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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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Chicago officials took extraordinary steps Sunday to patrol and restrict access to the city’s downtown in the hopes of preventing further chaos after a night of tense protests over the death of George Floyd that included violent clashes, hundreds of arrests and smashed windows at stores and banks.Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who had already ordered an indefinite nightly 9 p.m. curfew, said the Illinois National Guard had been requested to help keep order. She said only essential workers would be allowed into the central business district, city trains and bus service would be suspended, major streets would be blocked with city sanitation trucks and Chicago River drawbridges allowing pedestrians and vehicles into downtown would remain lifted.  “Seeing the murder of George Floyd sickened me and it still does,” Lightfoot said at a news conference, taking several breaks to compose herself. “But rather than respond to his death as we should and focus our energy toward doing the hard work to create the change that we need, we have instead been forced to turn our focus and energy toward preventing wanton violence and destruction”  She called for a 5 p.m. moment of silence for Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died last Monday  after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes as he pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. That officer, Derek Chauvin, and the three others who were arresting Floyd have been fired, but only Chauvin has been charged — he faces counts of third-degree murder and manslaughter.Floyd’s death and the broader issue of the treatment of black people by police inspired protests in dozens of cities throughout the country, including other Illinois communities such as Peoria and Rockford.A pedestrian looks into a 7-Eleven store early Sunday morning, May 31, 2020 in Chicago, after a night of unrest and protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis.More protests were planned for Sunday in Chicago and Lightfoot said city officials were working with activists to find alternate locations to downtown where they could demonstrate. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he would activate 375 Illinois National Guard soldiers to assist local law enforcement.  The downtown Chicago demonstrations that drew thousands started peacefully Saturday afternoon in a plaza, with protesters reading the names of black people who have died at the hands of police. But that gave way to violence and destruction that continued overnight Sunday in Chicago and elsewhere.Police used batons to beat back demonstrators as police cars were set ablaze and windows were smashed at businesses ranging from neighborhood convenience stores to high-end Michigan Avenue shops.  At least six people were shot, one fatally, in four shootings during the chaos. A 26-year-old man was shot and killed after getting into a verbal exchange with a suspect who got out of a car.  There were 240 arrests, according to Police Superintendent David Brown. He said 20 police officers were injured, including two who will require surgery.  City officials suggested that the vandalism had been a coordinated effort, which required the city to take the extra steps to prevent further destruction.  “This was not a First Amendment protest,” Brown said. “‘This was a synchronized strategy to loot and burn and destroy.”Still, some protesters questioned certain restrictions, saying Lightfoot’s late Saturday curfew didn’t allow enough time to safely exit downtown because many streets were blocked and public transportation had been restricted. The American Civil Liberties of Union of Illinois said an indefinite curfew raised “serious constitutional questions that need to be remedied” and said it was considering taking legal action.Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor, defended her response as necessary for safety.  City officials said they were still assessing the damage and didn’t have a monetary estimate ready. Among the businesses burned in the chaos was Central Camera, a family-owned store that has been operating downtown since 1899.  “I’m going to rebuild and make it just as good or better, so I’m not depressed at all,” owner Don Flesch told WBBM-TV.Volunteers swept up broken glass and cleaned debris Sunday. Among them was Michelle Eleby, who was cleaning up outside a downtown Macy’s store where several windows had been broken.  The 42-year-old biracial woman said Floyd’s death was “enraging” particularly as she lives in fear of racial profiling for herself and family members. Her father is black and her mother is white.  “I needed to do something,” she said of her motivations to clean up. “We can’t sit back and hope the solution is going to come.”___Follow Sophia Tareen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiatareen
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U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Sunday that it was an “absolute outrage” that three policemen in Minneapolis, Minnesota, stood by and watched without intervening last week as another policeman pinned a black man to the street with a knee to his neck as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who was handcuffed and lying on the street after he was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, died in the incident last Monday. Derek Chauvin, the white policeman who held him down for minutes, was charged Friday with third degree murder in the case.Video of the incident was aired widely on social media and network newscasts, sparking five days of protests in the United States in dozens of cities. The demonstrations have often erupted in chaos, with protesters setting police cars and government buildings afire and clashing with authorities in riot gear. Looters have ransacked stores and run off with high-priced consumer products.This photo provided by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office shows former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, who was arrested Friday, May 29, 2020, in the Memorial Day death of George Floyd.Chauvin and his three police colleagues at the scene were all fired from the city’s police force. The three policemen who watched the incident unfold are under investigation, but no charges have been filed against them.“What were they thinking?” O’Brien asked on ABC News’ “This Week” show. O’Brien said he was not prejudging the case against the three former policemen, but said, “I can’t imagine they won’t be charged.”O’Brien said the U.S. government mourns Floyd’s death and prays for the Floyd family.“That should never have happened in America,” he said.In an interview on CNN, O’Brien questioned why Chauvin, whom he called a “dirty cop,” was still on the Minneapolis police force at the time of the Floyd incident after multiple complaints had been filed against him in recent years.“We love our law enforcement” in the U.S., O’Brien said. He rejected the suggestion there is “systemic racism” in U.S. police forces, while acknowledging that “there are some bad cops that need to be rooted out. We’ve got a few bad apples that give law enforcement a bad name. I think they are the minority.”A person runs while a police vehicle is burning during a protest in Los Angeles, over the death of George Floyd, May 30, 2020.Some U.S. authorities have blamed both far-left and far-right provocateurs for the violence in cities from coast to coast, some of the worst in the country since perhaps the days of extended protests against the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s.While O’Brien told ABC, “We’ll keep our eyes out for anyone,” he blamed the radical leftist group Antifa for the violence.“This is Antifa, they’re crossing state lines,” to foment violence against police and destroy property, he said.“This has to stop,” he said. “This Antifa violence has to stop.”A top Democrat, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said she has been told 80% of those arrested in the protests in Minneapolis were not local residents, but came from other places outside Minnesota, an upper Midwestern state.In the adjoining St. Paul, Minnesota, Mayor Melvin Carter told CNN it became obvious that some people rioting and looting in his city were “not driven by a love for our community.”O’Brien said on CNN, “Who know where they come from,” but vowed, “We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”FILE – An Atlanta Police Department vehicle burns during a demonstration against police violence, May 29, 2020 in Atlanta.Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” show that some of the protesters in her southern city also were unknown to her.“You know, I can’t say who they are,” Bottoms said. “It looked differently racially in our city than our normal protests looked. And it was — it was just — it was a different group. So, we don’t know who they were, but many of them were not locally based. I’ll say that.”O’Brien named four countries — China, Russia, Zimbabwe and Iran — that have cast the U.S. in unfavorable terms because of the death of Floyd and the ensuing violent demonstrations — all coming in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and economic turmoil it has created. More than 40 million workers, about a quarter of the U.S. labor force, have been laid off.But O’Brien said the U.S., where peaceful protests remain a bedrock of the nation’s democratic principles, is not like authoritarian countries where police often arrest even non-violent anti-government demonstrators.“That’s what makes America different from other countries,” he said.O’Brien said other countries casting aspersions on the U.S. “aren’t going to take advantage of us. We stand with the peaceful protesters. We want peaceful
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Volunteers were using shovels and brooms on Sunday to clean up broken glass outside at least five stores at an upscale mall in a Phoenix suburb damaged after a day of peaceful marches turned into a night of sometimes violent protests that included vandalism and an attack on a police station. Protests have erupted in U.S. cities in the days after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing. On Saturday night, people knelt with their hands up in the streets outside Phoenix police and municipal buildings, chanting, “Hands up, don’t shoot” and “Black lives matter.” Officers used flash-bang grenades and dispersed the crowd shortly after 10 p.m., telling people it was an unlawful assembly. In the upscale Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, some people smashed windows at stores including Neiman Marcus and Urban Outfitters, grabbing goods and damaging buildings. Police had tweeted at 10:52 p.m. Saturday that an unlawful assembly had been declared after large groups appeared to damage and loot a number of stores in and around Scottsdale Fashion Square. On Sunday morning, TV station video showed large holes punched in some store windows with the glass completely shattered in the front windows of other stores. There were no immediate report of any arrests made or damage estimates. Protests during daylight were largely peaceful in Phoenix and Tucson. Friday’s protest unfolded after a vigil for Dion Johnson, a 28-year-old black man who was fatally shot Monday during an encounter with state trooper along a Phoenix freeway. Around 15 downtown Phoenix buildings, including the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse, sustained broken windows, according to authorities. Protesters also slashed the tires of seven police SUVs and attempted to set one vehicle on fire. Two people were arrested. Cleanup crews spent Saturday sweeping up broken glass and power-washing spray-painted buildings after Friday night protests. Gov. Doug Ducey said in a statement that he and the state Department of Public Safety director respected protesters’ rights to assemble. “We will not, however, tolerate rioting, looting, violence, destruction of property or any behavior that endangers the safety or rights of other individuals,” said Ducey, who made no mention of the deaths of Floyd or Johnson. Johnson was shot during a struggle after a trooper found him passed out in his vehicle, authorities say. Phoenix police are investigating. Johnson’s mother, Erma, told the Arizona Republic that her son never would have engaged in a struggle with police, and she questioned the police account. “It’s a lot of things that I want to know that happened to my son in the last minutes of his life,” she said. 
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Pope Francis cheerfully greeted people in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, as he resumed his practice of speaking to the faithful there for the first time since a coronavirus lockdown began in Italy and at the Vatican in early March.“Today the square is open, we can return to it with pleasure,’’ Francis said.Instead of the tens of thousands of people who might have turned out on a similarly brilliantly sunny day like in pre-pandemic times, perhaps a few hundred came to the square on Sunday, standing well apart from others or in small family groups.Until June 3, people aren’t allowed to travel between regions in Italy or arrive from abroad for tourism, so the people in the square came from Rome or places in the region.Francis cited those who have been infected by the virus or who died in the Amazon region, especially the “particularly vulnerable” indigenous people. He prayed that no one in the world lack medical assistance, especially due to economic priorities.“Persons are more important than the economy,” Francis said.Noting this was the first time he could greet people in the square for weeks, Francis said that “one doesn’t emerge from a crisis the same. You either come out better or you come out worse.” He said he’d be back to greet them next Sunday in the same place at noon, smiling and pointing down to the vast square far below his studio window. 
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Protesters demonstrating against the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck, targeted Confederate monuments in multiple cities.As tense protests swelled across the country Saturday into Sunday morning, monuments in Virginia, the Carolinas and Mississippi were defaced. The presence of Confederate monuments across the South — and elsewhere in the United States — has been challenged for years, and some of the monuments targeted were already under consideration for removal.The words “spiritual genocide,” along with red handprints, were painted on the sides of a Confederate monument on the University of Mississippi campus Saturday, The Oxford Eagle reported. One person was arrested at the scene. Ole Miss administrators, student leaders and faculty leaders have recommended moving the statue — installed in 1906 and a rallying point in 1962 for people who rioted to oppose the university’s court-ordered integration — from a central spot to a Civil War cemetery that’s in a more secluded location on campus, but the state College Board has delayed action.Critics have said its display near the university’s main administrative building sends a signal that Ole Miss glorifies the Confederacy and glosses over the South’s history of slavery.In Charleston, South Carolina, protesters defaced a Confederate statue near The Battery, a historic area on the coastal city’s southern tip. The base of the Confederate Defenders statue, erected in 1932, was spray-painted, including with the words “BLM” and “traitors,” news outlets reported. It was later covered with tarp, photos show.In North Carolina, the base of a Confederate monument at the State Capitol was marked with a black X and a shorthand for a phrase expressing contempt for police, according to a photo posted by a News & Observer journalist to social media. The word “racist” was also marked on the monument, the newspaper reported.The question of Confederate monuments has been especially contentious in North Carolina, where such monuments are generally protected by law.A nearly two-year battle was waged over the fate of the “Silent Sam” statue after it was toppled by protesters at the University of North Carolina’s flagship Chapel Hill campus in 2018. A legal agreement reached last November handed over the statue to a group of Confederate descendants, keeping it off campus. A Confederate statue outside a Durham courthouse was also torn down by protesters.Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper had asked for the three Confederate monuments on the grounds of the Capitol to be moved to a nearby battlefield; a state historical panel voted in 2018 to keep the statues, but add context about slavery and civil rights. Statues in Winston-Salem and Chatham County were removed last year in rare moves.But the state where the debate over Confederate monuments has perhaps attracted the most attention is Virginia, where a 2017 white nationalist rally over Charlottesville’s proposed removal of such monuments turned deadly.In the coastal city of Norfolk, protesters climbed a Confederate monument and spray-painted graffiti on its base, according to photos posted by a Virginian-Pilot journalist. Norfolk is among the Virginia cities that have signaled intent to remove their Confederate monuments. In February, state lawmakers approved legislation that would give cities autonomy to do so.A commission in Richmond, the state capital and what was the capital of the Confederacy, recommended removing one of five Confederate statues along the city’s famed Monument Avenue. Photos posted to social media late Saturday and early Sunday showed the bases of at least two statues — those of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart — almost entirely covered in graffiti.Nearby, a fire burned for a time at the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group responsible for erecting many Confederate statues and fighting their removal. The building, too, was covered in graffiti, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.In Tennessee and Pennsylvania, statues of people criticized for racist views, but without Confederate ties were also targeted.Protesters in Nashville toppled Saturday a statue of Edward Carmack, a state lawmaker in the early 1900s and newspaper publisher who had racist views and wrote editorials lambasting the writings of prominent Tennessee civil rights journalist Ida B. Wells, The Tennessean reported.Protesters sprayed graffiti on a statue of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, tried to topple it and set a fire at its base. Rizzo, mayor from 1972 to 1980, was praised by supporters as tough on crime but accused by critics of discriminating against minorities. His 10-foot-tall (3-meter-tall) bronze statue across from City Hall has been defaced before and is to be moved next year. 
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Midnight violence erupted within two blocks of the White House on Saturday night while U.S. Park Police, the Secret Service and the National Guard defended a perimeter around nearby Lafayette Square.As pepper spray pushed back hundreds of protesters, vandals smashed windows of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in the 1400 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, and a PNC bank was vandalized.Small fires were set inside two restaurants by looters across the street from the White House Historical Association, off Lafayette Square, and multistory scaffolding was also set on fire in a portion of the nearby U.S. Chamber of Commerce building under construction.Several vehicles parked on streets in the neighborhood were also vandalized and set alight.The Washington fire department responded to the larger fires, but witnesses said local police were conspicuously absent as the vandalism occurred, some of it playing out on live local and national television.The scene in downtown Washington on Saturday night and into Sunday morning mirrored events in dozens of other American cities.The unrest followed what had been generally peaceful protests across the country in the days after the death in Milwaukee of 46-year-old George Floyd, an African American man who was pinned to the ground for more than eight minutes by a white police officer who knelt on his neck.A firework explodes by a police line as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, May 30, 2020, near the White House in Washington.Curfews have been imposed in at least 25 cities in 16 U.S. states.In Washington late Friday and early Saturday, protesters between Lafayette Square and the White House threw bricks and rocks at uniformed Secret Service officers while demonstrators repeatedly knocked over security barriers on Pennsylvania Avenue.Numerous officers and agents were injured, according to the Secret Service.“No individual crossed the White House Fence and no Secret Service protectees were ever in danger,” according to a Secret Service statement.The protective perimeter around the White House was enlarged on Saturday to a roughly six-block area.President Donald Trump, who was in the White House both Friday and Saturday night, praised the initial Secret Service response and tweeted that if demonstrators had come any closer on Friday night the authorities would have responded with “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons.”Trump said Secret Service agents told him they were clamoring for engagement with the demonstrators.“We put the young ones on the front line, sir, they love it, and good practice,” he quoted them as saying.Trump appeared to invite his supporters to amass on Saturday to counter the protesters.“Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???” he tweeted, using the acronym for his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”No such crowd of the president’s supporters appeared.“I call upon on our city and our nation to exercise great restraint even while the president tries to divide us,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said Saturday.Trump, on Saturday, blamed the mayor for withholding Washington police assistance in Lafayette Park. The Secret Service, however, said the local police had been on the scene.“The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters, looters, and anarchists,” said Trump in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday. “The violence and vandalism is being led by Antifa and other radical left-wing groups who are terrorizing the innocent, destroying jobs, hurting businesses, and burning down buildings.”The president, who went to Florida to witnesses the first launch into space of NASA astronauts aboard a commercial craft, said the government will not “give into anarchy, abandon police precincts, or allow communities to be burned to the ground. It won’t happen.”  
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The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists Saturday condemned reported attacks by police and protesters against journalists covering the demonstrations across the country that erupted after the Monday death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an African American, in police custody.“Targeted attacks on journalists, media crews, and news organizations covering the demonstrations show a complete disregard for their critical role in documenting issues of public interest and are an unacceptable attempt to intimidate them,” CPJ program director Carlos Martínez de la Serna said in the statement.The journalist rights group called on city authorities across the nation “to instruct police not to target journalists and ensure they can report safely on the protests without fear of injury or retaliation.”Meanwhile, the CPJ is investigating reports of attacks on and arrests of journalists in Atlanta; Las Vegas; Louisville, Kentucky; and Washington covering the unrest.Also Saturday, the Society of Professional Journalists tweeted an open letter asking protesters and police not to attack or harass journalists.”Before taking any aggressive action toward us, take a moment, take a breath, and decide to do the right thing and let us do our jobs,” the letter read in part.Protesters: Please don’t attack or harass journalists covering #protests. They want to hear and tell YOUR stories. Please read this open letter. #StPaulProtest#PhoenixProtest#ColumbusProtest#SanJoseProtest#BrooklynProtest#GeorgeFloyd#Protesthttps://t.co/cGscEtiyi9pic.twitter.com/Ozl74PqMsM— Society of Professional Journalists (@spj_tweets) May 31, 2020 
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The rioting in the U.S. city of Minneapolis after the death of a black man in police custody is just the latest incident of racially charged mayhem to mark the United States since the 1960s.1965: Los AngelesAn identity check by police on two black men in a car sparks the Watts riots, August 11-17, 1965, in Los Angeles, which leave 34 dead and tens of millions of dollars’ worth of damage.The trouble starts when Marquette Frye and his half brother are stopped by police and taken in for questioning. Several thousand blacks surround the police station and, after a week of arson and looting, the Watts neighborhood is all but destroyed.1967: NewarkTwo white police officers arrest and beat up a black taxi driver for a minor traffic violation, setting off rioting July 12-17 in Newark, New Jersey. For five days, in stifling summer heat, rioters wreck the district, leaving 26 dead and 1,500 injured.1967: DetroitRace riots in Detroit, Michigan, July 23-27, 1967, kill 43 and leave more than 2,000 injured. Trouble spreads to Illinois, North Carolina, Tennessee and Maryland.1968: King assassinationAfter the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, violence erupts in 125 cities April 4-11, 1968, leaving at least 46 dead and 2,600 injured. In Washington, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson sends in the 82nd Airborne Division to quell riots.1980: MiamiThe acquittal of four white police officers in Tampa, Florida, on charges of beating a black motorcyclist to death in December 1979 after he rode through a red light sets off a wave of violence in Miami’s Liberty City, May 17-20, 1980, leaving 18 dead and more than 300 injured.1992: Los AngelesFrom April 30 to May 1, 1992, riots erupt in Los Angeles, with a toll of at least 59 dead and more than 2,300 injured. The violence was set off by the acquittal of four white police officers who were filmed beating up a black motorist, Rodney King. Violence also breaks out in Atlanta, California, Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco and San Jose.2001: CincinnatiOn April 9, 2001, rioting erupts in Cincinnati, Ohio, after the killing of a 19-year-old black man, Timothy Thomas, by a white police officer.Mayor Charlie Luken lifts a four-night curfew on the city on April 16, after the city’s worst rioting in more than 30 years, during which 70 people are injured.2014: FergusonTen days of protests and riots and heavy-handed police tactics in Ferguson, Missouri, take place August 9-19, 2014, after a white officer kills an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown. In late November, the announcement that charges are being dropped against the police officer leads to a new explosion of anger.2015: BaltimoreOn April 19, 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, dies a week after suffering serious spinal injuries in a police van after being arrested by Baltimore officers.The arrest is captured on video and broadcast, leading to rioting and looting in Baltimore, a city of 620,000 inhabitants, of which nearly two-thirds are black. A state of emergency is declared and the authorities call in troops.2016: CharlotteIn September 2016, in Charlotte, North Carolina, sometimes violent protests break out over the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, 43.Police say the shooting happened when they saw him hold up a gun as they approached his vehicle after seeing him rolling a marijuana cigarette. His family says he was unarmed.The authorities impose a curfew and call in troops.
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As a nurse on the front lines of Mexico’s coronavirus battle, Gisela Hernandez has stayed away from her children for nearly two months, sleeping in a hotel and even her car to avoid infecting them because she feels inadequately protected at work.At night, she video calls Santiago, 5, and Renata, 9, who are both asthmatic, to hear about what they’ve done during the day and remind them how much she misses them.While Hernandez says she loves her work, and considers the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) in Mexico City her second home, she is also afraid of contracting the novel coronavirus. COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed 9,415 people in Mexico.“I don’t regret becoming a nurse, because I like to help my patients,” said Hernandez, 40, whose hospital is one of the city’s main treatment centers for COVID-19.But she said she is “scared of getting sick … scared of never seeing my kids again.”Health workers account for about a quarter of all of Mexico’s coronavirus infections, government data shows, one of the highest rates in the world. The risks are made worse by shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE).COVID-19 cases are surging in Latin America, which along with the United States is now an epicenter of the global pandemic. Frontline workers in Mexico City’s hospitals, including Hernandez, have taken to the streets to complain about the conditions. A national march is planned for Monday.INER, which has been at full capacity over the past week, said 49 of its workers have been infected at the hospital and another 54 have contracted the virus in the community, of which two have died.In a May 8 memo seen by Reuters, INER’s Biosafety Committee said a global PPE shortage would require workers to don reusable surgical uniforms and cloth hospital gowns, instead of disposable gear. The letter also told workers to use their N95 masks for full shifts.In response to requests for comment, the hospital shared with Reuters a statement it sent workers this week in which it said the measure regarding usage of masks was in line with World Health Organization advice. It also confirmed that workers were instructed to use non-disposable gowns and uniforms.“To date, no sterilized N95 masks have been reused.”However, a video seen by Reuters shows an official at INER telling staff to reuse sterilized N95 masks.“We exploded when we were told we were going to recycle the N95s,” said Alejandro Cabrera, an INER nurse with two decades of experience.Cabrera said workers are required to put their names on masks so the gear can be sent off for sterilization. “It’s terrible!” he said.Heavy TollMexico ranks eighth in the world in COVID-19 deaths, with Mexico City and a neighboring state accounting for some 40 percent of the country’s fatalities.The Mexican government says it needs another 6,600 doctors and 23,000 nurses to battle the crisis, a shortage exacerbated by the high infection rate among medical staff — 11,394 health workers had contracted the virus and 149 had died as of May 17.Medical professionals had accounted for 23 percent of all of the country’s infections as of that date. That compares to 3.7 percent in the United States, according to data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week.Despite the danger, Hernandez is doing her part to combat the disease.She points to a box of chocolates and a yellow note from the family of one of her patients thanking and encouraging her to keep “working to save lives.”“That’s one of the reasons I love my job so much, and despite the risks I still enjoy taking care of my patients,” she said. 
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Officials in India say some shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and religious places will be allowed to reopen after the COVID-19 lockdown, although the worst-hit regions could remain in lockdown for another month.With cases of coronavirus reaching new highs in recent days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the “battle will stretch on” and appealed to people to follow all lockdown rules to stop the spread of the virus.“Our country is besieged with problems amidst a vast population and limited resources,” Modi said in an open letter to the nation Saturday marking one year of his government’s second term.Bit of optimismAt the same time he sounded an optimistic note, asserting that India was on the path to “victory” in its battle against the coronavirus and would set an example in “economic revival” following a two-month shutdown of most of the nation’s businesses.The decision to open more of India’s economy came as the country recorded its highest jump in COVID-19 cases Friday, adding nearly 8,000 new infections. The world’s second most populous country now has 174,000 cases and is among the 10 most affected countries in the world. Nearly 5,000 people have died, and health experts have warned that the pandemic’s peak has not yet been reached.Health workers in personal protective suits ferry the body of a man who died of COVID-19 on a handcart for cremation in New Delhi, India, May 28, 2020.Government officials say that a lockdown imposed on March 25, when India had only 500 cases, has helped prevent many infections and has given the country time to prepare to cope with the pandemic. But with the economy stalled for nearly two months, most experts say India needs to return to business as usual and learn to “live” with the virus.Although authorities allowed some shops to reopen this month and resumed limited train service and domestic flights, much of the country still remains shuttered.OpeningsThat could change starting June 8, when some shopping malls, restaurants and other hospitality services will be allowed to open.  Educational institutions, however, will remain shut for another month.So far, more than 70% of coronavirus cases in India are concentrated in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan states, plus Delhi. But as hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, who were stuck in cities without jobs and money when India announced its lockdown, return to their villages, there are fears that the infection could spread into the countryside.The pandemic has led to millions of job losses, particularly in the unorganized sector, which accounts for 80 percent of the workforce.In his letter to the nation, the prime minister acknowledged that “laborers, migrant workers, artisans and craftsmen in small-scale industries, hawkers, cart pushers and such fellow countrymen have suffered immensely. However, we have to take care to ensure that inconveniences that we are facing do not turn into disasters.”
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Ten police officers and three civilians are missing following an attack by the outlawed Arakan Army (AA) against a Burmese border patrol station in Rakhine state, Myanmar’s military confirmed to VOA.Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, spokesperson for the Myanmar military, told VOA that the three civilians were members of one family and included one child. He said the outpost, located on the Mayu River’s bank in Rathaetaung Township of Northern Rakhine state, was hosting “very few” security personnel during Friday’s AA assault.“Some 100 AA terrorist insurgents attacked a border guard outpost at 2 a.m. this morning in Thazin Myaing village of Rathaetaung Township,” said Zaw Min Tun.“AA attacks soft targets like this small-sized outpost which protects ethnic villages in the area,” he added.Burma map, state of RakhineThazin Myaing village is home to Rakhine ethnic natives, also referred to as the Arakan people. The village’s police station was reportedly set ablaze along with nearby villages during the 2015-17 communal violence in the region.The outpost attacked Friday was built “at villagers’ request to protect their safety,” said the military spokesman. He added that the AA attack constituted a “war crime.”Founded in 2009 by Rakhine Buddhists who seek self-governance, the AA has been fighting government forces in sporadic skirmishes that began escalating in late 2018.The Myanmar government in late March designated the group and its political arm, the United League of Arakan (ULA), as terrorist organizations.President Win Myint in the designation order said AA posed “a danger to law and order, peace and stability of the country and public peace.”However, the group says it aims to protect “our Arakan people” against crackdowns by the central government in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar. It has claimed in the past to have recruited about 7,000 native ethnic people into its ranks and formed alliances with other anti-government forces in the region.RetaliationThe AA spokesman, Khine Thukha, told VOA that the Friday assault on the Thazin Myaing outpost was in retaliation for a military attack on Sunday against an AA medical camp near Paletwa, Chin state, which, according to him, had left patients dead and injured.Khine Thukha claimed that the outpost was assisting Myanmar’s military operations against the AA. He told VOA there were casualties among the military, with the AA fighters seizing 14 small armaments, including one rocket-propelled grenade, from that post.“After thorough investigation of the detainees, civilians will be released immediately,” he added.Meanwhile, hours after the Thazin Myaing post attack Friday, an AA ally, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), said it had intercepted a military convoy. The attack near Nan-kut village of Kutkai Township in Northern Shan state reportedly closed the Union Highway, a trade highway on Myanmar’s border with China.Confirming the attack, military spokesman Zaw Min Tun said clashes between the military and the TNLA broke out after a roadside bomb hit the security convoy on the highway. He said the military had no casualties, but its vehicle was damaged “slightly.”TNLA spokesperson Major Ta Eike Kyaw told VOA that clashes started at 10 a.m. local time and lasted for an hour. He said there were no casualties among the TNLA.A Kutkai resident who did not want his identity disclosed told VOA that highway toll gates remained closed hours after the attack.“We are frustrated with COVID-19 restrictions and now another terrible situation has turned up,” the resident said.Ethnic, religious strifeMyanmar has faced a series of ethnic and religious issues since its independence from the British rule in 1948. The central government and militias of various ethnic groups in 2015 signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in an effort to end decades of ethnic conflict in the Burmese-majority country through dialogue. However, these attempts have largely failed to end militant insurgency, with some areas, such as Rakhine state, sliding further into violent conflict.Rakhine state drew international attention in August 2017 when the Myanmar army started a deadly campaign against Rohingya Muslims that prompted nearly 1 million people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The army campaign has been described by the U.N. as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”VOA Burmese’s Moe Zaw contributed to this report from Yangon, Myanmar.
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Protesters blocked a downtown St. Louis interstate, set a fire in the road and broke into trucks in a demonstration over the death of a black Minneapolis man after a white police officer knelt on his neck. One St. Louis protester died early Saturday.Protesters blocked I-44 for nearly three hours after taking to the streets Friday night, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.  The protester who died had climbed between two trailers of a Fed Ex truck and was killed when it drove away. Police said they were investigating.  The crowd dispersed after a few gunshots were fired. Police did not report any arrests.The white Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck was arrested on murder charges Friday.Floyd’s death has sparked protests across the United States and fires and looting in Minneapolis. Tensions between police and minority residents have lingered in the St. Louis area since the 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.  In Kansas City, Missouri, police used pepper spray on people marching through its Westport bar-and-entertainment district Friday night, The Kansas City Star reports. Police said a window was broken and protesters appeared ready to use a police barricade to do more damage.  On Saturday, managers of the Country Club Plaza, a shopping and entertainment district that has become a gathering place for protesters, announced on social media and their website that the district would close at 4 p.m. Saturday and remain closed Sunday because of planned protests.
 
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Houston police say nearly 200 people were arrested and four officers were injured during protests over the death of Houston native George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.  Those arrested “participated in unlawful assemblies, Police Chief Art Acevedo said Saturday on Twitter.  “Most will be charged with obstructing a roadway,”The four officers suffered minor injuries and eight police cars were damaged during the protests, according to Acevedo.Protesters also blocked a Dallas interstate and one officer suffered non-life threatening injuries, police said on Twitter.Police in both cities also used pepper spray and tear gas to disperse crowds that numbered in the hundreds.Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall said officers were making sure the protest was peaceful when violence began.”Then all of a sudden bricks start hailing, hitting our squad cars, hitting the officers … I almost got hit with a brick,” Hall said.It was not clear how many were arrested in Dallas and police did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Saturday.Protests have spread across the U.S., fueled by outrage over Floyd’s death. On Friday, the white Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck was arrested and charged with murder.
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Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement Saturday in which they expressed “regret” about the United States decision to end sanctions waivers for Iranian civilian nuclear projects intended to prevent weapons development.  “We deeply regret the decision by the United States to end the three exemptions for key nuclear projects of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), including the Arak reactor modernization project,” the statement said.”These projects, including the Arak reactor modernization project, endorsed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, have served the non-proliferation interests of all and provide the international community with assurances of the exclusively peaceful and safe nature of Iranian nuclear activities,” the three counties said.
Wednesday the United States announced the end of the waivers, which had allowed the continuation of projects related to Iran’s civil nuclear program, even though the Trump administration abandoned the 2015 international plan of action in 2018.Under the waivers Russian, Chinese and European companies worked on the conversion of Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor to civilian purposes and on the transfer of nuclear fuel abroad.
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A Royal Commission has begun its investigation into Australia’s devastating summer bushfires.  Hearings this week in Canberra have focused on climate change, as well as the impact of the fires on health and wildlife.Parts of Australia are some of the most fire-prone regions in the world.  The task of the Royal Commission, the nation’s highest form of inquiry, is to help the driest inhabited continent become more resilient to bushfires and other natural disasters.  Experts have told the inquiry that toxic smoke from the Black Summer blazes killed almost 450 people and affected 80 per cent of Australia’s population.  The disaster destroyed more than 3,000 homes, burnt more than 12 million hectares of land, and led directly to the deaths of 33 people.   The role of climate change and land management, including the use of controlled burns in the cooler months to reduce the fire threat, is under scrutiny.  Also under examination are the government’s responsibilities during disasters to maintain essential services and infrastructure, and the impact on wildlife. Some estimates have suggested around one billion animals were killed in Australia’s bushfires.  Scientists fear that many threatened or endangered species might have been pushed inexorably towards extinction.Dr. Sally Box, the government’s Threatened Species Commissioner, has told the Royal Commission that vulnerable flora and fauna might never recover.“There are currently approximately 1,800 species listed as threatened under the EPBC (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation) Act, and more than 300 of these nationally-listed threatened species were in the path of the fire,” said Box. “49 threatened species had more than 80% of their known or likely range within the fire extent, and a further 65 threatened species had more than 50% of their known or likely range within the fire extent.  And this includes plants and mammals and birds and frogs and reptiles and fish and invertebrates.” Some experts believe the summer of devastation has signaled the start of a new age of fire in Australia that is driven by man-made changes to the landscape, the use of fossil fuels and global warming. Hearings at the Royal Commission will continue next week.  A final report is due by the end of August when southern Australia will be nervously awaiting the start of the next bushfire season.The previous season was unprecedented.  March 2 was the first time in 240 days that not a single wildfire was burning in Australia.The blazes have various forms of ignition, including lightning and arson as well as sparks from road accidents and faulty power lines. Many of the witnesses appearing before the commission are giving their evidence remotely via the internet because of COVID-19 physical distancing regulations. 
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