Immigration detainees owed $17M in back pay, jury says
A federal jury in Washington state has found that the operator of a for-profit detention center in Tacoma owed $17.3 million in back pay to immigration detainees who were denied minimum wage for the work they performed there. The jury reached that conclusion on Friday, two days after it found that the GEO Group violated Washington’s minimum wage laws by paying detainee workers $1 per day, according to Washington’s attorney general, Bob Ferguson, who sued the company in 2017. “This multibillion-dollar corporation illegally exploited the people it detains to line its own pockets,” Ferguson said in a statement.
Man with knife injures 17 people on Tokyo train, starts fire
A man dressed in Batman’s Joker costume and brandishing a knife on a Tokyo train on Sunday stabbed several passengers before starting a fire, which sent people scrambling to escape and jumping from windows, police and witnesses said. The Tokyo Fire Department said 17 passengers were injured, including three seriously. Not all of them were stabbed and most of the other injuries were not serious, the agency said. The attacker, identified as a 24-year-old man, was arrested on the spot and was being investigated on suspicion of attempted murder, NHK said. His motive was not immediately known.
Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, tests positive for COVID
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary who last week said she would not join President Joe Biden on a diplomatic trip to Europe because of a family emergency, said Sunday that she tested for positive for the coronavirus. “While I have not had close contact in person with the president or senior members of the White House staff since Wednesday,” Psaki said, “I am disclosing today’s positive test out of an abundance of transparency. I last saw the president on Tuesday.” Psaki said that members of her household had tested positive for the virus earlier last week.
FDA assessing if Moderna can cause heart problems
in adolescents
The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing reports suggesting the coronavirus vaccine made by Moderna can cause heart problems in adolescents, the company said Sunday. Moderna requested authorization from the FDA for use of its vaccine in children ages 12-17 in June. The adolescents would receive 100 micrograms of the vaccine, the same dose given to adults. But the agency has not yet made a ruling, prompting speculation about reasons for the delay. In a statement, Moderna said the FDA “requires additional time to evaluate recent international analyses of the risk of myocarditis after vaccination.”
Japan’s election closer than usual
Japan has had no shortage of faceless prime ministers over the decades, a revolving door of leaders forgotten nearly as soon as they leave office. The most recent to leave, who lasted only a year, was faulted for a communication style that often came across like a cure for insomnia. Now comes Fumio Kishida, who was chosen as prime minister last month by the governing Liberal Democrats and led the party to victory Sunday. In anointing Kishida, 64, the Liberal Democrats passed over both an outspoken maverick and a nationalist who would have been Japan’s first female leader.
By wire sources
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