Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Kushner says Black people must ‘want to be successful’
WASHINGTON — Presidential adviser Jared Kushner said Monday that President Donald Trump wants to help Black people in America, but they have to “want to be successful” for his policies to work.
“President Trump’s policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they’re complaining about, but he can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful,” Kushner said on “Fox & Friends.”
Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, also criticized prominent people who raised their voices after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died May 25 in police custody, but then didn’t follow through and work to find ways to improve the lives of Black people in America.
“You saw a lot of people who were just virtue signaling — they go on Instagram and cry, or they would, you know, put a slogan on their jersey or write something on a basketball court,” Kushner said. “Quite frankly, that was doing more to polarize the country than it was to bring people forward. You solve problems with solutions.”
Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., accused Kushner of “casual racism.”
Former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile wrote on Twitter, “He’s talking to folks who have suffered and endured systemic racism and historic tokenism.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Kushner, saying that “internet trolls” took Kushner’s words out of context. She said they were trying to distract from Trump’s “undeniable record of accomplishment” for Black people.
COVID-19 testing failure: U.S. government officials are putting an early end to a study testing an Eli Lilly antibody drug for people hospitalized with COVID-19 because it doesn’t seem to be helping them.
Independent monitors had paused enrollment in the study two weeks ago because of a possible safety issue. But Monday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which sponsors the study, said a closer look did not verify a safety problem but found a low chance that the drug would prove helpful for hospitalized patients.
It is a setback for one of the most promising treatment approaches for COVID-19. President Donald Trump received a similar experimental, two-antibody drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. on an emergency basis when he was sickened with the coronavirus.
Wisconsin ballots: The U.S. Supreme Court sided with Republicans to prevent Wisconsin from counting mailed ballots that are received after Election Day.
In a 5-3 order, the justices Monday refused to reinstate a lower court order that called for mailed ballots to be counted if they are received up to six days after the Nov. 3 election. A federal appeals court had already put that order on hold.
Hurricane Zeta: Zeta strengthened to a hurricane Monday as it continued on a track for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula resorts and then likely move on for a possible landfall Wednesday on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Zeta — the earliest ever 27th named storm of the Atlantic season — was centered about 90 miles southeast of Cozumel island, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph.
A hurricane watch was posted from Morgan City, Louisiana, to the Mississippi-Alabama state line.
Boycotting France: Muslims in the Middle East and beyond on Monday broadened their calls for boycotts of French products and protests, as a clash over depictions of the Prophet Muhammad and the limits of free speech intensified.
Kuwaiti stores pulled French yogurts and bottles of sparkling water from their shelves, Qatar University canceled a French culture week, and calls to stay away from the Carrefour grocery store chain were trending on social media in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Protests have been held in Iraq, Turkey and the Gaza Strip, and Pakistan’s parliament passed a resolution condemning the publication of cartoons of the prophet.
The beheading this month of a French teacher who had shown caricatures of the prophet in class has once again ignited a debate over such depictions — which Muslims consider blasphemous. The growing confrontation is raising political tensions between France and some Muslimmajority nations, especially Turkey, and could put pressure on French companies.
The teacher, who was killed by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee, has been heralded at home as a national symbol of France’s dearly held secular ideals and its rejection of any whiff of religious intrusion in public spheres.
Belarus strike: Factory workers, students and business owners in Belarus on Monday began a strike to demand that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko resign after more than two months of continuing mass protests following a disputed election.
Most state-run enterprises continued to operate despite the strike, which was called by opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. But analysts said it helped mobilize opposition supporters for a new round of confrontation with authorities, posing a significant challenge for Lukashenko, who has run the country for 26 years and until recently has been able to successfully stifle dissent.
Tanker rescue: Seven stowaways seized when British naval special forces stormed an oil tanker in the English Channel have been arrested on suspicion of hijacking, police said Monday.
Hampshire Police said the men, believed to be from Nigeria, were being held at several police stations on suspicion of “seizing or exercising control of a ship by use of threats or force.” They have not been charged.
Police said the 22 crew members of the Nave Andromeda were “safe and well” after the raid, which unfolded after darkness fell Sunday.
The ship had left Lagos, Nigeria, on Oct. 6.
Sudan-Israel ties: Sudan’s leader said the decision to normalize ties with Israel was an incentive for President Donald Trump’s administration to end Sudan’s international pariah status.
Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, told state television that without the normalization with the Jewish state now, Sudan would have had to wait until deep into next year to be removed from the U.S.’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Trump’s administration has tied the delisting of Sudan to a deal to normalize ties with the Jewish state. Sudan is the third Arab state — after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — to move to normalize relations with Israel.