| A group of D.C. protesters now has a list of demands Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:49 PM PDT  As protests continue to erupt around the country, a group of three young African-American activists is attempting to link the demonstrations to a list of demands.
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| Trump tells NYC to activate National Guard: 'The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart!' Posted: 02 Jun 2020 09:44 AM PDT  After vowing Monday to deploy military force to restore order in states that fail to "dominate" unlawful demonstrations, President Trump on Tuesday all but ordered New York City to request help from the National Guard.
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| Minneapolis police chief filed a civil suit against the department in 2007 alleging discrimination against people of color, including black officers Posted: 02 Jun 2020 03:01 AM PDT  Minneapolis and its police force have a troubled history that extends beyond the death of George Floyd, according to new reports this week.
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| An 'ANTIFA' Twitter account that called for looting 'white hoods' was actually run by white nationalist group Identity Evropa Posted: 02 Jun 2020 07:18 AM PDT  Twitter said this isn't the first time that users linked to Identity Evropa have created fake accounts to spread "hateful content."
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| HSBC and StanChart back China security law for Hong Kong Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:51 AM PDT  HSBC and Standard Chartered banks gave their backing to China's imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong on Wednesday in a break from their usual policy of political neutrality. HSBC's Asia-Pacific Chief Executive Peter Wong signed a petition backing the law, the bank said. HSBC "respects and supports all laws that stabilise Hong Kong's social order," it said in a post on social media in China.
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| Bar owner won't face charges in fatal shooting of Omaha protester Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:25 AM PDT  In response to outrage on social media, the county attorney said there was no "racial tone" to conversations between the shooter and the victim.
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| Why The Middle East Fears Russia's Alpha Group Commandos Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:41 AM PDT  A 2018 report recommended just that.
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| Mystery Officers Patrolling D.C. Streets Are From Federal Prisons Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:38 PM PDT  The Justice Department has sent special operations teams from the Bureau of Prisons to support the Trump administration's response to protests in Washington, D.C., and Florida. In a statement to The Daily Beast, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson confirmed that they had deployed Crisis Management Teams in response to the protests. The teams include Special Operations response teams, "which are highly trained tactical units capable of responding to prison disturbances, and providing assistance to other law enforcement agencies during emergencies." Officers from the Bureau's Disturbance Control Teams, which "specialize in crowd control scenarios," have also been deployed.Speculation about the presence of special response teams from the agency grew online as residents and reporters noted the presence of law enforcement officials wearing tactical equipment placed around the city, many of whom refused to identify which agency they worked for.In one photo shared by MSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake, officers with shields labeled "corrections" and a shirt with an apparent Federal Bureau of Prisons Disturbance Control Team patch formed a perimeter preventing protesters from approaching the White House. Twitter users also noted officers wearing uniforms with logos for the Bureau of Prisons Special Operations Response Team stationed by the Washington Convention Center on K Street."Per the request of the Attorney General, the BOP has dispatched teams to Miami, Florida, and Washington, D.C.," the bureau said.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 2 dead after shooting at North Dakota air base Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:12 PM PDT  A shooting on Monday left two airmen dead at the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, the military said. The base's emergency services members responded to the shooting, which occurred at 4:30 a.m. Officials said there is no risk to other personnel, and the shooting remains under investigation.
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| Live: Obama hosts 'reimagining policing' town hall in wake of George Floyd's death Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:51 PM PDT  Former President Barack Obama will host a virtual town hall on Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET to address police violence amid nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd.
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| Cuomo lashes out at New York mayor and police after night of violence sees Macy's looted Posted: 02 Jun 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Manhattan's flagship Macy's store was among dozens of businesses hit by looters on Monday evening, as a nighttime curfew in New York failed to prevent widespread looting in the city.While peaceful protests and marches over the police killing of George Floyd were taking place across the city, roving groups caused chaos in Midtown, smashing their way into shops and stealing merchandise.
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| Greek demonstrators hurl firebombs towards U.S. embassy in Athens Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:18 AM PDT  Demonstrators hurled firebombs in a march towards the U.S. Embassy compound in Athens on Wednesday in a protest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Reuters journalists saw demonstrators throwing several flaming objects which erupted into flames on the street towards the heavily-guarded embassy in central Athens and police responding with rounds of teargas. Demonstrators were holding banners and placards reading "Black lives matter" and "I can't breathe".
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| Hong Kong to lead Tiananmen mourning despite virus vigil ban Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:38 PM PDT  Hong Kong will Thursday lead global remembrance of China's deadly Tiananmen crackdown, with people lighting candles in neighbourhoods across the restless city after authorities banned a mass vigil because of the coronavirus. Open discussion of the brutal suppression is forbidden inside China, where hundreds -- by some estimates more than a thousand -- died when the Communist Party sent tanks on June 4, 1989 to crush a student-led demonstration in Beijing calling for democratic reforms. This year's vigil was forbidden on public health grounds with restrictions placed on more than eight people gathering in public, to combat the coronavirus.
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| Missing Mexican congresswoman's body found a month after abduction Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:33 AM PDT  * Anel Bueno, 38, was snatched in Pacific coast town * Area important for drug cartels is country's murder capitalThe body of a missing Mexican congresswoman has been found in a shallow grave more than a month after she was abducted by armed men while raising awareness about the coronavirus pandemic.Anel Bueno, a 38-year-old lawmaker from the western state of Colima, was snatched on 29 April in Ixtlahuacán, a town on a stretch of Mexico's Pacific coast that the drug trade has made one of the country's most murderous regions.Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters on Wednesday a suspect had been detained over the killing of Bueno, who was a member of his party, Morena."We still don't know the causes," López Obrador added.Indira Vizcaíno, a local politician from the same party, tweeted: "Your departure hurts me deeply – I'm saddened not just by the fact but by the cruelty."Vizcaíno, another López Obrador ally, said authorities were fighting to catch the killers "and bring justice – for this case and all of our country's victims".Ixtlahuacán is a 30-minute drive from Tecomán, a picturesque seaside town that has earned the unenviable reputation as Mexico's most murderous municipality because of its strategic position for drug smuggling cartels.In 2017 Tecomán's murder rate of a reported 172.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants resembled that of a war zone. Last year more than 100 clandestine cemeteries were found there containing the bodies of those who had dared cross the cartels.Colima is one of five Mexican states the United States state department urges travellers against visiting.Calderón sends in the armyMexico's "war on drugs" began in late 2006 when the president at the time, Felipe Calderón, ordered thousands of troops onto the streets in response to an explosion of horrific violence in his native state of Michoacán.Calderón hoped to smash the drug cartels with his heavily militarized onslaught but the approach was counter-productive and exacted a catastrophic human toll. As Mexico's military went on the offensive, the body count sky-rocketed to new heights and tens of thousands were forced from their homes, disappeared or killed.Kingpin strategySimultaneously Calderón also began pursuing the so-called "kingpin strategy" by which authorities sought to decapitate the cartels by targeting their leaders.That policy resulted in some high-profile scalps – notably Arturo Beltrán Leyva who was gunned down by Mexican marines in 2009 – but also did little to bring peace. In fact, many believe such tactics served only to pulverize the world of organized crime, creating even more violence as new, less predictable factions squabbled for their piece of the pie.Under Calderón's successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, the government's rhetoric on crime softened as Mexico sought to shed its reputation as the headquarters of some the world's most murderous mafia groups.But Calderón's policies largely survived, with authorities targeting prominent cartel leaders such as Sinaloa's Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.When "El Chapo" was arrested in early 2016, Mexico's president bragged: "Mission accomplished". But the violence went on. By the time Peña Nieto left office in 2018, Mexico had suffered another record year of murders, with nearly 36,000 people slain."Hugs not bullets"The leftwing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power in December, promising a dramatic change in tactics. López Obrador, or Amlo as most call him, vowed to attack the social roots of crime, offering vocational training to more than 2.3 million disadvantaged young people at risk of being ensnared by the cartels. "It will be virtually impossible to achieve peace without justice and [social] welfare," Amlo said, promising to slash the murder rate from an average of 89 killings per day with his "hugs not bullets" doctrine.Amlo also pledged to chair daily 6am security meetings and create a 60,000 strong "National Guard". But those measures have yet to pay off, with the new security force used mostly to hunt Central American migrants.Mexico now suffers an average of about 96 murders per day, with nearly 29,000 people killed since Amlo took office.During a 2018 interview with the Guardian, Vizcaíno backed one of the key pledges López Obrador made to Mexicans ahead of his election that year – that efforts to combat organised crime would start to tackle the social roots of crime and no longer "just be a matter of fighting fire with fire"."Crime rates aren't going up because the people feel like being bad. Crime rates are going up because people need to eat," Vizcaíno said at a restaurant in Colima's capital that was the scene of a 2015 assassination attempt on its ex-governor.Bueno had been attempting to raise awareness of Covid-19 prevention techniques when armed men swept into the area on pickup trucks and ordered her inside.During a 2018 interview Tecomán's mayor, Elías Lozano, blamed the bloodshed blighting the region on "the lack of honest politicians"."That's the root of it all. Politicians had the choice of deciding between staying on the sidelines or getting involved – and many decided to get involved because there were economic benefits," he said.
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| Tear gas is banned from war — but police still shoot it at protesters, who cough and bleed as a result. At least one has lost an eye. Posted: 02 Jun 2020 11:55 AM PDT  Tear gas canisters can cause permanent injuries, and all the coughing and sneezing that tear gas prompts is bad news for coronavirus spread too.
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| Exclusive: Trump Administration Denied Iran Coronavirus Prisoner Swap Posted: 02 Jun 2020 08:22 AM PDT  "The United States has tried to deport Sirous Asgari since December 2019, but the Iranian government repeatedly has held up the process," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told the National Interest. "As the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed today, Mr. Asgari is not and has never been a participant in any prisoner swap with Iran."
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| America could move weapons stored on British soil if UK persists with Huawei, US senator warns Posted: 02 Jun 2020 11:56 PM PDT  America could move weapons stored on British soil if the UK allows Huawei to build its 5G network, a US senator has warned. Tom Cotton, the Republican senator for Arkansas who was called as a witness before the Defence Select Committee, warned that the case for America keeping some US Air Force assets, such as F-35 fighters, in the UK could be weakened if it goes ahead with Huawei, as it would pose a security risk. "We have to make a decision about deploying those [F-35 fighters] to many countries," Senator Cotton said. "Obviously if you no longer have Huawei in your network then F-35 fighters can be based in your country under my legislation. "That does not mean I would drop my legislation… my legislation is about Huawei and the threat Huawei poses to our airmen and our aircraft." He added that allowing Huawei in UK infrastructure could "give PLA [China's People's Liberation Army] hackers a window into our military logistics operations", which he said could put US forces and American weapons systems based in England "at dangerous risk".
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| Cuomo Hypothesizes About Overthrowing de Blasio After NYC Riots: ‘Police Did Not Do Their Job Last Night’ Posted: 02 Jun 2020 10:12 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo openly hypothesized on Tuesday about overthrowing NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio after rampant looting and destruction swept across Manhattan on Monday night, overwhelming the NYPD and leaving the city looking like a war zone. "I'm disappointed and outraged by what happened in New York City last night. That criminal activity hurt everyone," he said. De Blasio had doubled NYPD officers out on the streets to 8,000 on Monday night and imposed an 11 p.m. curfew after three nights of protests against police brutality were overshadowed by violence.But it was not enough to stop rampant looters from taking over midtown Manhattan. The Daily Beast witnessed hundreds of rioters roaming freely for hours through the city, looting countless stores, setting fires, loading stolen goods into SUVs, and damaging cars and storefronts. For hours, police were nowhere to be seen. "We're spread a little thin," one officer told The Daily Beast at about 10 p.m. after they arrested six men near Times Square, but were unable to chase down hundreds more who fled on foot.On Tuesday, the NYPD said it arrested 700 people the previous night for looting in Manhattan. An exasperated Cuomo said the police and the mayor failed to protect New York City—a city already on its knees from the coronavirus pandemic. "The police in New York [City] were not effective at doing their job last night, period. They have to do a better job," he said. "You have 38,000 NYPD. They have protected the city before in these situations... They did not do it last night. But I believe in the inherent capacity of the NYPD."Cuomo said he had offered all New York mayors the assistance of the National Guard and the state police to help stop looting on Monday, however de Blasio did not take up the offer. The mayor said the National Guard would not be helpful, and that the NYPD was sufficient. "Look at the videos, it was a disgrace," Cuomo said. "I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem. I think he underestimates the duration of the problem, and I don't think they've used enough police to address the situation because it's inarguable that it was not addressed last night. Facts."Cuomo said his option was to "displace" the mayor and bring in the National Guard during a state of emergency, "and basically take over... the mayor's job."However, he said "we're not at that point" and that it would be too chaotic right now. He said the National Guard would not be needed if the entire NYPD—the largest police department in the nation—were properly deployed. Thousands of people peacefully protested across New York City on Monday night following the death of unarmed black man George Floyd, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. However, as night fell, large groups broke away and started smashing storefronts and looting hundreds of shops along Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Sixth Avenue, and more. In Manhattan, Cuomo said looters had "blurred" the line with peaceful protests and distracted from much-needed conversations about racism, inequality, and police brutality. He said Tuesday he would sign legislation, if it was brought before him, to make police officers' complaint records public. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Voices captured on an NYC police scanner can be heard saying protesters should be shot and run over Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:35 AM PDT  The scanner broadcast people saying, "Shoot those motherf---ers," and "Run them over," referring to protesters.
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| Mark Zuckerberg told enraged employees Facebook might change its policy on politicians using violent speech Posted: 02 Jun 2020 03:33 AM PDT  According to a leaked audio recording obtained by The Verge, Facebook may "evolve our policy around the discussion of state use of force."
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| Putin declines British invitation to take part in coronavirus summit: Kremlin Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:13 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to take part in an online summit on a possible coronavirus vaccine being organised by the British government this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Putin received an invitation to take part in the summit from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week, the Kremlin had said. Scheduled to take place on June 4, the Global Vaccine Summit 2020 is designed to mobilise resources needed to ensure universal availability of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
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| Protests planned in OC, including 4 in Newport Beach Posted: 03 Jun 2020 05:53 AM PDT  Protests over the death of George Floyd and police violence are expected to be held in Orange County as demonstrations continue in Southern California.
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| Police Identify German Man as Main Suspect in Madeleine McCann Disappearance Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:14 PM PDT  Police in the U.K. have asked the public for help in tracking the movements of a 43-year-old German man identified as the main suspect in the mysterious disappearance of Madeleine McCann.Madeleine vanished from a hotel apartment in Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve coast in May 2007, while on holiday with her parents and twin siblings.It is the first time British police have identified a key suspect, and senior police officers described the breakthrough to the U.K.'s Telegraph as "significant." Friends of Kate and Gerry McCann told the newspaper it was the biggest development to date in a case often described as the most scrutinized missing persons case in modern history.Scotland Yard said in a statement that detectives had identified the 43-year-old German man, currently in prison in Germany on unrelated charges, as a suspect following a 2017 appeal on the 10th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance. New Break in Maddie McCann Case Centers on Killer PedophileOn Wednesday, they appealed for help from the public in tracking the German man's movements around the Algarve during the time Madeleine went missing.The man, whose name was not released due to German privacy laws, lived on and off in the Algarve between 1995 and 2008. At the time of Madeleine's disappearance, he was 30 years old and was living in a camper van in the area."He received a 30-minute phone call in Praia da Luz, the resort where the McCanns were on holiday, just an hour before the 3-year-old girl vanished," the statement said.Police are trying to track down the man on the other end of the phone call and took the unusual step on Wednesday of releasing the Portuguese mobile phone number the suspect was using as well as the number of the person who called him.Police also released images of the distinctive VW camper the suspect was living in, and a 1993 Jaguar saloon car that the suspect owned and re-registered in Germany under another person's name the day after Madeleine went missing. The Jaguar stayed in Portugal despite the man re-registering it in Germany. Scotland Yard said he was driving the camper around Praia da Luz in the days before Madeleine's disappearance and had been living it in for days or weeks.Madeleine's disappearance almost 13 years ago garnered an extraordinary amount of interest globally and led to a high-profile—but largely fruitless—search for answers.There has never been any trace of Madeleine since she vanished and no arrests have been made. British tabloids subjected the McCanns to vicious and baseless allegations of being involved in their daughter's disappearance—however investigators have maintained that it was a criminal act by a stranger.In a statement, Kate and Gerry McCann said they welcomed the appeal and thanked police. "All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice. We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know, as we need to find peace."Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, who leads the task force set up by U.K. police to investigate the disappearance, said: "While this male is a suspect we retain an open mind as to his involvement and this remains a missing person inquiry."A similar public appeal for information was due to be made on German television on Wednesday. The suspect was described by police as white and in 2007 was believed to have been six feet tall, aged between 25 to early 30s, with short blond fair, a slim build, and fair skin. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| ‘Wanton thuggery’: Australian reporter knocked down by police live on air as she covered George Floyd protests in DC Posted: 02 Jun 2020 04:56 AM PDT  US riot police were broadcast live on air using aggressive force to push and knock down an Australian reporter and her cameraman as they covered the Black Lives Matter protests in Washington DC, prompting an investigation by the Australian embassy.Amelia Brace, a reporter for Australian television network Channel 7, was broadcasting from the White House with cameraman Timothy Myers when police plouged into the crowd with riot shields, firing rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them.
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| Joe Biden pulls Julián Castro into campaign, asks for help to 'tackle police reform' Posted: 02 Jun 2020 01:21 PM PDT  As a Democratic presidential candidate, Castro put out a stand-alone police reform plan and cited names of police violence victims in his campaign speeches.
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| China sea security issues pushed Philippine U-turn on US troop pact Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Security issues in the disputed South China Sea helped convince the Philippines to delay quitting a key US military pact, the nation's envoy to Washington said Wednesday. The government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced Tuesday it had suspended plans to cancel the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a deal that is important to Washington's moves to counter Beijing's rising regional power. Duterte has cosied up to China in search of trade and investment, sparking US concern that its long-time ally and former colony would change sides in a strategic boost to Beijing.
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| At It Again: Russia's Black Sea Fleet Conducts Fresh Exercises Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:42 AM PDT  Deterrence never stops.
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| Seattle protesters are using umbrellas to block pepper spray and tear gas, mirroring tactics used by the Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrations Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:37 AM PDT  Seattle anti police-brutality protesters showed up with umbrellas as a shield, and also as a potential new symbol in defiance of police action.
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| Sweden is rushing to launch a formal inquiry into its no-lockdown coronavirus strategy, as its death rate remains among the world's highest Posted: 02 Jun 2020 05:24 AM PDT  Stefan Löfven, Sweden's prime minister, told the Aftonbladet newspaper that the government will appoint a commission before the summer.
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| OPEC+ keen to keep U.S. shale in check as oil prices rally Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:08 AM PDT  When OPEC, Russia and their allies agreed in April to slash oil production, little did they expect that their initiative to prop up collapsing prices would be helped by a swift drop in U.S. output. Now that crude has rallied on the back of those cuts from below $20 a barrel to $40 or more, the group known as OPEC+ faces a fresh challenge: stopping U.S. shale production delivering another surprise by recovering equally quickly. "The plan is to stick to prices of $40-$50 per barrel because as soon as they rise any further to say $70 per barrel it encourages too much oil production, including U.S. shale," said a Russian source familiar with OPEC+ talks on the issue.
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| George Floyd protests: All four former police officers face new charges as demonstrations continue nationwide Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:50 PM PDT  Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has announced new charges against all four former officers involved in the death of George Floyd.The attorney general announced charges against Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J Alexander Kueng, the three officers seen alongside Derek Chauvin, an officer who kneeled on Mr Floyd's neck for over eight minutes before his death, according to charging documents.
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| Looting and violence continues in New York City despite unprecedented curfew Posted: 02 Jun 2020 07:14 AM PDT  People smashed their way into shops including Macy's while Mayor Bill de Blasio says curfew would start earlier tonight, at 8pmAn unprecedented curfew in New York City on Monday night did little to prevent destruction, as people smashed their way into shops including Macy's flagship store, grabbed merchandise and fled.Police said more than 200 were arrested and several officers were injured, following another day of peaceful protests throughout the city over the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died on 25 May after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.One officer was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the Bronx and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said."Some people are out tonight not to protest but to destroy property and hurt others and those people are being arrested," Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted. "Their actions are unacceptable and we won't allow them in our city."It was the fourth instance in a row of mainly peaceful daytime demonstrations followed by violence and arrests after nightfall.De Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats, announced an 11pm curfew late on Monday afternoon. De Blasio said Tuesday's curfew would start earlier, beginning at 8pm and ending at 5am.Roving bands of people struck stores in Manhattan and the Bronx, even though many stores were boarded up pre-emptively as merchants feared more destruction.Video posted on social media showed piles of rubbish on fire on a debris-strewn street and people smashing into stores. Another video showed a group of men hitting a police officer with pieces of wreckage until he pulled his gun and they ran.People rushed into a Nike store and carried out armloads of clothing. Store windows were smashed near Rockefeller Center.The violence threatened to overshadow anger over the death of Floyd.On Monday, a federal judge agreed to release on bail two lawyers accused of throwing a molotov cocktail into a police van during protests in Manhattan on Friday.Urooj Rahman, 31, and Colinford Mattis, 32, were each released on a $250,000 bond, according to local media reports. They were expected to be confined to their homes as they await trial. Prosecutors had strongly argued against their release on bail."We don't believe this is the time to be releasing a bomb-thrower into the community," one prosecutor said of Rahman, according to a Pix11 local news report.Defense lawyers argued that the government was alleging a "property offense" and highlighted the heightened risks of contracting Covid-19 in the Medical Detention Center in Brooklyn.Rahman, a human rights lawyer who studied at Fordham University School of Law, and Mattis, who works for a Manhattan law firm and was educated at Princeton, were charged with causing damage to a police vehicle by throwing a homemade incendiary device into an empty NYPD van outside the 88th precinct.Some police officers in New York City and around the nation have sought to show solidarity with demonstrators while urging calm.New York City's highest-ranking uniformed member, Chief of Department Terence Monahan, clasped hands with protesters and kneeled on Monday in Washington Square Park, in Manhattan."The people who live in New York want New York to end the violence," Monahan said.
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| NYPD Says Looters Are Stashing Bricks. Brooklyn Locals Say Otherwise Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:57 PM PDT  On Wednesday morning, New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot F. Shea tweeted a low-resolution video of an unidentified officer picking up blue plastic crates on a city street corner. The crates, which appeared to be filled with chunks of masonry, had apparently been left next to a garbage can near Avenue X and West 3rd Street in Gravesend, a neighborhood by the water on Brooklyn's south end that's been largely untouched by the protests elsewhere in the borough and the city."This is what our cops are up against: Organized looters, strategically placing caches of bricks & rocks at locations throughout NYC," Shea wrote. On Wednesday afternoon, the White House included that clip in a video compilation of footage it claimed showed "Antifa and professional anarchists... invading our communities."But Shea didn't explain why organized looters would have left bricks in a quiet, mostly residential Brooklyn neighborhood, and conversations with people who work and live in the area suggest the NYPD's Twitter bulletin threatened to stoke tensions for no reason.Cops Reclaim New York in Massive Show of ForceAn officer in Sector B of the 61st Precinct, which covers Gravesend, said he could not explain or discuss the details of the brick discoveries. NYPD coordinators for the neighborhood did not respond to requests for comment. A detective at the Office of the NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Public Information said he did not know anything about the incident. "The city is going through an unprecedented issue with looting and protesting," he told The Daily Beast. "The normal people who would answer your questions are out trying to protect the city. So that's why you're not getting answers to your questions."In the week of protests since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, cops and politicians alike have been quick to point to "organized looters" and "outside agitators" fomenting unrest. But the claims often come with little evidence, and seem to buckle under scrutiny. Last week, after NYPD vehicles were filmed driving into a crowd of protestors, Mayor Bill De Blasio claimed that "a small set of men… came to do violence in a systematic organized fashion." And there have been reports of protesters throwing bricks at police in New York. But New York City Council Member Mark Treyger, who represents the Gravesend area, disagreed with the idea that external troublemakers were making mischief in his turf. In a phone call with The Daily Beast, Treyger said he became aware of the discovery of containers of suspect materials at two locations in his district when a constituent messaged him over social media, and that he confirmed the finding with the 61st Precinct. However, Treyger said that the NYPD acknowledged to him the containers might simply contain construction debris. The councilman said that he had not seen protests in the area or any signs of organized looting—and pointed out that at least one set of the containers were found near a construction site, suggesting that the bricks came from there. He called his conclusion "simple math." "There is literally a construction site and construction fencing and signage. And they found five or six containers of what appears to me to be construction debris," Treyger told The Daily Beast. "I believe that [Shea's] tweet about my district is not responsible. Because he did not give the full set of facts and the full picture, especially when his own department says the discovery was still under investigation," Treyger added, warning that such rumors could cause division in the racially diverse neighborhood. "The police commissioner needs to be very mindful with his words, because they could incite violence."The commissioner's claims about the crates in Gravesend were especially remarkable because they were nowhere near the locus of protests Tuesday, which is when five employees of local businesses told The Daily Beast the bins were removed.Employees at two businesses—Knapp Pizza II and New Fortune Wine & Spirit—on the block in question told The Daily Beast police had removed the crates on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Tuesday's protests in Brooklyn were centered closer to the Barclays Center, nearly five miles away. A woman who asked to be identified only as Sabrina R. said that the medical offices next to the apparent site of the bins did have security cameras, but that they were blocked from a view of the corner. An employee at nearby New Fortune Wine & Spirit said they had heard about the bricks, but had seen no protest. She said that while the store was outfitted with security cameras, that they belonged to the landlord, who could not be reached by press time.Violent Social-Distancing Arrest Videos Go Viral, Putting NYPD on DefensiveAt Smart Choice Pharmacy, which sits across from the site where the crates appeared to be collected, a staff member told The Daily Beast the street has been very quiet. "We haven't seen anything like that," she said. "It was very quiet yesterday. We didn't see anything like that… There was no protest in Gravesend last night." An employee at the Dunkin Donuts across the intersection from the site in question told The Daily Beast they had not noticed the bricks at all. An NYPD spokeswoman told the Daily Beast no complaint report had been filed about the containers. "No one called it in to complain," she said. "It wasn't taken as a complaint report… Because it's not a crime. [The crates were] just left there."In a media availability Wednesday morning, Commissioner Shea discussed the issue with Mayor De Blasio. "So in terms of the tweet today, unfortunately it's not an isolated incident," Shea said. "That was two locations, one was in Brooklyn, one was in Queens, where pre-staged bricks are being placed and then transported to quote unquote peaceful protests—which are peaceful protests—but then used by that criminal group within to sow fear." Shea did not provide any details on the incident in Queens or specify how NYPD had come to the conclusion that the debris containers were associated with protests, given that no major protests had been reported in that area. He did concede that they might have come from construction sites. "We've had construction sites burglarized in recent days in Manhattan," Shea said. "It's interesting. Construction site burglary is not that uncommon, but during a riot it's interesting what was taken—bricks." Shea also mentioned a pattern of protestors throwing water bottles filled with cement at police officers, but did not provide specific instances of when such incidents had occurred, or evidence that any of those had been "an orchestrated attack." "I do believe that the police commissioner needs to be clear in his messaging that this debris was found near a construction site," Council Member Treyger said. "And as of this afternoon, I have not heard of organized looting in my district."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel caught on hot mic amid unrest: 'If I didn't have a primary, I wouldn't care' Posted: 02 Jun 2020 04:18 PM PDT  It comes as the New York congressman has faced his toughest primary since being elected Congress in 1988.
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| Israelis fear West Bank annexation will spark Palestinian uprising Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:59 AM PDT  Most Israelis think their government's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank will spark a Palestinian uprising but around half favour going ahead anyway, a poll showed Wednesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to take steps towards annexation as soon as July 1, despite widespread international condemnation. The move forms part of a broader peace plan published by the United States, although Washington has not publicly backed Netanyahu's timetable.
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| FAA chief called before Senate to testify about Boeing plane Posted: 02 Jun 2020 03:53 PM PDT |
| One of America's most popular police trainers is teaching officers how to kill with fear-based warrior tactics Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:53 PM PDT  Dave Grossman's overly aggressive style prepares law enforcement officers for a job under siege, where they're "at war" on the streets.
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| Leaked documents reveal China withheld crucial information about the coronavirus at the start of the outbreak Posted: 02 Jun 2020 05:45 AM PDT  China didn't publish the coronavirus genome until over a week after its scientists decoded it, according to a new investigation.
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| Hong Kong democracy group files complaint to U.N. over alleged abuse Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:46 AM PDT  A Hong Kong pro-democracy group said on Tuesday it had filed a complaint with the United Nations over what it described as abuse of anti-government protesters held in custody in the Chinese-ruled city. The prominent democracy group Demosisto cited three protesters as saying they had been physically and verbally abused by Correctional Services Department (CSD) guards while in detention, including being beaten and slapped in places without CCTV surveillance cameras. The city government has not commented on the accusations.
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| Chechen leader accused of mass torture and murder offers Donald Trump human rights advice: ‘End the mayhem’ Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:02 AM PDT  Chechnya's gay-purging strongman Ramzan Kadyrov has made an unexpected foray into US politics by suggesting Donald Trump might have a thing or two to learn from him about human rights.In a social media post published early on Tuesday morning, the controversial leader demanded American authorities "put an end" to "mayhem" and "illegal actions against citizens."
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| Storms in the Houston area while all eyes are on Tropical Storm Cristobal Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:01 PM PDT  Scattered storms are likely today as a disturbance moves in. Tropical Storm Cristobal bears watching in the Gulf.
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| Minneapolis public school board votes to terminate its contract with police Posted: 02 Jun 2020 04:48 PM PDT  The district 'cannot align itself with the Minneapolis police and claim to fight institutional racism', said a board memberMinneapolis public schools are terminating their contract with the city's police department following the death of George Floyd.The city's public school board unanimously approved a resolution on Tuesday night that will end the district's contract with the Minneapolis police department to use officers to provide school security. The Minneapolis superintendent said he would begin work on an alternative plan to keep the district's more than 35,000 students safe in the coming school year. "We cannot continue to be in partnership with an organization that has the culture of violence and racism that the Minneapolis police department has historically demonstrated," Nelson Inz, one of the school board members, said. "We have to stand in solidarity with our black students."While the vote does not bring justice for Floyd, "it will show that meaningful change is possible," Nathaniel Genene, the school board's student representative, said.Genene said an online survey of Minneapolis students had received more than 1,500 responses, and about 90% of them supported terminating the district's contract with the police.Public schools "cannot partner with organizations that do not see the humanity in our students", Minneapolis school board member Josh Pauly, who helped draft the resolution, wrote on Twitter last week.The school district "cannot align itself with [the Minneapolis police department] and claim to fight institutional racism", Pauly added. The Minneapolis teachers union had endorsed the change, calling for the city's schools to "cut all financial ties" with the police department, and to invest in additional mental health support for students instead."The officers of the Minneapolis police department have become symbols of fear to the children those officers were sworn to serve and protect," two local union officials said in a statement last week. During the school board meeting, several members praised the work of individual police officers who had served in Minneapolis public schools as "school resource officers" and said at least a few of the officers did have deep, meaningful community relationships that would be missed.But Pauly, the school board member, told the Guardian in advance of the vote that he had received hundreds of emails and phone calls from students in Minneapolis who support ending the school district's relationship with the police department.Other school board members across the country – including from districts in Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon, New York, and Illinois – have also reached out privately for support in crafting similar resolutions, he said.A vote to end Minneapolis schools' contract with the police department is a major victory for activists across the country who have been working to remove all police from schools. "It's a very specific group of people who feel safe with police, but most black and brown children do not feel safe with police in schools," said Jackie Byers, the executive director of the Black Organizing Project, which has been working since 2011 to end the use of police officers in Oakland public schools, including asking teachers and administrators to pledge to not call the police on their students.School districts "need to see someone step forward", Byers said. "Folks are afraid of being the first district to do something."More than 70% of public secondary schools and 30% of primary schools in the United States have sworn law enforcement officers who routinely carry firearms, according to 2015-2016 data from the National Center for Education Statistics."In San Francisco, we've had 10-year-olds that have had the police called on them. Kindergarteners. Fifth-graders," said Neva Walker, the executive director of Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, a non-profit group that focuses on creating more equitable public schools."We have to get past the idea that police are the means to protect our children, especially for black and brown students," she said.For decades, school shootings, typically carried out by young white men, have prompted the American government to invest hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in putting armed law enforcement officers inside schools.But studies have shown that more students enter the criminal justice system when more police officers are in schools, sparking concern from some advocates that the attempt to protect American children from mass shootings had unintentionally fueled a school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately harms students of color.Breaking that cycle has not been easy. But one "critically important" step forward, Byers said, had already come from the University of Minnesota, which announced "immediate changes" in its relationship with the Minneapolis police department in the wake of widespread protests over Floyd's death. The university president, Joan Gabel, said in a letter last week that the university would no longer work with the police department to provide security for football games, concerts and other large events, and that it would limit its cooperation with the police to joint patrols and investigations "that directly enhance the safety of our community". The university's relationship with other police departments in other cities where it has campuses will remain unchanged, a spokesman said. The Minneapolis police department did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
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| Gov. Cuomo apologizes to NYPD brass after critical 'do your job' comments, chief says Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:50 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo apologized privately to top New York City Police administrators after ripping their response to rioters as a "disgrace."
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| Northrop Grumman's New B-21 Stealth Bomber: A Technological Powerhouse? Posted: 02 Jun 2020 05:12 AM PDT  The new stealth U.S. Air Force B-21 bomber has taken yet another key technological step toward being ready for war, through integrated computer automation designed to streamline information, improve targeting and offer pilots organized warzone information in real-time.
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| Mexico finds links to over $1 billlion in cartel money Posted: 02 Jun 2020 03:22 PM PDT |
| Why is Wall Street soaring while Main Street is burning? Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:11 AM PDT  "Martial law, military in the streets of major American cities," might be enough to panic the stock market, said one analyst.
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| Online clothing retailer Stitch Fix is laying off 1,400 California employees and instead hiring in lower-cost cities like Austin and Minneapolis Posted: 02 Jun 2020 03:08 PM PDT  The San Francisco-based company said the layoffs are not related to the pandemic, but the health crisis has dealt a blow to the retail industry.
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| As America rages, the Middle East watches with surprise — and some schadenfreude Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:39 AM PDT  People in the Middle East, accustomed to popular discontent and heavy-handed security tactics at home, are watching similar scenes unfold in the U.S.
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