYPD broke the law when it hid its records. When the police operate in the shadows and violate oversight laws, its not only a threat to public safety, but to democracy. I hope that Mayor Adams NYPD quickly complies with the order. New Yorkers deserve to know how political dissent is policed in this city. More importantly, these records can help us prevent more abuses in the future.

Background

In September 2020, Amnesty International USA filed a public records request under New Yorks Freedom of Informational Law (FOIL) to obtain NYPD records on its surveillance of the historic Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in 2020. The request was rejected by the NYPD along with a subsequent appeal. In July 2021, Amnesty International and S.T.O.P, a privacy and civil rights group, announced the lawsuit against the NYPD for refusing to disclose its records.

Facial recognition exacerbates discriminatory policing and prevents the free and safe exercise of peaceful assembly, by acting as a tool of mass surveillance. Black and minority communities are at far greater risk of being targeted.

In February 2022, new research by Amnesty International and partners revealed New Yorkers living in areas at greater risk of stop-and-frisk by police are also more exposed to invasive facial recognition technology. The analysis, part of the global Ban The Scan campaign, showed how the NYPDs vast surveillance operation particularly affects people already targeted for stop-and-frisk across all five boroughs of New York City. In the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, the research also shows that the higher the proportion of non-white residents, the higher the concentration of facial recognition compatible CCTV cameras.

Amnesty International is calling for a total ban on the use, development, production, sales, and export of facial recognition technology for mass surveillance purposes by both states and the private sector.

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USA: NYPD ordered to hand over documents detailing surveillance of Black Lives Matter protests following lawsuit - Amnesty International

WASHINGTON, D.C. When deadly, racially motivated violence erupted in a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, a Pittsburgh synagogue, a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and most recently in Buffalo, New York, Catholic Church leaders have responded.

Such high-profile reminders of the tragic carnage of racism prompts women religious, deacons, priests and bishops to condemn the violence and gather people in prayer not only to plead for Gods mercy, but to bring awareness to a culture of hate.

But racially inspired mass shootings such as the May 14 killing of 10 Black people at a Buffalo grocery store are only the most visible aspect of racism and many Catholics believe church leadership has a responsibility to help society find a way to eradicate the scourge of bigotry.

This is an evolving process, said Charisse Smith, chair of the diversity committee of Lawrenceville, New Jerseys Notre Dame Catholic High Schools school board, who pointed out there are many approaches to leading on this issue that may help in one area, but not in others.

Its strategic, its planning, things come up and things need to be handled with care, Smith told Catholic News Service. Sometimes things need immediate action and were not always going to get it right.

Many see that systemic racism is woven into just about all systems and institutions in American society, some of it is blatant, but much of it is subtle. There also are many white Americans who dont believe systemic racism exists.

I dont think any institution in the United States is adequately engaged in addressing racism, said Bishop John E. Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, who gave a speech in 2021 called Why Black Lives Matter: A Catholic Perspective on Racism.

I dont think the church in the United States has given it priority enough, nor do I think we have convincingly taught our members what our catechism teaches, that racism is sin, Stowe said in an interview with CNS.

And I dont think we understand the concept of systemic racism yet, he added. Both how we operate from it and God forbid you use a phrase like white privilege, because that is even more contentious than to talk about systemic racism.

Bringing awareness to racism and white privilege and how to discuss it without further alienating people may be one of the areas where church leaders can be most effective, said Robin Lenhardt, a law professor at Georgetown University and one of the founding faculty of Georgetowns new Racial Justice Institute.

The enormous megaphone the church has in parishes, service groups, diocesan schools, the diocesan centers, universities, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and even the Vatican can be used in multiple ways to help more people understand white privilege, systemic racism, and how to really embrace racial harmony and equality, Lenhardt told CNS.

Following the 2020 killing of George Floyd a 46-year-old Black man who died in the custody of a white Minneapolis police officer and the subsequent nationwide protests that followed, prompted Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Prez to establish an archdiocesan Commission for Racial Healing to address systemic racism within the church and society at large.

Just being uncomfortable with the uncomfortable is what Id like to see from the church, said Azzeiza Beadle, a 2017 graduate of Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, who was a leader in that schools Shades Club, a group that helped address racism on campus.

Being aware that there are people in your (church) community, there are things that they see they may not like, and its OK for them to not like those things, she said, referring to pastors and bishops in the U.S. hearing from people of color in their dioceses.

Listen to them, try to get where they are coming from and try to see how you can maybe shift a little bit to make sure that the community that you have is a good one for everyone who is in it, Beadle added.

This is something Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, has been trying to do within his diocese in recent years.

Burbidge has held listening sessions throughout his diocese to hear the experiences in the lives of the people in his region, especially those of racial minorities.

He said this has been especially important for him, acknowledging that as a white man he isnt subjected to discrimination or systemic racism and the signs of it arent organic to him in nature.

You have to listen to the experience of those you serve, with those of whom you work, or colleagues, Burbidge told CNS in a 2020 interview. You could in good faith think that, no, this is not the reality in my diocese. This is not the reality in my parish, or in my company. Until you begin to listen to some stories and maybe you were not aware of that.

He said this is why the bishops 2018 pastoral letter against racism, Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love, encourages the U.S. bishops to conduct these listening sessions so that they can better understand how racism impacts their diocese and all of society.

You are hearing directly from people whose experience might be very different than yours, Burbidge said, or even very different than what you perceive is the reality.

Its also important for church leaders to allow facts, research and statistics to guide them as they address racism, he said.

Ongoing racism in the U.S. appears to be on Vaticans radar and several recent episcopal appointments by Pope Francis has placed more Black bishops to lead dioceses in regions with historically notable race tensions, particularly in the South.

I think Pope Francis is sending a very strong intended message, said Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington, the only Black cardinal in the U.S. That if we as the United States, are a community of immigrants the episcopate should reflect that diversity. I think Pope Francis is being very intentional about these appointments.

He wants men who are pastors, compassionate, generous, approachable servants of the church, Gregory told CNS in a May interview. I think he wants them to reflect the face of the church in the United States.

Church leaders can be champions in helping society at large confront systemic racism in the systems of criminal justice, education, housing, health care, seminaries and parishes, but most importantly, they can help people understand what white privilege is and how it impacts society, Stowe said.

The topic of white privilege is delicate, frequently misunderstood, and it often puts white Americans on the defensive, especially when they dont identify any kind of privilege in their own lives.

The reality is theres a social structure in place that privileges white people over people of color and the church has benefited from that not always wittingly but the church certainly has benefited from that, Stowe said.

If we want to promote unity, if we want to promote reconciliation, he said, if we dont want to have to march in the streets and see the kind of violence that comes from when people are oppressed, then we need to pay attention to whats being said.

We have a significant Catholic African American population that we always refer to in the church as those people, as other,' Stowe said. We dont even acknowledge them as members of the church. We do it subconsciously, but its the Black church as though its different than the Blacks who are part of our church.

To that point, Oblate Sister Marcia Hall suggests that church leaders begin teaching in U.S. seminaries how systemic racism reaches all levels of society, including the church, to better prepare the priests of the future.

Hall told CNS a story about Black friends who attended a 2020 Mass in Richmond, Virginia, and when it came time for the sign of peace, the three white seminarians in the pew in front of them turned around, looked at them and then turned back facing the front of the church without ever extending a sign of peace.

This is not something that happened in 1960, 1970, 1980, this was 2020, she said. So, I think that church leaders have got to be more forceful with the people they are ordaining or bringing into religious life about race, being more forthright and being more honest about the impact its had on the church and the impact it continues to have on the church and that we all of us have to address it.

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Church leaders urged to be trailblazers in addressing systemic racism - Crux Now

By Rachel West.2 Aug 2022 10:55 AM

John Boyega is getting candid as the September issue cover star forMens Health.

With three major projects in the works, the star is sharing how hes using his platform to build not just a better version of himself, but to speak out for what he believes in. An unapologetic supporter of the Black Lives Matter movements, Boyega tells Mens Health, Our empowerment is not your demise.

Of course, theres backlash. Seen and unseen, he says of the criticism hes received for being outspoken in not just his support, but his experience as a Black man. Its just how it goes. Youll see whos for you and whos really not.[But] this is who I am. Im going to speak about what I believe in and make sure that whatever I do is aimed at supporting the people.

READ MORE: John Boyega, Reg-Jean Page & More Share Their Experiences In New THR Drama Actor Roundtable

When it comes to speaking honestly about his treatment as a Black man, Boyega says, Any of us keeping our mouth shut at this point, it doesnt really feel too comfortable. Because even if youre British, [youre] working in the States; the guns going to go off before your accent does.

Boyega, 30, has previously spoken out about how he felt unsupported during his Star Wars days, especially when it came to racist treatment online. Now, the actor says that because he brought this to the freaking forefront, future people of colour cast in LucasFilm productions will get more support.

At least the people going into it now, after my time, [theyre] cool. [Lucasfilm is] going to make sure youre well supported and at least you [now] go through this franchise knowing that everybody is going to have [your] back. Im glad I talked out everything at that time.

READ MORE: John Boyega Was Surprised By Reaction To His Star Wars Criticism: Robert Pattinson Gets To Talk S About His Films

Though Boyega says he felt he had to say yes to every offer when he was starting out, which was tiring, he is now able to focus on the scripts that inspire a visceral reaction.

I can visualize the film. The concept is clear; the intentions are clear, he says of the projects he wants to do, like the upcoming The Woman King with Viola Davis. Im going through each page and wishing I could read it in five seconds.

One project Boyega wont be taking on despite rumours is a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Thats not in the vision for me now. I want to do nuanced things. I want to donate my services to original indie films that come with new, fresh ideas, because I know its real hard to top Iron Man in that universe.

The September 2022 issue of Mens Health featuring John Boyega hits newsstands nationwide on August 9.

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John Boyega On Speaking Out About Star Wars, Being A BLM Advocate: This Is Who I Am - ETCanada.com