By: Lifestyle Desk | New Delhi |
Published: May 30, 2020 9:40:19 pm
Acne scars and pigmentation happen to be a common problem. When temperatures are rising our body tends to produce more oil, which causes the skin to get clogged. (Photo: Getty)
The lockdown is a chance to take care of aspects of ourselves we never had time for. One such is skincare, and with almost zero exposure to dust and pollution, it’s the perfect opportunity to work on problem areas. Acne scars and pigmentation happens to be common irritants; when temperatures are rising our body tends to produce more oil, causing the skin to get clogged. The ideal remedy is, of course, to make sure we don’t pop our pimples and drink enough water. (But, just in case you have popped yours, here’s what you should do.)
Ahead, here’s an easy face mask that can be applied daily. It is gentle on your skin and works great for acne scars, blemishes and pigmentation. Check it out below.
All you need to do is mix a tablespoon of rice flour and instant coffee powder. Once the dry products are mixed, add 3 tablespoons of lukewarm water and apply the paste. Leave it for 15 minutes and then wash with cold water.
Rice flour has skin lightening properties which work great for those stubborn acne marks, while coffee works as an exfoliator and stimulates blood flow, while removing skin impurities and leaving your skin bright.
Here’s an all-natural skincare routine for oily skin type which works wonders.
Welcome to the 320th edition of Android Apps Weekly! Here are the big headlines from the last week:
Whatsapp received a new feature update this week. It now lets you add friends to the service with QR codes, similar to Snapchat. Each user gets their own QR code and can share those QR codes with other people. Plus, you can reset your QR code in case it becomes a little too public for your tastes. Hit the link for more details on the feature roll-out and more information.
T-Mobile and Google partnered up this week for better RCS messaging support. People with T-Mobile can text people on other services with RCS and it’s actually functional. RCS is still a giant mess and the roll-out is a minor disaster. Still, this is good news and it’s one step closer to full support.
Zoom launched its 5.0 update this last week. The popular video conferencing app shored up a lot of its security woes with this one. In fact, Zoom plans to lock out anyone who doesn’t update to this one by May 30th. The update itself comes with stronger encryption and stronger security measures to prevent things like Zoombombing. Hit the links for more details.
YouTube Premium users can score a free Nest Mini (formerly the Google Home Mini). It’s actually a simple process. You follow this link, claim your prize, enter your details, and place an order in the Google Store. Mine should be here around June 9th or 10th, according to Google. There are some caveats. Those with family plans can only get one for the whole family and you absolutely must have YouTube Premium to get one. Hit the link above to see the whole process.
Spotify launched an update this week. It removes the 10,000 song limit for personal libraries. This is a fairly arbitrary limit and we’re honestly not sure how many people hit this limit before its removal. In any case, Spotify libraries are now uncapped. You can add as much music to your library as you want.
Microsoft Family Safety
Price: Free
Microsoft Family Safety is a digital wellbeing style app with some parental control features. It lets you keep track of what your family does, including mobile, Xbox, and Windows PC use. You can also set limits for certain apps. For instance, you can restrict Minecraft to a couple of hours a day and the app notifies you when the limit was reached. Some other functions include filtering content by age group, a location feature, and some other nifty stuff. This app is in early access beta so there are most certainly bugs. Make sure to report any you find to Microsoft so they can fix them if you decide to try it.
Word Show
Price: Free to play
Word Show is a trivia style word game. Players get a set of letters and then swipe between them to form more words. There isn’t a time limit so players can take their time. Additionally, there are over 250 levels and players can use each letter as many times as necessary to complete the puzzle. That means if you get L, T, E, and R, you can make the word “letter†despite only having one T. In any case, the game ran fine during our tests. There are a bunch of ads and some minor bugs here and there, but otherwise it’s a solid time waster.
Soli Sandbox
Price: Free
Google launched an official Pixel Buds app earlier in May. The company continues the trend with Soli Sandbox, an app specifically for Pixel 4 (and Pixel 4 XL) users. It lets you connect to experimental Soli chip prototype commands on the web. This is a very niche application because it only works on Soli-enabled Pixel 4 devices and you have to provide your own URLs for Soli interactions. Still, you can devise your own if you want to and test them with this app. Frankly, this app should have existed back when the Pixel 4 series launched and not midway through its production life. Still, it’s a neat idea if you’re really into the Soli chip.Â
Griddie Islands
Price: Free to play
Griddie Islands is an idle style game with a goofy premise. You put a bunch of little critters (Griddies) on an island. Fleas jump around on them and produce money. You use that money to create even more Griddies. You see how this works. Progress is a bit slow at times, but it scales up quite nicely and Griddies can reach level 50 or higher. Idle games are by definition time killers so don’t expect a huge amount of depth. However, for an idle game, this one is actually pretty decent.
Citra Emulator
Price: Free / $4.99
Citra Emulator is a new emulator for the Nintendo 3DS. This release is actually kind of exciting because new emulators don’t launch very often and it’s the first good 3DS emulator Android has ever seen. The app supports hundreds of 3DS titles and includes support for things like the 3DS camera, motion, and microphone functions. Additionally, the app works with external game pads and includes texture scaling and other graphic features for better looking games. This one is in early access beta right now so don’t expect a flawless experience yet. However, with a few updates, it should be a top tier emulator on mobile.
Check out these excellent Android app and game lists!
If we missed any great Android apps and games news, releases, or updates, tell us about it in the comments or hit me up on Twitter!
A conversation with a girlfriend when I was in Italy a few weeks ago got me thinking about the latest new norm of the post-coronavirus society: enhanced eye contact. She had told me how, standing in the endless queue for the supermarket, wearing her mask, she had caught the eye of a handsome man in another loop of the queue and found herself engaged in a wordless flirtation carried out just with the eyes from a distance. After this, she had taken to piling on extra eyeliner and mascara.
“What I am saving in not buying lipstick I am spending on those full-volume mascaras,†she said, laughing.
Italians are masters of unabashed eye contact, but I wondered how this would work in London – my other home – where we do all we can to avoid gazing at each other. I have spent years passing colleagues along corridors, all of us flashing a smile then hastily looking down lest awkwardness should arise. But if the smile is covered by a mask and cannot be seen, it falls to the eyes to communicate that smile and that will mean – heavens forfend – that we will have to look up and meet each others’ eyes. How will we cope?
Adults are used to reading faces as a whole and if society is suddenly going to be masked up, then we will have to adapt quickly, making more use of prolonged eye contact. And yet this is not natural behaviour. Most animals look at each other only to signal threat or interest. In humans, social interaction is usually punctuated with very brief periods of mutual eye contact and deviations from this make us uncomfortable.
A British study found that people look at each other only 30-60% of the time when talking, let alone gazing into each other’s eyes. Surely this will change if we are all wearing masks and there is less on show to offer those all-important non-verbal clues to how we are feeling. After all, 55% of communication is non-verbal, and our facial expressions are a great part of that.
I had masks on my mind. Seven weeks into our lockdown in Italy and the province of Tuscany had just made it obligatory for everyone to wear masks and had issued each household with a quota of free ones. They had even made it out to our remote rural home in the foothills of the Apennine mountains: three masks per person. And I was about to wear one for an extended period for the first time, for a trip to Florence thanks to a broken filling.
Never has a journey to the dentist been so keenly anticipated. I had not been to the city – any city – since 29 February when I had come back home to Italy and self-isolated. As my fortnight of self isolation ended, the whole of Italy was placed in lockdown – the first European country to take such drastic measures. Any regret I felt for not having visited the hairdresser and the dentist while I could receded in the light of the national tragedy we saw unfolding on our televisions every night. As daily decrees restricted our movements ever more, I became accustomed to not nipping out for a favourite ingredient, to signing off emails with “stay wellâ€, to scraping off the dried soap that clung to my wedding ring. By the time the filling in my tooth fell out, I had not left home for seven weeks.
But my tooth qualified as a medical emergency – one of only three reasons for which we were allowed out. I made the appointment, my dentist sent an email confirming my appointment, and I bundled this paper together with my self-declaration certificate and passport, packing the car with sanitising gel, several pairs of latex gloves and a spare mask.
‘We may find unexpected consequences to all this mask wearing and eye gazing; not only a rash of marriages, but greater empathy and compassion for our fellow humans’: Kamin Mohammadi. Photograph: Bernardo Conti and Kicca Tommasi/The Observer
I donned my mask. We had ordered several from a friend whose factory had switched from stitching clothes for Armani. I had chosen mine in rose pink – my attempt to make up for the red lipstick it was now pointless to apply. As I got ready, I used much more kohl and mascara on my eyes in compensation – think Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra as inspiration. I picked out earrings that would not get caught in the elastic and a jacket that coordinated with my mask.
The journey to Florence was quick and uneventful. There was no traffic and no police checks and I glided to the city through a fairyland of lush countryside shimmering under an extraordinary light made sharper for the lack of pollution.
After the dentist, I went to my favourite fruit and veg market, grateful for the mask covering up my anaesthetised mouth. I was buoyed to find parking still a nightmare and, in spite of only half the stalls being there and a mere smattering of people compared to normal, there was still a clamour and chaos that is pure Florentine charm. It was music to my ears.
But one thing was very different. Windows were open, but instead of clothes drying on the lines that stretch between them, there were masks flapping in the breeze. Instead of rosaries hanging off the rear-view mirrors of parked cars, there were now masks. This is our new normal. Everyone was wearing a face covering and I soon realised I had to ditch the sunglasses, in spite of the bright sunlight. With only eyes in evidence, it was impossible to communicate a smile with mine covered. The sunglasses migrated to my head, where they kept my wild lockdown locks in check, so that I could use my eyes for the non-verbal communication that we take so much for granted.
No wonder then that the Florentines I encountered had a startled look, their eyes raking others’ faces with an intensity that took me back. There was a sort of hunger in those looks: fear jostled with extreme curiosity, as if in the absence of the rest of your face, they wanted to extract every piece of information possible from your eyes.
As I threaded my way through the market, catching people’s eyes and holding their gaze, exaggeratedly crinkling my eyes to denote a smile, I felt another wave of familiarity. In Iran we are used to this wordless communication although we don’t cover our faces, just our hair. But, as in much of the Middle East, with female bodies and hair and sometimes faces covered up as a result of the social distancing that the segregation of genders entails, this mode of moving through the world is perfectly usual to us.
Science tells us that gazing into another’s eyes and holding that gaze for more than a beat sets off a whole raft of brain processes. We all know that feeling when, in falling into our lover’s eyes, the rest of the world seems to disappear. Romantic as this feels, it is a physiological response: the body produces a chemical called phenylethylamine when you look someone directly in the eyes, helping the brain grapple with the overwhelming awareness that we are looking at another conscious being. That’s why it can make us blush.
So powerful is direct eye contact that just one encounter with the Mona Lisa, with her gazing directly at us from across the centuries, makes the painting unforgettable. And who can forget the image of Princess Diana when she scrubbed in to watch an operation at Harefield Hospital in 1996, her face covered by a surgical mask, a wisp of blonde hair escaping from her surgical cap, her kohl-rimmed eyes looking intensely at the photographer – at us all – through a crowd of medics? Diana was the arch queen of eye contact, from those first shy gazes cast from under her famous fringe in 1980, to the heavily made-up eyes that were fixed on Martin Bashir as she uttered the immortal line: “There were three of us in this marriage.â€
Princess Diana had nothing to learn from our niqab-wearing Saudi sisters – she was a natural master of the too-long held gaze and one suspects she would have heartily applauded the results of the study carried out by psychologist Arthur Aron who made two strangers fall in love in his lab by silently holding eye contact for four minutes (they were married six months later). But ordinary Europeans will need time to get used to communicating only through their eyes at a distance.
If that happens, we may find unexpected consequences to all this mask wearing and eye gazing; not only a rash of marriages, but greater empathy and compassion for our fellow humans. At the very least, simple flirting may become as playful and fun as it is in the Middle East.
Protests across America turned violent as demonstrators expressed anger over George Floyd’s death by police.
USA TODAY
Outrage over the death of George Floyd sparked protests in cities across the nation on Friday night, hours after a former Minneapolis police officer was arrested and charged with his murder.
Activists say it’s just another example of systematic racism in law enforcement, the latest in a series of high-profile black deaths that have exacerbated and inflamed racial tensions nationwide.Â
Former officer Derek Chauvin is facing third-degree murder and manslaughter charges after a bystander’s video circulated of him holding his knee to Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes before Floyd died.
Dalores Bowens, one of the organizers, said the goal of the protest is to highlight the risks that black people, and others, face at times from police. But the big aim, she said, is to encourage unity and have a peaceful expression of anger and frustration.
– Mike Ellis, Eric Connor and Sarah Sheridan, Greenville News
Advertised as a vigil, the atmosphere felt more like a protest, and its organizers explained its purpose as twofold: a show of Pensacola’s communal objection to police brutality and as a lamentation of Tymar Crawford.
Crawford, 28, of Pensacola, was shot and killed by former Pensacola Police Department Detective Daniel Siemen on July 5, 2019. Siemen was fired from the PPD for violating the department’s use of deadly force policy, but a grand jury determined that there was not enough evidence to warrant criminal charges.
“Tymar is our Pensacola George,” said local activist Haley Morrissette. “This really shows the energy that is really behind getting justice in the county and here, right now. A lot of people are here to remind us that Tymar is Pensacola’s George.”
– Colin Warren-Hicks, Pensacola News Journal
Oakland: ‘Damage and destruction,’ 1 dead in shooting
Oakland Interim Police Chief Susan Manheimer said peaceful demonstration in the city turned “disruptive” later in the evening. “We saw damage and destruction here,” Manheimer said in a video message posted to Twitter.
Two contract security officers for the Federal Protective Service of the Department of Homeland Security were shot, one fatally, when someone began firing shots from a vehicle outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building Friday night, FBI San Francisco said in a statement.
The FBI could not say whether the shooting was related to protests because the investigation was ongoing, according to public affairs officer Katherine Zackel. The FBI had deployed investigators to the scene and was working with the Oakland Police Department, Zackel said.
Portland, Oregon: Multiple arrests, state of emergency, curfew
Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency early Saturday and said a curfew was “immediately in effect” until 6 a.m. local time, then would resume 8 p.m. Saturday.
Wheeler released a series of Tweets on Friday night saying “ENOUGH” and “Portland, this is NOT us.”Â
“Burning buildings with people inside, stealing from small and large businesses, threatening and harassing reporters. All in the middle of a pandemic where people have already lost everything. This isn’t calling for meaningful change in our communities, this is disgusting,” Wheeler said on Twitter.
Houston: Nearly 200 arrested
Nearly 200 people in Houston were arrested Friday into Saturday morning, and most will be charged with obstructing a roadway, police said on Twitter.
Four officers had minor injuries and eight police vehicles were damaged, police said.
Earlier in the day, Police Chief Art Acevedo attended a downtown demonstration, organized by Black Lives Matter and spoke to the crowd. “It’s about bad policing. It’s about criminal behavior. And it’s about holding bad cops accountable,” Acevedo told the group, as many booed. Later, dozens of protesters shut down U.S. Highway 59.
Lincoln, Nebraska: Protesters arrested, shelter-in-place order
Protests condemning police brutality began early in the morning at the Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska, according to local news reports.
Around 4 a.m. Saturday, Lincoln police said the protest was no longer peaceful. “Arrests have been made and will continue to be made for those who continue to break the law. Neighbors in the area please shelter in place,” the department said on Twitter.
Austin: Dozens protest at police headquarters
About a hundred protesters denouncing police brutality and the death of George Floyd gathered in front of the Austin Police Department’s headquarters in downtown Austin around midnight Saturday.
A line of officers wearing helmets and batons formed in front of the building and blocked the Interstate 35 service road near East Seventh Street. At one point officers clashed with demonstrators and pushed them back to the street. Police detained at least one protester, though it was not immediately known why.
Protesters could be heard chanting “I can’t breathe†and threw water bottles at the officers at different times. Officers responded by firing bean bag shots. One officer had cuts on his face and one of his elbows; he said he wasn’t sure at what point during the protest he was injured.
– Andy Sevilla, Austin American-Statesman
Elmira, New York: ‘We’ve had enough’
A crowd of about 50 stood outside the Elmira Police Department on Friday chanting — at times in the rain —  “No justice, no peace,” and “Black lives matter,” to peacefully demonstrate after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Monday.Â
Participants in Elmira stayed for hours Friday, the second consecutive day of demonstrating. Organizer Domari Greene, 30, of Elmira, said plans are to gather again Saturday.
“The message we’re sending out is that not only is the African American community tired of the unjust killings and racism, but people across the nation are also tired of this,” Greene said Friday. “We’ve had enough and no more will officers get away for their crimes, no more just a suspension.”
“We had some interaction with the group and it was very positive,” Elmira Police Captain Anthony Alvernaz said, adding he wished motorists would slow down as their speed endangers the group.
Chicago: Protesters march downtown; more than 100 arrested
Dozens of protesters wearing face masks — many with the communist group Revolution Club Chicago and the organization Refuse Fascism Now, which is calling for President Donald Trump’s removal — gathered in downtown Chicago and marched through the streets for hours Friday evening.
The group chanted “say his name, George Floyd” and “black lives matter.” Some held signs that said “Justice 4 George” and “I can’t breathe.”
At one point, the group blocked a major highway, stopping traffic as police created a barricade with their bicycles. Later on, the group stopped outside the Metropolitan Correctional Center and chanted “we love you,” according to videos posted to social media.
The peaceful protest took a turn early Saturday morning, with demonstrators breaking the windows of several downtown storefronts. About 108 people were arrested, Superintendent David Brown said in a news conference Saturday. “We had to take swift action so that the violence and property damage wouldn’t escalate,” he said.
The protesters inflected “minimal damage” downtown, and about a dozen squad cars were damaged throughout the city, Brown said.. Some officers injured, and one had a broken wrist.
Illinois State Police assisted Chicago police “with several crowds of protesters” from Friday evening to 4 a.m. Saturday, according to the agency. State police did not make any arrests, the agency said.
More than 10,000 people had expressed interest in a Facebook event page for a Saturday afternoon protest in Chicago, organized by Black Lives Matter.
Five people were arrested and two police officers were injured by protesters throwing rocks and bricks at them on the second straight night of protests in Ohio’s capital city.
Police also reported broken windows and spray-paint graffiti in the Short North. Business owners boarded up their buildings, and a couple stood outside well after midnight, with guns, to protect their properties.
Protesters converged earlier in the night on Columbus Police headquarters, where they staged a peaceful protest.
– Mark Ferenchik and Catherine Candisky, The Columbus Dispatch
Denver: Police use flash grenades, tear gas to hold off protesters at Capitol
People began to gather as early as 12:30 p.m. for a march to the Capitol, where protesters stood on the steps and chanted for change. They later took both sides of nearby North Broadway Street before heading to Civic Center Park to hear from speakers.
About an hour after the crowd had mostly dispersed, they regathered near the capitol, prompting law enforcement to push them back from the street to keep traffic moving through the area. Tensions escalated into the night, with some protesters seen running through the city and smashing storefront windows.
– Bethany Baker, The Coloradoan (Fort Collins, Colo.)
Des Moines, Iowa: Protest grows violent, bricks thrown at police cars
Just before 8 p.m., protesters appeared to throw bricks at police cars, prompting officers in riot gear to push against protesters. The scene escalated, with at least one officer spraying chemical irritants on the crowd, including a Des Moines Register photographer.
– Andrea May Sahouri, Des Moines Register
Detroit: 19-year-old man killed; police arrest 9 people, fire tear gas amid protests
A 19-year-old man was killed late Friday night after shots were fired into a crowd of protesters by an unknown suspect in a gray Dodge Durango.
Video obtained by the Free Press of the USA TODAY Network showed the man bleeding from the chest, and police said he later died at a hospital.
About 1,500 people demonstrated peacefully earlier in the night, though Police Chief James Craig said nine people had been arrested as of 11 p.m. By 11:45 p.m., police had fired tear gas.
Officers were attacked during the demonstrations, Craig said. A command officer was struck with a rock and taken to a local hospital. Another officer on a bike was struck.
The Detroit Police Department is angry about the death of George Floyd, too, Craig said: “I will not stand by and let a small minority, criminals, come in here, attack our officers and make our community unsafe.”
– Darcie Moran, Angie Jackson, Joe Guillen and Branden Hunter, Detroit Free Press
Indianapolis: Police use rubber bullets, tear gas in confrontations with protesters
Protesters clashed with police in downtown Indianapolis in an hourslong demonstration that started peacefully but turned chaotic after the sun went down.
Officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department used multiple volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets in attempt to disperse crowds that lingered on city streets well past midnight.
As police stood in riot gear, groups of protesters moved through clouds of gas chanting “I can’t breathe!†and “Black Lives Matter.â€
An IMPD patrol car was vandalized. Fires were set in trash cans. A CVS was torched and looted. Other stores, including a jewelry store and a cellphone store, were also looted.Â
Graffiti on a broken window at Key Bank at Market Tower read, “I can’t use my bank account if I’m dead.â€
– Crystal Hill, Vic Ryckaert, Kelly Wilkinson, Jenna Watson and Ryan Martin, Indianapolis Star
Hundreds of protesters gathered peacefully in front of police headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a rally hosted by Black Lives Matter Knoxville.
Davis Hayes, who ran for Knoxville City Council last year, led the crowd in a chant: “We have nothing to lose for our chains.â€
Alison Rose, who works with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, was the first white speaker at the protest, and she spoke directly to other white people.
“White people, get it together. Do the work. Educate yourselves,†she said into a microphone. “Get yourself so deep in history that you will find out the truth: Black history is this country’s history.â€
–  Travis Dorman, Knoxville News Sentinel
Los Angeles: Police declare unlawful assembly amid growing tensions
The Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly after 9:30 p.m. for much of the downtown area, from Interstate 10 to U.S. 101, and the 110 Freeway to Alameda Street, following a night of tense standoffs with protesters.
“This is being made following repeated acts of violence and property damage. Residents should stay inside. Business should close. Those on the street are to leave the area,†LAPD said via Twitter.
People trashed buildings, broke glass, set fires and looted restaurants in an eight-hour protest that stretched into early Saturday morning, and angry city officials blamed out-of-towners for the trail of vandalism across much of downtown Louisville.
“This is not a protest. It is violence,” Mayor Greg Fischer said in a 1 a.m. video call with reporters.Â
“This violence and destruction is absolutely unacceptable,” he said. “It besmirches any claim to honor Breonna Taylor’s memory. … No one stands up for justice and equality by smashing windows and burning property. This destruction will not be tolerated.”
Second night of heated protests in downtown Louisville saw more broken glass and flags burned as citizens continue to seek justice for Breonna Taylor.
Louisville Courier Journal
Memphis, Tennessee: About 300 protesters gather for third straight day
For the third straight day, protesters took to the streets of Memphis to speak out against police brutality and the recent deaths of three African Americans at the hands of police.
The first demonstrates arrived just before 6:30 p.m. Within an hour, the crowd had grown to about 300, the largest of the of the protests so far.
That was despite a series of road closures set up by the Memphis Police Department at every entrance into the area. While Wednesday, the overarching emotion seems to be anger, Friday night’s protest seemed to be about unity and healing.
– Desiree Stennett, Micaela A Watts and Laura Testino, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.)
Milwaukee: Protesters march in ‘solidarity,’ stop Interstate 43 trafficÂ
Hundreds rallied to denounce the police killing of George Floyd and other acts of police misconduct across the country before marching to Interstate 43 and shutting down part of the freeway.
The protest began with a moment of silence to honor Floyd, who died Monday after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes as he was gasping for air and pleading that he couldn’t breathe.
“We’re here in solidarity,” said Vaun Mayes, a community activist who organized the event outside the Wisconsin Black Historical Society.Â
Hours later, another demonstration took place in the city’s Jackson Park neighborhood to protest the death of Joel Acevedo, who died after an altercation with an off-duty Milwaukee police officer. The officer, Michael Mattioli, is accused of putting Acevedo in a fatal “choke hold” during a fight at his house and has been charged with reckless homicide.
New York City: AÂ ‘long night ahead’ amid escalating tensions in Brooklyn
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned of a “long night ahead of us in Brooklyn” in a late Friday night tweet.
Reporters documented the unrest in social media posts: Earlier in the evening, New York Times reporter Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs tweeted a video showing a person being struck by the door of a passing police vehicle. And, Jason Lemon of Newsweek tweeted a photo of a police vehicle set on fire in the borough.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that lawmakers were among the protesters who were caught up in the clash: “A Black New York State Senator (@zellnor4ny) and a Black NYS Assemblywoman (@YourFavoriteASW) were both pepper sprayed in Brooklyn today. They were present as elected leaders to keep the peace and serve their communities. Completely, utterly unacceptable.”
In Manhattan, hundreds of protesters descended on Foley Square, chanting “I can’t breathe” and “No justice, no peace!â€
Phoenix: Hundreds march against violence following peaceful vigil
A vigil “to mourn the police violence” wrapped up shortly after 9 p.m. and organizers discouraged attendees from engaging in any violent protesting and instead urged them to go home.Â
While some left, hundreds of protesters began marching. Many had their hands in the air and chanted, “I can’t breathe.”
An organizer said violence would bring more pain to the family of Dion Johnson, who was recently fatally shot by an officer.
Police said 28-year-old Dion Johnson was shot following a struggle with a trooper on May 25. Initially, activist groups said Johnson was unarmed and asleep. They demanded release of the body-worn camera footage depicting the shooting.
– BrieAnna J. Frank, Andrew Oxford and Helena Wegner, Arizona Republic
San Jose, California: Protesters block five-lane Silicon Valley freeway
Protesters marched through the capital of the Silicon Valley, temporarily stalling traffic for about an hour on a five-lane freeway and prompting police intervention.
Video footage from KGO-TV showed vehicles at a virtual standstill on the southbound lanes of U.S. 101 in San Jose until protesters moved into the downtown area. Police later fired tear gas and nonlethal projectiles into a crowd that had grown to about 1,000 people, and officers in riot gear lined up to prevent them from further disrupting traffic near city hall, KPIX-TV reported.
Protesters smashed the windows of police cars and threw water bottles, according to TV station.
Elsewhere in California, hundreds of protesters demonstrated peacefully on the streets in the capital city of Sacramento, gathering near a police headquarters and shouting at police.
Protesters and police clashed in the city’s downtown, the Seattle Times reported. Protesters broke windows and threw fireworks; police responded with tear gas, the paper reported.
Washington, D.C.: Pennsylvania Avenue protesters force White House lockdown
Outside the White House on Friday, Secret Service could be seen after 7 p.m. taking at least one person into custody. Videos showed a large group of protesters gathering, with some burning flags and knocking over barricades. The protesters have moved from the White House to another part of the city.
Multiple reporters posted that they were inside the White House and that the Secret Service was not letting them leave the grounds during the lockdown.
– Savannah Behrmann, USA TODAY
Contributing: Steve Kiggins, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/29/george-floyd-protests-intensify-atlanta-memphis-indianapolis-milwaukee/5288305002/
Over the last two months, law-enforcement agencies around the country have increasingly found themselves transporting people infected with the coronavirus, and facing the challenge of how to quickly and effectively sanitize their vehicles.
“We’ve been doing it by hand, wiping down the seats and interior with 70 percent alcohol and water,†said Robert Martinez, deputy commissioner for support services at the New York Police Department. “But with the virus, you can’t see it, so you don’t know if you’re getting every surface and every nook and cranny.â€
Now Ford Motor, a major supplier of police cruisers, has come up with an answer. The carmaker has developed a software update that can raise the interior temperature to 133 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, which it says is enough to eliminate the virus.
The New York Police Department, with about 9,000 vehicles, mostly from Ford, is one of several law-enforcement agencies adopting the feature.
Mr. Martinez said that it would take time to install software updates on all the Ford vehicles in the New York police fleet, but that the method seemed promising. “This is a pretty comprehensive, sure way of knowing that you killed the virus, or even bedbugs or other things,†he said.
The feature is available on the Ford Police Interceptor S.U.V.s for the 2013 to 2019 model years. Some 176,000 of those vehicles were sold, making it one of the top models used by law enforcement.
To be sure this approach would be effective, Ford turned to Ohio State University, where researchers examined the ability of high heat to destroy viruses in vehicles. The researchers performed tests using a coronavirus similar to the strain that has caused more than 100,000 deaths in the United States, said Jesse Kwiek, an associate professor of microbiology at Ohio State.
A solution containing the virus was spread on the carpet, plastics and other materials used for the interiors of Ford’s police vehicles, and those parts were heated to 120 degrees for 15 minutes, Mr. Kwiek said.
At that temperature, the study concluded, the protein that is a crucial component of the virus’s structure unravels. “Of all the materials we tested, we were never able to recover infectious viruses for any,†he said.
Bill Gubing, Ford’s product line manager for S.U.V.s and passenger vehicles, said the automaker heard of the problem of decontaminating police vehicles in March as the coronavirus began spreading rapidly across the country.
“Our engineers thought about how an autoclave is used to sterilize medical instruments,†Mr. Gubing said, referring to the heated containers used at high temperatures and pressures. The engineers envisioned “a way to do something like that with a vehicle,†he said, “because we have a perfect heat source right there,†the engine.
The company developed an update for the vehicles’ engine-control software that creates a sanitation mode that can be activated by pressing a series of buttons on the steering wheel. The software checks whether there is enough gasoline to keep the engine running for the 80-minute process, and prompts officers to ensure that no one is in the vehicle and no sensitive electronics remain inside.
With the doors and windows closed, the software heats the interior to 133 degrees, making sure that the materials inside reach at least 120. After 15 minutes at that temperature, the vehicle’s air-conditioning comes on to cool off the interior.
Mr. Gubing said the process should not damage interior parts. Metal would be unaffected by 120-degree heat, he said, and plastics typically melt at 212 degrees or higher.
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., addressing a nation on edge, challenged white Americans on Friday to fully confront the enduring inequities faced by black Americans because, he said, “the pain is too intense for one community to bear alone.â€
In his first formal remarks since a white Minneapolis police officer was recorded kneeling on the neck of a black man who later died, Mr. Biden spoke in stark terms about the everyday indignities African-Americans still suffer, from the threat of police violence to the cloud of suspicion that follows them from coffee shops to public parks.
“This is the norm black people in this country deal with,†he said in a brief speech from his Wilmington, Del., home. “They don’t have to imagine it.â€
His impassioned plea stood in contrast to President Trump, who just minutes after Mr. Biden spoke appeared at the White House but declined to address the country’s boiling racial tensions — after stoking them with an inflammatory tweet in the morning suggesting that unruly protesters might be shot. Mr. Trump did address the death of the man, George Floyd, at a round table later Friday, calling it a terrible event that should “never happen.â€
What was just as revealing about Mr. Biden’s address Friday, and his underlying political wager, is what he did not say.
He made no attempt to soothe the fears of those white Americans who, while sympathetic to the plight of people of color, are just as uneasy about the kind of disturbances that left parts of Minneapolis in flames Thursday night.
Over nearly a half-century in politics Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has carefully balanced appeals for racial justice with tough-on-crime rhetoric. On Friday, however, he offered no equivocation and did not warn against violence, except to implicitly chide Mr. Trump for his warning that looters could be shot. The burden of responsibility, Mr. Biden suggested, was not on the shoulders of those protesting in the streets of American cities.
“With our complacency, our silence, we are complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence,†he said, warning that “if we simply allow this wound to scab over once more without treating the underlying injury, we’ll never truly heal.â€
Mixing a prepared speech with off-the-cuff comments, Mr. Biden did not stretch for rhetorical greatness. Perhaps befitting the setting, his basement, he was more intimate than lofty.
But his spare words amounted to a bet that other white Americans now share the equally concise sentiment he expressed earlier Friday on Twitter: “Enough.â€
He is wagering that the necessity for on-the-other-hand politics, the sort he and his party have long practiced to appeal to the center, has been obviated by a pandemic that is disproportionately sickening and killing people of color; by the now-common stories of people like Christian Cooper, a black man threatened by a white woman while birding in Central Park; and by the names of the deceased Mr. Biden read off at the start of his speech, whose true fate is known only because of cellphone cameras that do not lie.
“I think the reaction of a lot of white people is now just, ‘Damn man, this is bad,’†James Carville, the Democratic strategist, said, referring to shifting sensibilities about the treatment of minorities. “The technology has just brought this home to people, that this is really what is happening.â€
The forcefulness of Mr. Biden’s remarks was a pleasant surprise to some black Democrats, who have witnessed him commit a string of gaffes related to race, and were skeptical that a 77-year-old white man could channel African-American anguish.
“Joe Biden went there,†said Bakari Sellers, a Democratic activist who has written about growing up black in the rural South. “Even Barack Obama hedged on issues of race and was not always clear in his language. But to be completely fair, I’m not sure Barack Obama could have given that speech.â€
Former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, the nation’s first black female senator, added, “I just need voters to see the Joe Biden I know, who is very clear on race and racism.â€
But Mr. Biden has not always made that easy, and Ms. Moseley Braun said his campaign must do more to communicate with voters on this subject, especially after Mr. Biden’s remark last week suggesting that African-Americans torn between himself and Mr. Trump “ain’t black.†The immediate backlash prompted him to apologize hours later.
“The campaign needs to step up their game and connect more,†she said. “I think I fielded 30 phone calls since his foot got in his mouth.â€
Mr. Biden may eventually feel compelled to denounce the rioting that began Thursday in a number of cities, particularly if the violence escalates or if police officers are killed in the line of duty, as some were in the summer of 2016.
Few Democrats have found success when they let Republicans seize the mantle of law and order.
“Most Americans are fair-minded people who want justice to be done in situations where wrong has occurred,†the Republican pollster Whit Ayres said. “But they also believe that you shouldn’t go out destroying innocent people’s property and threatening people’s lives as a means of doing so.â€
For the moment, just as he did in his comeback primary victory, Mr. Biden is greatly benefiting from his opposition.
Shortly after the former vice president spoke, Mr. Trump seemed poised to wield the full stagecraft of the presidency as he strode into the Rose Garden to address reporters. But instead of speaking about Mr. Floyd, calling for law and order or some combination of both, the president stood before a group of his advisers, all white men, and sought to turn the country’s attention to China.
Mr. Trump said nothing about the events of this week in Minneapolis, ignored shouted questions as he walked back in the White House and later struggled to justify calling the violent protesters “thugs†and warning that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.â€
If those sentiments, expressed in a pair of after-midnight tweets, were vintage Trump, Mr. Biden’s speech mixed his familiar patter with some unexpected touches.
He opened his hastily arranged address by noting that he had spoken with the Floyd family, the sort of consoler-in-chief outreach he has become known for after his own life of loss, and concluded with another note of reassurance to the family along with a final challenge to white America.
“I love you all, and folks, we’ve got to stand up,†he said. “We’ve got to move. We’ve got to change.â€
Mr. Biden also evoked past leaders, some explicitly, like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and others less directly.
Citing the country’s founding promise, he echoed John F. Kennedy’s declaration that equality is “as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.â€
By reciting the names of the black victims and repeating what has become a watchword of the racial justice movement, “I can’t breathe,†Mr. Biden also summoned Lyndon B. Johnson, who borrowed the lyrics of the civil rights protest song to vow “we shall overcome.â€
Mr. Biden’s advisers recognize that their candidate’s greatest strength is his ability to empathize with people in pain — but finding ways to display that skill while campaigning from home has presented a steep challenge.
This week, however, a campaign that has struggled with caution and indecision in the past moved aggressively to highlight stark contrasts with Mr. Trump on matters of leadership and character.
Mr. Biden made his first public appearance in around two months on Monday, when he ventured out to pay his respects to the war dead on Memorial Day. Mr. Trump, too, saluted members of the military — but he also mocked Mr. Biden for wearing a mask, and on Tuesday he pushed an unfounded allegation of murder against a television host.
On the day that the American death toll from the coronavirus reached 100,000 lives, Mr. Biden delivered by video a somber Oval Office-style address to “my fellow Americans,†citing his own experiences with personal loss to promise that healing would come.
And on Friday morning, while parts of Minneapolis were still smoldering, Mr. Biden announced he would speak on the pain Mr. Floyd’s death had caused.
“The very soul of America is at stake,†Mr. Biden said, infusing the slogan he began his campaign with just over a year ago with fresh urgency. “We must commit as a nation to pursue justice with every ounce of our being.â€
Greece has listed 29 countries from where it will accept visitors as of June 15 as the Greek government looks to mitigate some of the financial damage from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Greek Tourism Ministry said travellers from the permitted countries will be able to enter Greece on direct flights to Athens and to the northern city of Thessaloniki. The list will be expanded on July 1 to include other countries, the ministry said.
“Our aim is to be able to welcome every tourist who has overcome their fear and has the ability to travel to our country,” Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis said on Antenna television.
The 29 announced Friday are: Albania, Australia, Austria, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Estonia, Japan, Israel, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lebanon, New Zealand, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Norway, South Korea, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Finland.
Friday evening, Nike posted a text-only video on its social media accountswith messaging encouraging people to “For once, Don’t Do It,” a play on the brand’s iconic slogan that’s recognized around the world.
The message reads:
“For once, Don’t Do It. Don’t pretend there’s not a problem in America. Don’t turn your back on racism. Don’t accept innocent lives being taken from us. Don’t make any more excuses. Don’t think this doesn’t affect you. Don’t sit back and be silent. Don’t think you can’t be part of the change. Let’s all be part of the change.”
Nike’s message comes four days after George Floyd, 46, died in police custody in Minnesota with his last moments caught on video. While being arrested, Floyd was held down by a Minneapolis police officer’s knee. The video shows Floyd pleading that he is in pain and can’t breathe. Then, his eyes shut and the pleas stop. He was pronounced dead shortly after. The officer was arrested Friday and charged with murder.
“Nike has a long history of standing against bigotry, hatred and inequality in all forms,” Nike said in a statement to CNN Saturday. “We hope that by sharing this film we can serve as a catalyst to inspire action against a deep issue in our society and encourage people to help shape a better future.”
To mark the“Just Do It” slogan’s 30th anniversary in 2018, Nike released an ad with Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who kneeled in protest during the National Anthem for a preseason NFL game. In this ad, Nike weighed in on protests during the National Anthem over racial injustice in the NFL, and the ad was preceded by Nike’s “Equality” campaign. Launched in 2017, that campaign focused on how sports can break down barriers.
Hong Kong officials lashed out on Saturday at moves by US President Donald Trump to strip the city of its special status in a bid to punish China for imposing national security laws on the global financial hub.
Speaking hours after Trump said the city no longer warranted economic privileges and that some officials could face sanctions, security minister John Lee told reporters that Hong Kong could not be threatened and would push ahead with the new laws.
More:
“I don’t think they will succeed in using any means to threaten the [Hong Kong] government, because we believe what we are doing is right,” Lee said.
Justice minister Teresa Cheng said the basis for Trump’s actions was “completely false and wrong”, saying national security laws were legal and necessary for the former British colony.
Trump had announced the decision at a White House news conference on Friday, saying Beijing had broken its word over Hong Kong’s autonomy.
He said its move was a “tragedy” for the people of Hong Kong, China and the world.
“We will take action to revoke Hong Kong’s preferential treatment,” he said, adding that Washington would also impose sanctions on individuals seen as responsible for smothering Hong Kong’s autonomy.
Trump said he was directing his administration to begin the process of eliminating policy agreements on Hong Kong, ranging from extradition treatment to export controls.
He said he would also issue a proclamation to better safeguard vital university research by suspending the entry of foreign nationals from China identified as potential security risks – a move believed to be aimed at Chinese graduate students studying in the US.
“It is said that we are becoming ‘one country, one system’ and we’ve lost [our] autonomy,” said Cheng, Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing justice secretary.
“That is completely false and wrong… We are one country… and therefore, as far as national security is concerned, as in any other country in the world, this is a matter that belongs to the central authorities.”Â
UN Security Council divided over Hong Kong (2:36)
On Friday, representatives from the US and the United Kingdom raised concerns about China’s Hong Kong plans at the United Nations Security Council, prompting protests from both China and Russia.
The 15-member council informally discussed Hong Kong in a closed virtual meeting after China opposed a US call on Wednesday for a formal open council meeting, arguing that it was not an issue of international peace and security.
US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft asked: “Are we going to take the honourable stand to defend the human rights and the dignified way of life that millions of Hong Kong citizens have enjoyed and deserve … or are we going to allow the Chinese Communist Party to violate international law and force its will on the people of Hong Kong?”
“This legislation risks curtailing the freedoms that China has undertaken to uphold as a matter of international law,” the UK’s acting UN ambassador, Jonathan Allen, said after the council discussion. “We are also extremely concerned that … it will exacerbate the existing deep divisions in Hong Kong.”
Diplomats said Russia and China responded during the council discussion by criticising the US over the Minneapolis killing of an unarmed Black man – who was seen on video gasping for breath while a white police officer knelt on his neck – and its handling of growing unrest.
“Why US denies China’s right to restore peace & order in Hong Kong while brutally dispersing crowds at home?” Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy posted on Twitter after the council discussion.
China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun said in a statement after the meeting that the US and UK should “mind their own business,” adding that: “Any attempt to use Hong Kong to interfere in China’s internal matters is doomed to fail.”
Responding to questions from the press, Transport ministry director-general Alec Moemi said on Saturday 30 May that athletes and teams might be permitted to travel out of hotspots for training or matches.
Moemi said that the finer details of such travel arrangements still needed to be ironed out between the transport department and the ministry of sports, arts and culture.
Athletes might be permitted to leave hotspots
Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa confirmed on Friday that non-contact sports could stage matches under lockdown level 3. There is a caveat; in that, no events or training can take place in the so-called hotspots with high rates of infection.
“Resumption of non-contact sports training and matches in areas declared as hot spots by the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, upon recommendation by cabinet member responsible for health, and in consultation with the cabinet, is prohibited,†Mthethwa said.
This prompted a query from the press regarding the possibility of individual athletes or teams, travelling out of hotspots for matches or training.
“This could be permissible considering the nature of the sports,†Moemi said.
“Because right now our counterparts in the department of sports‚ arts and culture have issued new directions that allow for non-contact sports to be played. However, those sports cannot be played in some hotspots that have been designated.
“Can they play in non-hotspot areas? Certainly. Can the professional athletes who are allowed to go back to training train in non-hotspot areas? Certainly yes.
“So the protocols, however, of the movement of those people for that purpose is what we and the department of sports‚ arts and culture can resolve between ourselves.â€
 Nothing set in stone
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said that nothing surrounding the coronavirus was set in stone, during a media briefing that covered a spread of transport related issues.Â
Cricket South Africa is hopeful of hosting India in a T20I series in August but could see their choices of venue limited by the hotspot regulations. The hotspot metros Johannesburg‚ Tshwane‚ Ekurhuleni‚ Ethekwini‚ Nelson Mandela Bay‚ Buffalo City and Cape Town are all home to major international cricket stadiums.
The ban would also affect plans SA Rugby have for a six-team franchise series. If strictly enforced the ban on training in hotspots could mean that only the Free State Cheetahs would be allowed to train. The door remains open for franchises to set up camp outside of the hotspots.
All sports that wish to resume activity of any kind will need to present return plans to the department of sports, arts and culture within 14 days.
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Acne scars and pigmentation happen to be a common problem. When temperatures are rising our body tends to produce more oil, which causes the skin to get clogged. (Photo: Getty)
