Author: CensorBiz

One man was the beloved owner of a Louisville barbecue restaurant who made sure to provide free meals to officers. Another was a man known as “Mr. Indianapolis,” a former star football player. Yet another was a federal officer working security during a protest. They are among the people who have been killed as protests roiled American cities in the week since 46-year-old George Floyd died when a white officer jammed his knee into the back of the black man’s neck. The deaths have at times been overshadowed by the shocking images of chaos engulfing cities across America, from heavy-handed riot police tactics to violence, vandalism and arson. Tens of thousands have marched peacefully in demonstrations against police brutality and racism. Protesters listen to a man speak as they gather peacefully in front of the Ohio Statehouse in Downtown Columbus, Ohio, June 1, 2020, to protest the death of George Floyd.Many of the people killed were African Americans, compounding the tragedy for black families to lose more members of their community amid the unrest. Dozens more have been hurt in various altercations — vehicles plowing into crowds, police officers suffering head injuries and broken bones and protesters ending up in emergency rooms with a variety of injuries from the melees. The death toll and circumstances surrounding the killings are still being sorted out in many cities, but here is what we know about the cases so far: Louisville As local police and the National Guard sought to disperse a crowd early Monday, they heard gunshots and returned fire, killing the owner of a barbecue restaurant, David McAtee. The mayor has since terminated the city’s police chief after finding out that officers on the scene did not activate their body cameras. The state police and the U.S. attorney also are investigating. The 53-year-old McAtee was an African American man known for offering free meals to officers who stopped by. “We lost a wonderful citizen named David McAtee,” Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said. “David was a friend to many, a well-known Barbecue man.” The protests in Louisville have centered not just on Floyd’s killing but also the death of Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed in her home in Louisville in March. The 26-year-old EMT was shot eight times by narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door as they attempted to enforce a search warrant. No drugs were found in the home. Oakland A federal law enforcement officer was providing security at the federal courthouse in Oakland during a protest when someone fired shots from a vehicle. Dave Patrick Underwood, 53, died and another officer was critically injured in the shooting. It was not immediately clear if the drive-by shooting was related to the protests, though the federal building’s glass doors were smashed and the front entrance was sprayed with anti-police graffiti. Several thousand demonstrators gather in Oakland, Calif., on June 1, 2020, to protest the death of George Floyd.Underwood, who was black, and the other officer were contracted security officers and employed by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service; they were monitoring a nearby protest. No one has been arrested and a motive for the shooting has not yet been determined. Underwood was the brother of Angela Underwood Jacobs, recently a Republican candidate to fill a vacant U.S. congressional district north of Los Angeles. Indianapolis Two people were killed over the weekend amid unrest in Indianapolis, including 38-year-old Chris Beaty, a former offensive lineman for Indiana University. Beaty was known as “Mr. Indianapolis” and remained involved with the Hoosiers long after his graduation. He also was a prominent businessman in the city and ran multiple nightclubs. “I am at a loss for words. The news of the passing of Chris Beaty is just devastating,” coach Tom Allen said in a statement. “Since I returned home to coach at Indiana, Chris embraced me, encouraged me and supported me! His passion for life and Indiana Football energized me every time we were together.” The circumstances of his shooting weren’t immediately clear but some media reports said it happened near an apartment where he lived. It also occurred the same night that an 18-year-old man also was fatally shot as protests broke out in the city. Minneapolis In what is believed to be the first killing since the protests broke out, a 43-year-old black man was fatally shot outside a pawn shop as rioting broke out last week in Minneapolis and then spread nationally. The owner of the pawn shop, who is white, was arrested in the death of Calvin L. Horton Jr. Police say they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing, including whether it was related to protests in the neighborhood. The shop was described as having been significantly damaged during unrest. Handwritten messages can be seen at a memorial for George Floyd that has been created at the place where he was taken into police custody and later died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 1, 2020.Omaha, NebraskaA 22-year-old black man was killed after authorities said he tussled with the owner of two bars in downtown Omaha. Surveillance video of the strip of bars shows a group of people, including James Scurlock, approach bar owner Jake Gardner. Two people are seen on the video tackling Gardner, who ended up on his back and fired shots in the air. Seconds later, Scurlock is seen tackling Gardner, who then fires the gun over his shoulder, striking Scurlock. Authorities have declined to press charges, calling the shooting self-defense. Detroit A 21-year-old man was killed in downtown Detroit after someone fired shots into a vehicle during a protest. According to a police report, the man was sitting in the driver’s seat of a car in a parking lot with two others when someone fired shots into the vehicle and then fled on foot.  Chicago suburbTwo people were killed during unrest Monday in the Chicago suburb of Cicero, according to a town official. Spokesman Ray Hanania did not provide details about those who were killed but said it happened amid protests there. 
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Asian markets are once again proving resilient to the upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic, fraying diplomatic ties between the United States and China and the escalating social unrest in the U.S. Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index finished Tuesday’s trading session 1.1% higher.  Hong Kong is 0.7% higher in late afternoon trading, while Shanghai is up 0.2%.  Sydney’s S&P/ASX is 0.3% higher, the KOSPI index in Seoul gained 1%, and Taiwan’s TSEC index is up 0.4%. In oil futures trading, U.S. crude is selling at $35.69 per barrel, up 0.7%, while Brent crude, the international standard, is selling at $38.73 per barrel, up 1%.   In equities futures trading, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 are down, but basically unchanged, while the Nasdaq is up 0.2%.   
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A popular black restaurateur was fatally shot in Kentucky early on Monday as police and National Guard troops fired weapons while dispersing a crowd protesting against police killings of African Americans. The chief of police in Louisville was fired and two officers placed on administrative leave after authorities learned the officers had fired their weapons without using body cameras to record what happened, Mayor Greg Fischer said at a press briefing on Monday. “We had a horrible tragedy last night at 26th and Broadway,” Fischer said. “We lost a wonderful citizen named David McAtee.” The death of McAtee, who owned YaYa’s BBQ near the site of the shooting, marked the second time Louisville police did not use their body cameras during a shooting incident in which an unarmed black resident was killed. Like protesters across the country, the Louisville marchers were incensed by the treatment of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in Minneapolis police custody after being pinned beneath a white officer’s knee for nearly nine minutes. But they were also protesting against the Louisville officers who shot 26-year-old Breonna Taylor while serving a “no knock” search warrant at her apartment. Protests over racial inequality have engulfed the nation’s major cities for a week, as officials extended curfews in hopes of preventing a seventh night of looting and vandalism over the death of Floyd. Details were not immediately available about the circumstances of McAtee’s death, Fischer said. He added, however, that authorities know two Louisville police officers and two National Guard soldiers had fired their weapons. The officers say they returned fire after someone shot at them, Fischer said. Kentucky Governor Andy Bashear, a Democrat, promised an exhaustive investigation. “My pledge is that we will give you the truth, no matter what the truth is,” he told a news conference. 
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A soccer field every 6 seconds. That’s the rate at which the world lost mature tropical forests last year, according to new data from the Global Forest Watch monitoring program.Satellite data shows nearly 4 million hectares of tree cover disappeared, an increase from last year and the third-largest loss this century.  Some experts find hopeful notes among the bad news, however. While Brazil’s forest losses have increased under right-wing President Jair Bolosonaro, policies to curb deforestation appear to be working in Indonesia, Colombia and West Africa.  The destruction of mature tropical forests is a massive hit to biodiversity and is responsible for about 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to the World Resources Institute, the research and advocacy group that oversees Global Forest Watch. Since forests are massive sponges of carbon dioxide, reversing their loss would play an outsize role in fighting climate change.  The United Nations set a goal of ending deforestation by 2020, “but we seem to be going in the wrong direction,” WRI Distinguished Senior Fellow Frances Seymour said.  Brazil’s reversal According to satellite imagery analyzed by the University of Maryland and WRI, Brazil alone lost 1.4 million hectares of mature forest in 2019, more than one-third of the world total and nearly three times more than the country with the next-largest loss, the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Not counting record-breaking forest fires in 2016 and 2017, it’s the largest loss since 2006.  Brazil had been a source of optimism until recently. Conservation policies under former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva curbed deforestation rates from 2004 to 2015.  It was “one of the great conservation successes of this millennium,” said Robert Heilmayr, a University of California, Santa Barbara environmental economics assistant professor, who was not involved with the WRI research. “I think that gave rise to this hope that if we can harness the policies that worked in one place and just deploy them around the world, we’re going to see an end to deforestation globally,” Heilmayr said. But the latest data shows “we still have a long ways to go,” he said. President Bolsonaro has encouraged development in the Amazon rainforest and loosened enforcement of environmental laws. His administration is backing a law that would increase access to protected indigenous lands for mining and supports legislation that environmental groups say would legalize land grabs. “You’re starting to see the enforcement of the laws that are on the books back off,” Heilmayr said, “and I think that’s creating an opening for more aggressive deforestation.” Indonesia’s surprise On the other hand, the loss of mature forests in Indonesia declined in 2019 for the third straight year. “I’m continuing to be pleasantly surprised that there’s a decrease” in Indonesia, said Greg Asner, director of the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science at Arizona State University, who was not involved with the research. While Indonesia lost the third-largest area of mature forest after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it’s the smallest loss since the early 2000s.    The country has made permanent a 2011 moratorium on logging and land-clearing for oil palm plantations, which had been a major driver of deforestation. The government has stepped up fire prevention and enforcement of existing forest laws. Colombia also saw a steep drop in the loss of primary forest last year, after two years of increases. Deforestation had spiked after a peace agreement ended decades of civil war and freed up land previously occupied by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The country has set deforestation and reforestation goals and has sent the police and military to fight deforestation in its national parks.  It’s not clear if the trend will hold. Global Forest Watch’s early-warning system has logged an increase in alerts this year.  Chocolate cuts its losses More tentative good news comes from West Africa. Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, the two countries with the largest increase in mature forest loss in 2018, both cut those losses in half last year.  The chocolate industry has pledged to reduce deforestation for cocoa cultivation, a major crop in West Africa, and the governments have signed forest carbon deals with the World Bank.  These programs may be responsible, but WRI says it’s too soon to tell if the impact will last. The cooperation of palm oil companies has been a big part of Indonesia’s decline in deforestation, UCSB’s Heilmayr said.  “When we see those two components, government and the international markets that provide the strongest incentive for deforestation, working together and in harmony with each other to disincentivize further deforestation, that’s where we generally see the biggest success,” he noted. “The 2019 data corroborates what we already know,” WRI’s Seymour added. “If governments put into place good policies and enforce the law, forest loss goes down. But if governments relax restrictions … forest loss goes up.” Seymour is concerned that fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic could push global forest losses up this year.  “We do have historical precedents,” WRI’s Seymour said. Poverty and a lack of enforcement drove up deforestation after the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, she noted. And with attention turned elsewhere, Heilmayr said, “I worry that this is a moment where the governments that want to enable additional land grabbing, that want to enable agricultural expansion, may turn away from enforcing the laws that already exist.” 
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A white Fort Lauderdale police officer was suspended Monday after he was captured on video shoving a black woman to the ground when she was already on her knees.Witnesses say fellow officers instantly jumped in and pulled him away.Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione says the officer has been relieved of duty while the incident is investigated.He also praised other officers, including Krystle Smith, for moving in.”She did what you are supposed to do. When you see either adrenaline or emotion or some kind of interaction going south … that is our job to do, is intervene,” Maglione said.He said if any disciplinary action is needed, it will be “swift and corrective in nature.”Protesters gather during a rally in response to the recent death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis, at Fort Lauderdale Police Department in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 31, 2020.The incident took place Sunday after what had been a peaceful demonstration turned violent, with small groups of demonstrators breaking windows and spraying graffiti on buildings.One group of marchers surrounded an officer, while another group began jumping on a police car. The African American woman was already on her knees when Officer Steven Pohorence walked by and shoved her head, pushing her to the ground.The woman was not hurt, but those who saw the shove became enraged, and two fellow officers immediately pushed Pohorence away from the scene. Soon afterward, police fired tear gas to break up the crowd.Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said he is “offended” by Pohorence’s actions.”I thought that was something that should have never happened,” the mayor said. The Fort Lauderdale police union has not commented.’Animals’ commentAlso Monday, the state’s attorney’s office in Fort Lauderdale fired a prosecutor who called protesters “animals” in a Facebook post.The Florida State Attorney’s Office said prosecutor Amy Bloom’s remarks were “entirely inconsistent with its ideals and principles.”Bloom said she was referring to all demonstrators, regardless of race. She said she deleted her post within seconds, but not before someone read and reported it.  
 
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Minnesota officials have ruled George Floyd’s death a homicide, saying he suffered from a loss of blood flow due to compression on his neck while being restrained by Minneapolis police. Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, died last week while in handcuffs after a white officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on his neck for several minutes. His death, captured on video, has sparked chaotic demonstrations in dozens of American cities, some of which have turned violent. The report from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner on Monday said Floyd died of “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression.” It also says Floyd was suffering from heart disease, fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use, but it does not list those factors in the cause of death.  The report overturns preliminary county findings, which found that Floyd’s death was the combined result of being restrained by police as well as underlying health conditions and potential intoxicants in his system.  It comes hours after an autopsy commissioned by the family of Floyd found his death was caused by asphyxiation and also ruled it a homicide. The family-appointed medical examiner, Michael Baden, said no underlying medical conditions caused or contributed to Floyd’s death.  Floyd’s death has led to protests across the United States, which continued Monday evening.Demonstrators in front of a line of police officers during a protest for the death of George Floyd,
June 1, 2020, near the White House in Washington.In Washington, police set off tear gas bombs to disperse protesters outside the White House before President Donald Trump addressed the nation from the Rose Garden. Trump threatened to deploy the U.S. military to cities to stop violent protests, calling himself “the president of law and order” and said he will “fight to protect” the American people.” Earlier Monday, Trump lambasted the nation’s governors as “weak,” demanding they crack down on violent protesters and arrest them. Police in Philadelphia also fired tear gas Monday along with nonlethal bullets at hundreds of protesters who were blocking an interstate before an evening curfew was set to begin.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and state Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a curfew beginning at 11 p.m., joining nearly 40 other cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Detroit, that have imposed nighttime curfews. The governors of Texas and Virginia have imposed states of emergency.   Protests across the United States have followed a similar pattern in dozens of cities with thousands of people turning out to peacefully protest, but later some in the crowds turn to violence. Police have used shields, batons and tear gas while some demonstrators have set fires and smashed storefronts.   Floyd’s brother, Terrence, pleaded with protesters Monday not to use violence, saying it is “not going to bring my brother back at all.” Speaking in Minneapolis, where George Floyd died, Terrence Floyd said, “Let’s switch it up, y’all. Let’s switch it up. Do this peacefully, please.”  There have also been reports in many cities of police injuring journalists who were covering the protests.  The marchers say they are protesting not just harsh police treatment of black men and women, but also systemic racism in the United States.   Philadelphia police and Pennsylvania National Guard take a knee at the suggestion of Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Melvin Singleton, unseen, outside Philadelphia Police headquarters in Philadelphia, June 1, 2020.Chauvin, the officer who held down Floyd, and three other officers who were present and did not intervene, were fired last Tuesday. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the case.  “We are pursuing justice, we are pursuing it relentlessly,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said.   Protesters have been joined by statements of support from a variety of entities, from corporations to professional sports teams.  “We will no longer tolerate the assassination of people of color in this country,” the players from the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association said. “We will no longer accept the abuse of power from law enforcement. We will no longer accept ineffective government leaders who are tone-deaf, lack compassion or respect for communities of color. We will no longer shut up and dribble.”  Facebook announced a $10 million pledge for unspecified “efforts committed to ending racial injustice.”  Attorney General William Barr called for calm in a statement Sunday.   “The continued violence and destruction of property endangers the lives and livelihoods of others, and interferes with the rights of peaceful protesters, as well as all other citizens,” he said.  “It also undercuts the urgent work that needs to be done – through constructive engagement between affected communities and law enforcement leaders – to address legitimate grievances.”   Trump has blamed most of the violence during protests on “Antifa (anti-Fascist) and other radical left-wing groups,” and offered federal military assistance to Minnesota.   Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee against Trump in the November election, spoke to black community leaders in Delaware Monday, promising if elected to “deal with institutional racism” and to set up a police oversight body in his first 100 days in office.  At least 4,400 people have been arrested across the country during the past two days of protests, according to an Associated Press tally.   Numerous Minneapolis businesses suffered extensive property damage Friday as protesters randomly looted stores in a neighborhood near the site where Floyd died. Somali American business owner Ahmed Siyad Shafi’i told VOA that vandals attacked all his of his stores overnight.    “They broke the glass, the doors, the windows,” he said via Skype, “and take whatever they can take.”Shafi’i, the owner of a restaurant and clothing store in South Minneapolis, called it “unacceptable” for anyone to destroy personal property and suggested peaceful protests. VOA Somali Service contributed to this report.
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.Daily DebunkClaim: More people have died this year from snake bites than from COVID-19.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: RMIT ABC (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology – Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Fact CheckSocial Media DisinfoThe drug hydroxychloroquine, pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump and others as a possible COVID-19 treatment, is displayed by a pharmacist at the Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, U.S., May 27, 2020. REUTERS/George Frey/File PhotoCirculating on social media: Claim that hydroxychloroquine is the same as quinine and can be made at home.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Reuters
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As New York City approaches the end of its nearly three-month lockdown to contain the coronavirus, large protests over the death of George Floyd threaten health gains, and instances of violence and looting have alarmed officials. The three nights of protests had been largely peaceful, but late Sunday, luxury stores were looted in an area of lower Manhattan, and authorities are now considering a curfew for the city of 8.6 million people. “That is something we do not see typically in this city,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday of the looting. “That is unacceptable in New York City. It will not be allowed in New York City. We are going to address that very, very aggressively.” There also have been instances of protesters clashing with police, throwing bottles, bricks and other objects at them, and setting police vehicles ablaze. Several hundred arrests were made between Friday and Sunday nights. There were also a few videotaped instances where police have responded aggressively, including Saturday night when they drove two of their vehicles into a crowd of demonstrators. The city is investigating the incident. New York’s mayor has not been supportive of imposing a curfew but said he would discuss the option with the state’s governor and city’s police chief in the aftermath of Sunday night’s escalation. Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn over the past three nights to condemn the death in police custody of an African American man, George Floyd, in the state of Minnesota, and to call for an end to decades of racial discrimination and injustice. The protests are taking place against the backdrop of a health pandemic.  Protesters rally in Times Square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, June 1, 2020, against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd.New York City has been the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak. More than 200,000 of the state’s confirmed 371,000 cases of COVID-19 have been in the city. More than 20,000 city residents have died from the virus. Three months of lockdown measures, business closures and social distancing have helped to tame the virus’s spread. On Saturday, the city registered a low of just 59 new cases, compared with more than 6,300 at the peak. Next Monday, the city is slated to enter Phase One of reopening. It is the last region in the state to meet criteria to do so. Balancing protests and a pandemic While local officials have been supportive of peaceful protests and not enforced bans on large gatherings during the pandemic, they are becoming increasingly concerned that the gatherings could erase progress and cause a spike in COVID-19 cases, endangering public health and potentially dealing a setback to the city’s reopening. “For those who have made their presence felt, made their voices heard, the safest thing from this point is to stay home,” the mayor said. “We don’t want people in close proximity to each other. We don’t want people out there where they might catch this disease or spread this disease.” He appealed to those who do demonstrate to try to observe social distancing and wear face coverings. “There is no question there is a danger this could intensify the spread of the coronavirus just at a point when we were starting to beat it back profoundly,” he added.   New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he shares the outrage over Floyd’s death and stands with the protesters. “We can end the injustice and the discrimination and the intolerance and the police abuse, but we have to be smart,” Cuomo said at a news conference Monday in New York City. “And we have to be smart right now – right now in this state. And we have to be smart tonight in this city. Because this is not advancing a reform agenda, this is not persuading government officials to change. This is not helping end coronavirus.” He also condemned the violence and looting, saying it “obscures the righteousness of the message.” “Use this moment to galvanize public support; use that outrage to actually make the change and have the intelligence to say what changes you actually want,” Cuomo said. “Otherwise it is just screaming into the wind if you don’t know exactly what changes we need to make.”  
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 National Guard vehicles were stationed around City Hall and other government buildings in downtown Philadelphia early Monday as an overnight curfew lifted following ongoing protests over George Floyd’s death. Philadelphia officials closed most services and business in the city’s center after a second day of peaceful protests over Floyd’s death turned into another night of destruction. Floyd died last week after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. By early Monday, the Ben Franklin Bridge and other roadways leading into Philadelphia had reopened, and public transportation had restarted with some disruptions from damage. Curfews, barricades and police presence pushed many of the protests into neighborhoods away from downtown late Sunday night. But not until more store windows were broken along business corridors around City Hall and dozens of arrests were made. It was unclear from news releases where the National Guard troops would be stationed Monday or whether they would be moved if another day of unrest was to break out in areas outside of the city’s center. People were seen running into multiple stores in Northeast Philadelphia and emerging with merchandise late into Sunday night. And in West Philadelphia, a predominantly black neighborhood also far from the city center, police fired tear gas as people broke into boarded storefronts, stealing merchandise and damaging property including a row of police vehicles. Video from several TV news crews shows people smashing police car windows, rifling through the empty vehicles and pushing the cars into others.  Meanwhile, the city’s fire crews battled blazes overnight and into the early morning, some threatening whole blocks of buildings and disrupting subway service. A Philadelphia Fire Department spokesperson posted on Twitter Monday morning that crews had responded to nearly 250 fire calls, including two dozen structure fires that required hose trucks. Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said Monday that crews had brought a fire under control at a business in the city’s Olney neighborhood north of City Hall on Broad Street after it broke out around 7:30 a.m. Plumes of smoke and ladders spraying water could be seen on all sides of the building.  “The building certainly was affected by some of the unrest we had here, but it’s too early to say what the cause [of the fire] was,” Thiel said from the scene. A few hours earlier, Thiel had given a similar statement to reporters after crews contained a three-alarm fire that appeared to have been started at a Rent-A-Center. That fire caused several building collapses, endangering an entire block of businesses and residences, as well as causing commuters to have to be diverted by bus between two elevated train stops as fire crews worked around the tracks.  Several firefighters were injured when fires broke out in downtown Philadelphia Saturday night, Thiel said. No injuries had been reported from the fires Sunday or Monday morning. Close to 20 police officers have been injured, city officials said Sunday, including an officer who was hit by a vehicle and several who were hit with bricks. Police had arrested more than 200 people throughout the weekend for charges ranging from vandalism and theft, to breaking citywide mandatory curfews.  
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Protests have erupted in cities across the world in solidarity with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ demonstrations in the United States. The protests follow the death in police custody of George Floyd, a 46-year old black man, in Minneapolis last week. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, many protestors outside the U.S. say they see racial injustice in their own countries.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell   Producer: Marcus Harton
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China has threatened to retaliate against the United States after President Donald Trump’s decision to begin the process of eliminating Hong Kong’s special status and impose restrictions on Chinese students in U.S. Trump’s action was prompted by a new Chinese national security law in Hong Kong.  Speaking to reporters at the daily briefing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said “the announced measures severely interfere with China’s internal affairs, damage U.S.-China relations, and will harm both sides. China is firmly opposed to this,” adding that “any words or actions by the U.S. that harm China’s interests will meet with China’s firm counterattack.”   Protesters gesture with five fingers, signifying the “Five demands – not one less” in a shopping mall during a protest against China’s national security legislation for the city, in Hong Kong, May 29, 2020.Trump said on Friday the controversial security law is tragic for the people of Hong Kong and violated China’s promise to protect its autonomy. He said the Chinese government had been “diminishing the city’s longstanding and very proud status.”The president stopped short, however, of calling an immediate end to privileges that have helped Hong Kong remain a global financial hub. Chinese President Xi Jinping reaches to vote on a piece of national security legislation concerning Hong Kong during the closing session of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing, May 28, 2020.China’s people’s assembly voted last week to impose new national security legislation on Hong Kong that forbids secessionist and subversive activities, and what it labels foreign interference and terrorism.   About 200 political figures from around the world have said, the new law constitutes a “flagrant breach” of the Joint Declaration which retuned the former British colony to China in 1997 under the framework of “one country, two systems.” 
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COVID-19 infections in Afghanistan rose by 684% in May, the International Rescue Committee said in a statement Monday.  “The country’s extremely low testing capacity means many more are going untested and undetected,” according to the Committee. Millions of Afghans were already facing food insecurity after decades of conflict and now the economic strain of the COVID pandemic “leaves Afghanistan on the brink of a humanitarian disaster,” IRC said. Servicemen of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry wearing protective gear disinfect Moscow’s Kazansky railway station, as the country adopts measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19.Russia reported 9,035 new COVID-19 infections Monday.  Only the U.S. and Brazil have more cases than Russia.  South African schools were scheduled to open Monday, but those plans were canceled at the last minute.  The health ministry had received pushback from teacher unions, school staff and governing boards about the opening date.   South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Twitter that there is a need for “transparency about the level of preparedness of each of the schools.”  The White House announced Sunday that it has delivered two million doses of  hydroxychloroquine, or HCQ, to Brazil to help the South American country in its fight against the coronavirus. A pharmacy tech pours out pills of hydroxychloroquine at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, May 20, 2020.“HCQ will be used as a prophylactic to help defend Brazil’s nurses, doctors, and healthcare professionals against the virus,” the White House said in a statement Sunday.  “It will also be used as a therapeutic to treat Brazilians who become infected.” HCQ is a widely used malaria drug.  U.S. President Donald Trump, in a controversial move, has ignored his public health advisers and has pushed for the use of the drug in the fight against the coronavirus even though there is no hard evidence that the drug is effective against the virus.  Trump recently announced that he has taken a round of HCQ, even though he says he does not have the virus. The White House statement also said the two countries have entered a joint “research effort that will include randomized controlled clinical trials.  These trials will help further evaluate the safety and efficacy of HCQ for both prophylaxis and the early treatment of the coronavirus.” FILE – An aerial view of a burial at the Bom Jardim cemetery, the largest public cemetery in Fortaleza, Ceara state, Brazil, May 07, 2020.There are more infections in the U.S. and Brazil than anywhere else. The U.S. has 1.7 million cases while Brazil, which is emerging as the world’s hotspot for the virus, has more than 514,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. U.S. health officials say they are bracing for a surge in coronavirus infections, following protests around the country over the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.  Some protesters wore masks, and some did not.  Social distancing was non-existant. The prime minister of Armenia has tested positive for the coronavirus.  Nikol Pashinyan told Public Radio of Armenia that he and his family have tested positive, but all of them are asymptomatic.  Australia is continuing to ease coronavirus restrictions, allowing more people to gather in restaurants, public parks and other attractions.  Gatherings in the country’s largest state, New South Wales, had been limited to 10 people. That limit has been increased to 50.  Museums, libraries and zoos are reopening. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he hopes the easing of restrictions will help the economy rebound which, like so many other global economies, has been hit hard by the pandemic.  But Morrison said another government stimulus package may be necessary.  FILE – An aerial view of Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca, with the Abraj al-Bait Mecca Royal Clock Tower overlooking the Grand Mosque and Kaaba in the center, is seen during the early hours of Eid al-Fitr.About 90,000 mosques across Saudi Arabia opened for the first time in more than two months Sunday, but some restrictions remain in place.   Worshippers 15 years old and younger are not allowed inside, and the elderly are being encouraged to stay home to pray. Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, remains closed, but Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque — Islam’s holiest site outside Saudi Arabia — was open again Sunday for the first time since mid-March. All who enter must have their temperatures checked.     With the U.S. Atlantic hurricane season officially starting Monday, the Associated Press reports many counties across the southern U.S. still do not have complete plans on how to open up public shelters if a storm strikes during the coronavirus outbreak.  “Our biggest change to our hurricane plan is sheltering. How are we going to shelter those that have to evacuate? How are going to shelter those that are positive COVID patients? There are multiple ideas that we are considering right now,” Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Director Greg Michel said. Vice President Mike Pence said last week that the federal government is ready should there be the twin disaster of a hurricane and COVID-19. The federal emergency plan includes urging people to stay in hotels. But some state officials say that may not be an option because of the current unemployment crisis caused by the pandemic.   U.S. forecasters expect this will be an unusually busy hurricane season with as many as six major storms hitting the U.S.   
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Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across America again Sunday, with peaceful demonstrations against police killings of black people overshadowed by unrest that quickly ravaged parts of cities from Pennsylvania to California.City and state officials had deployed thousands of National Guard soldiers, enacted strict curfews and shut down mass transit systems, but that did little to stop many cities from again erupting into unrest.Protesters in Philadelphia hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, officials said, while masked crowds broke into upscale stores in a San Francisco suburb, fleeing with bags of merchandise. In Minneapolis, a truck driver drove into a massive crowd of demonstrators nearly a week after the death of George Floyd, a black man who pleaded for air as an officer pressed a knee into his neck.Tensions mounted outside the White House, where police fired tear gas and stun grenades into a crowd of more than 1,000 chanting protesters across the street in Lafayette Park. They scattered, piling up road signs and plastic barriers to light a raging fire in a street. Some pulled an American flag from a nearby building and threw it into the blaze. Others added tree branches. A cinder block building housing bathrooms and a maintenance office in the park was engulfed in flames.The entire Washington, D.C., National Guard — roughly 1,700 soldiers — was called in to help control the protests, according to two Defense Department officials who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.As the protests grew, President Donald Trump retweeted conservative commentator Buck Sexton who called for “overwhelming force” against violent demonstrators.Demonstrators face-off with officers in front of the San Diego Police in downtown San Diego, California on May 31, 2020, as they protest the death of George Floyd.Scenes from Sunday’s George Floyd Protests Around US, WorldFires, vandalism, looting and violence – much of it aimed at police – have flared over the last five nights.At least 4,100 people have been arrested over days of protests, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press. Arrests ranged from looting and blocking highways to breaking curfew.In Salt Lake City, a leading anti-police brutality activist condemned the destruction of property but said broken buildings shouldn’t be mourned on the same level as black men like Floyd.”Maybe this country will get the memo that we are sick of police murdering unarmed black men,” said Lex Scott, founder of Black Lives Matter Utah. “Maybe the next time a white police officer decides to pull the trigger, he will picture cities burning.”Yet thousands still marched peacefully, with some also calling for an end to the fires, vandalism and theft, saying it weakened calls for justice and reform.”They keep killing our people,” said Mahira Louis, 15, who marched with her mother and several hundred others through downtown Boston. “I’m so sick and tired of it.”A young boy holds a ‘Justice’ sign as he peers outside the window of a car passing protesters marching through downtown for a third night of unrest May 31, 2020, in Richmond, Va.The officer who pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck has been charged with murder, but protesters are demanding the other three officers at the scene be prosecuted. All four were fired.”We’re not done,” said Darnella Wade, organizer for Black Lives Matter in neighboring St. Paul, where thousands gathered peacefully in front of the state Capitol. “They sent us the military, and we only asked them for arrests.”Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz brought in thousands of National Guard soldiers to help quell violence that had damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings in Minneapolis over days of protests. On Sunday, in a display of force, long lines of state patrolmen and National Guard soldiers lined up in front of the Capitol, with perhaps a dozen military-style armored vehicles behind them.Disgust over generations of racism in a country founded by slaveholders combined with a string of recent racially charged killings to stoke the anger. Adding to that was angst from months of lockdowns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately hurt communities of color, not only in terms of infections but in job losses and economic stress.At the Minneapolis intersection where Floyd was killed, people gathered with brooms and flowers, saying it was important to protect what they called a “sacred space.” The intersection was blocked with the traffic cones while a ring of flowers was laid out.Among in Minneapolis was Michael Brown Sr., the father of Michael Brown, whose killing by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, set off unrest in 2014.”I understand what this family is feeling. I understand what this community is feeling,” he said.  
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Hundreds of demonstrates converged on the square in front of the Rio de Janeiro state government palace Sunday, protesting crimes committed by the police against black people in the Brazilian city’s poor neighborhoods, known as favelas. Protesters chanted, “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” in reference to George Floyd, the black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.    “We are here today because we want to live. We are here today because we are tired of this genocidal state. We are here to say no more, no more!” activist Santiago said.  Protesters were holding signs reading in Portuguese “Stop killing us” and “Favela asks for peace.”Military police fire the shotguns at demonstrators during a protest against crimes committed by the police against black people in the favelas, outside the Rio de Janeiro’s state government, Brazil, Sunday, May 31, 2020.As recently as May 18, a 14-year-old black boy was killed during a Federal Police operation in the Complexo Salgueiro favelas. The teenager, Joao Pedro Pinto, was at home with cousins when police broke into his house, allegedly pursuing drug traffickers, and shot him dead. The protest in Rio de Janeiro called “Black Lives Matter,” was interrupted when police used tear gas to disperse people.  In 2019 Rio’s police, one of the deadliest law enforcement units in Brazil, killed 1,546 people during police operations. That was the highest number since 1998 in the country, and most of the killings took place in favelas. 
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Christo, known for massive, ephemeral public arts projects died Sunday at his home in New York. He was 84.His death was announced on Twitter and the artist’s web page. No cause of death was given.Along with late wife Jeanne-Claude, the artists’ careers were defined by their ambitious art projects that quickly disappeared soon after they were erected. In 2005, he installed more than 7,500 vinyl gates in New York’s Central Park and wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin in fabric with an aluminum sheen in 1995. Their $26 million Umbrellas project erected 1,340 blue umbrellas installed in Japan and 1,760 blue umbrellas in Southern California in 1991.The statement said the artist’s next project, L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, is slated to appear in September in Paris as planned. An exhibition about Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work is also scheduled to run from July through October at the Centre Georges Pompidou.FILE – In this June 16, 2016, photo, artist Christo Vladimirov Javacheff walks on his monumental installation ‘The Floating Piers’ he created with late Jeanne-Claude during a press preview at the lake Iseo, northern Italy.”Christo lived his life to the fullest, not only dreaming up what seemed impossible but realizing it,” his office said in a statement. “Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s artwork brought people together in shared experiences across the globe, and their work lives on in our hearts and memories.”Born in Bulgaria in 1935, Christo Vladimirov Javacheff studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Sofia before moving to Prague in 1957, then Vienna, then Geneva. It was in Paris in 1958 where he met Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon. They were born on the same day (June 13) in the same year (1935), and, according to him, “In the same moment” and would become partners in life and art.Christo was already wrapping smaller found objects, like cars and furniture. After he met Jeanne-Claude, their scale broadened. Within three years they were working together on an installation of oil drums and tarp on the docks in Cologne.Although their large-scale outdoor and indoor projects were collaborative, they were all credited solely to Christo until 1994, when they revealed Jeanne-Claude’s contributions. The decision, they said, was theirs and deliberate since it was difficult enough for even one artist to make a name for himself.The pair moved to New York in 1964, where they liked to say that they were illegal aliens in an illegal building in SoHo for a few years. They eventually bought that building and would call the city home for the rest of their lives.Jeanne-Claude died in 2009 at age 74 from complications of a brain aneurysm. After her death, Christo said she was argumentative and very critical and always asking questions and he missed all of that very much.In a 2018 interview with The Art Newspaper, Christo spoke about his signature wrapping aesthetic. In the instance of the Reichstag, he said, covering it with fabric made the Victorian sculptures, ornament and decoration disappear and “highlight the principal proportion of architecture.””But, like classical sculpture, all our wrapped projects are not solid buildings; they are moving with the wind, they are breathing,” he said. “The fabric is very sensual and inviting; it’s like a skin.”The two made a point of paying for all of their works on their own and did not accept scholarship or donations.”I like to be absolutely free, to be totally irrational with no justification for what I like to do,” he said. “I will not give up one centimeter of my freedom for anything.” 
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Peaceful protesting has descended into looting, arson and other violence across the United States following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, despite curfews and an increase in law enforcement on the streets of most major U.S. cities, simmering racial tensions have reached a boiling point. 
Produced by: Kane Farabaugh 
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New York City officials were looking for a peaceful way forward as the city entered a fourth day of protests against police brutality that have left police cars burned and led to the arrest of hundreds of people.Mayor Bill de Blasio said he had no plans to impose a curfew Sunday, unlike other major U.S. cities, and smaller cities throughout the state.De Blasio said city police showed “tremendous restraint overall” during the weekend’s protests, but promised an investigation of video showing two police cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators on a Brooklyn street. He was appointing two city officials to conduct an independent review of how the protests unfolded and how they were handled by the police.”We all better get back to the humanity here,” de Blasio said at a Sunday morning briefing. “The protesters are human beings. They need to be treated with tremendous respect. The police officers are human beings. They need to be treated with tremendous respect.”Hours after he spoke, demonstrations resumed. Hundreds of people gathered on a plaza in downtown Brooklyn, chanting “No justice, no peace,” and “Black lives matter,” while making occasional insulting hand gestures at a line of police officers protecting the arena where the NBA’s Nets play. Marchers chanted “Hands up, don’t shoot” — a rallying cry that originated from the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri — during a separate rally in Queens.  Police detain protesters as they march down the street during a solidarity rally for George Floyd, May 30, 2020, in New York.Largely peaceful protests around the city Saturday gave way to scattered clashes between police and protesters later in the evening. Demonstrators smashed shop windows, threw objects at officers, set police vehicles on fire and blocked roads. Graffiti was scrawled on Manhattan’s famed St. Patrick’s Cathedral.There were multiple complaints about police unnecessarily shoving or bludgeoning protesters and spraying crowds with chemicals.New York City police said 345 people were arrested, 33 officers were injured and 27 police vehicles were damaged or destroyed by fire. There were no major injuries reported. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said some peaceful demonstrations were “hijacked” by people with violent intent.”We’re going to make sure that everyone has the right to peacefully protest and assemble,” Shea said said at a briefing with the mayor. “But we are not going to tolerate destruction of property, having our officers put into harm’s way or any civilians put into harm’s way.”Similar protests flared around the nation in response to the Minnesota death of George Floyd. Floyd, who was black, died Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing. Elsewhere in New York, shop windows were shattered in Rochester and demonstrators set fire to a tractor trailer in Albany. In Buffalo, a person threw a flaming object though a city hall window.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the National Guard is on standby and that hundreds of additional troopers are being made available in Buffalo and Rochester, where hundreds of people showed Sunday to help clean up the damage.”We expect additional protests tonight and we’re preparing for such,” Cuomo said at his daily briefing.The governor also said state Attorney General Letitia James’s investigation into actions by NYPD officers and protesters will include any protests held throughout the weekend.Protesters clash with New York police officers during a demonstration, May 30, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York.Cleanup was under way Sunday morning in New York City, which is still under a lockdown enacted two months ago  when it became the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.At least five burned-out NYPD vehicles that remained near Manhattan’s Union Square were towed early Sunday afternoon. People walked around broken glass on the street to take pictures of the vehicles.A handful of protesters rallied peacefully in the square, holding Black Lives Matter signs and giving speeches denouncing police violence while families were picnicking nearby.  Ken Kidd, who lives a few blocks south of the park, was among the people inspecting the damage to the vehicles and had witnessed Saturday’s demonstrations. He said protesters and police tried to remain peaceful at the start before the stress of a city heavily hit by the coronavirus came out.”I think a community can only say ‘Enough’ so many times and the words aren’t heard so then they got to take action and that’s what happened last night. That’s what I watched happen last night,” Kidd said.The independent review ordered by de Blasio will be conducted by New York City Corporation Counsel James Johnson, who is the city’s chief lawyer, and Margaret Garnett, commissioner of the Department of Investigation, which typically investigates suspected wrongdoing and fraud by city employees.
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