Saturday, April 25, 2026

‘Community Transmission is Well-established’: ICMR Research Group Experts, Others Slam Govt’s Covid-19 Response

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‘Community Transmission is Well-established’: ICMR Research Group Experts, Others Slam Govt’s Covid-19 Response

As India gears up to enter the next stage of lockdown with significant relaxations, public health experts have come down heavily on the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The experts also include two members of an ICMR research group constituted to handle the Covid-19 crisis, according to a report in The Indian Express.

A joint statement issued by Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and Indian Association of Epidemiologists said: “It is unrealistic to expect that COVID-19 pandemic can be eliminated at this stage given that community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country.”

The government has, however, repeatedly said that no community transmission has taken place so far in India.

On Saturday, India’s COVID-19 death toll crossed the 5,000-mark and the case count reached 1.76 lakh after a record spike in numbers of new cases and fatalities, while the government said a phased exit would begin on June 1 from the months-long nationwide lockdown.

“India’s nationwide lockdown from March 25, 2020 till May 30, 2020 has been one of the most stringent; and yet COVID cases have increased exponentially through this phase… This draconian lockdown is presumably in response to a modeling exercise from an influential institution which was a ‘worst-case simulation,'” the statement said.

The signatories of the statement include Dr Shashi Kant, Professor & Head, Centre for Community Medicine AIIMS, New Delhi and Dr DCS Reddy, Former Professor & Head, Community Medicine, BHU. The two are part of an ICMR research group which was set up on April 6 on epidemiology and surveillance for Covid-19. Notably, Dr Reddy chairs the group.

The statement added that the subsequent events had proven that the predictions of this model were way off the mark.

“Had the Government of India consulted epidemiologists who had better grasp of disease transmission dynamics compared to modelers, it would have perhaps been better served…,” it said.

The statement further says that the handling of the migrant workers has added to the challenges in limiting the spread of Covid-19, the IE report added. The signatories make a range of recommendations, including the setting up of a panel of inter-disciplinary preventive health and public health experts and social scientists at central, state and district levels to tackle both public health and humanitarian crises.






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Bluffers guide: Is the drive-in making a comeback?

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Bluffers guide: Is the drive-in making a comeback?

They seem like such a fun way to watch movies. They always have been, though generally more fun in warmer months than mid-winter. The heyday in Sydney was the 1960s to the early ’80s – a time of post-war prosperity and big cars. There were Skyline drive-ins at Frenchs Forest, Dundas, Chullora, North Ryde, Liverpool, Warriewood, Caringbah, Fairfield, Matraville, Parklea, Bass Hill, Penrith and Blacktown. But gradually the lustre wore off as colour TV, videos and clubs showing movies became competition and the land became more valuable to developers. Blacktown is the last one standing.

There’s a lot of nostalgia around them. They are definitely icons of popular culture, famously featuring in such movies as Grease and Twister. In 1986, a Peter Carey short story was turned into the Australian film Dead-End Drive-In.

Were they as good as everyone remembers? They were great for young couples wanting to get close. Great for parents with kids who could wear their pyjamas and fall asleep before the movie finished. Great if you like to talk or smoke during a movie. Great if you like two movies for the price of one. Great for a different kind of movie experience. People really did try to sneak in so ticket-sellers would check the back seat and look for a low hanging boot and telltale fingermarks at the front gate. And when the movie finished, staff knew that someone was always bound to have fallen asleep, someone else would need a jump start and at least one couple would not have realised the movie had finished.

But … Back in the day, drive-ins were always stronger on atmospherics than sound and picture quality. The food was more bowling alley standard than fine dining: steak sandwiches, chicken burgers, Pluto pups and donuts. In winter, it always seemed like a long cold walk to buy a drink or use the rest rooms. When it was cold and misty, you had to turn on the engine to run the demister or get out to wipe the windscreen. There always seemed to be a crush to get out after the movie. And if you want to drink, you’ll need a designated driver.

Surely it would make sense to open some new drive-ins, maybe using other carparks, industrial sites, sports fields or even racecourses that don’t get used at night? You would think there would be a market for what the American industry calls “ozoners” – as opposed to “hardtops” – screening new releases, especially in summer. But maybe open-air cinemas will always win out for comfort, atmosphere and quality food.

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Will Skyline Blacktown get a boost now that it’s open again? Event’s director of entertainment Luke Mackey predicted “we’ll see a resurgence for sure” a week ago and that’s been borne out already. The first two nights sold out for restricted numbers for two movies that had their cinema runs interrupted by COVID-19: Sonic The Hedgehog and Bloodshot. Given the lack of other entertainment options away from the couch, it’s likely to be continue being popular even while it can only screen older movies.

Are there plans for any others? Mackay says Event is always looking for opportunities but there are no plans for any more drive-ins.

So the comeback is probably a novelty? If the country’s biggest chain isn’t backing a revival as the nation emerges from lockdown, sadly it looks like it.

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Samsung aims to kill server CPUs with this special new SSD

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Samsung aims to kill server CPUs with this special new SSD

At this week’s OCP Global Summit, Samsung disclosed more information about a new type of solid state drive (SSD) it’s working on – one that only makes sense in a data center context, for now.

When it comes to flash memory, the most common configuration in data centers worldwide is JBOF (or just a bunch of flash), which uses NVMe SSD storage attached to PCIe switches, processors and NICs (network interface cards). There are two rather significant issues with this system, to do with the lack of scalability of the storage controller and limited bandwidth; a classic case of too many middlemen. 

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Trump Hopes for His Own Booster Shot From SpaceX Rocket Launch

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Trump Hopes for His Own Booster Shot From SpaceX Rocket Launch

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — For President Trump, the launch of the sleek SpaceX rocket with two NASA astronauts on Saturday not only propelled America back into the heavens but, he hoped, gave a booster shot to his own beleaguered presidency after months of misery afflicting the country.

After watching from a rooftop not far from the fabled launchpad, 39A, on a hot but clear afternoon, Mr. Trump hailed the successful launch of the privately built Falcon 9 rocket as a sign of American resilience in the face of disease, death and economic hardship, evoking the spirit of the Apollo days to portray a country on the rebound.

And he left little doubt that he saw it as a personal and political triumph as well, staging a campaign-style rally afterward in a NASA hangar in front of a model of the Crew Dragon capsule that had just been propelled into space. Both on the rooftop during the launch and in the hangar afterward, loudspeakers blared songs from Mr. Trump’s campaign playlist and the president rewrote history to leave out the work of two previous administrations while he claimed singular credit.

But the split-screen nature of this moment in his presidency was underscored when Mr. Trump devoted the first nine minutes of his speech to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the subsequent protests and riots unfolding in cities across the country.

Likewise, he acknowledged the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 100,000 lives and put more than 40 million out of work.

“We are reminded that America is always in the process of transcending great challenges,” he told space program workers in the hangar. “The same spirit of American determination that sends our people into space will conquer this disease on earth. It should have never happened. Nothing, not even gravity itself, can hold Americans down or keep America back.”

Speaking separately with reporters, Mr. Trump said he was motivated to come in person in part because of the pandemic. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to be here today,” he said. “I thought it was so important to be here today. I think any one of you would say that was an inspiration to see that today.”

The launch was the first time NASA astronauts have been sent into orbit from American soil since the space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, ending nearly a decade of uncomfortable reliance on Russia for transport to the space station and inaugurating a new era in which private firms like SpaceX, founded by the president’s friend Elon Musk, take over the business of spaceflight.

Mr. Trump was so intent on associating himself with the breakthrough moment that he came from Washington to view the launch in person not once but twice, returning on Saturday even after the first attempt was scrubbed on Wednesday because of bad weather. For the most part, presidents have avoided attending space launches partly because delays are normal. There were also fears of being seen as pressuring flight controllers to move forward under imperfect conditions, and none of them wanted to be on hand if something went wrong.

Until now, sitting presidents showed up for launches just twice. In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon attended the liftoff of Apollo 12, which was then struck by lightning twice during its ascent but still managed to recover and ultimately make it to the moon. In 1998, President Bill Clinton came to witness John Glenn return to space on the shuttle 37 years after his original orbital flight. Lyndon B. Johnson came for the launch of Apollo 11 after leaving office.

There seems to be little doubt that the moment will make it into a Trump campaign ad soon enough. The Village People’s “Macho Man,” a regular staple of the president’s campaign rallies, played on the rooftop before the launch and then, with a short break for the last seconds of the 3-2-1 countdown, the speakers played Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” another Trump favorite as the real-life rocket climbed into the skies.

Mr. Trump was later ushered onto stage with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” and brought off by “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones, just as he has been at the campaign rallies he has had to suspend because of the virus.

Joining the president on top of Operational Support Building II was a partisan cast of guests, including Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence; Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican leader; Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida; and a variety of cabinet secretaries, senior administration officials. In his remarks, he thanked Mr. DeSantis, 16 Republican lawmakers and various Republican state officials and no Democrats.

Mr. Trump happily took credit for the day’s event. “You know, four years ago this place was essentially shut down,” he told reporters. “The space program was over. The shuttle program was dead.” He added: “And now we’re the leader in the world again. And this is just the beginning. They’re going to Mars. They’re going to the Moon but they’re going to the Moon in order to go to Mars.”

In the speech, Mr. Trump said, “When I first came into office three and a half years ago, NASA had lost its way and the excitement, energy and ambition as almost everybody in this room knows was gone,” he said. “The last administration presided over the closing of the space shuttle.”

Mr. Trump was indeed the one to decide to push to return to the moon and then Mars and he revived the National Space Council, putting Mr. Pence in charge of it. But the commercial launch on Saturday had its origins under two previous presidents.

President George W. Bush, not President Barack Obama, was the one who ordered the aging shuttles to be phased out, but initiated a commercial cargo program, paying SpaceX and other companies to develop cheaper capsules to send materials to the space station.

Mr. Obama then decided to send crews via commercial spacecraft in 2011, an initiative that encountered fierce opposition from Congress, which at first did not provide as much money as NASA sought. Mr. Obama was never as personally enthusiastic about the space program as Mr. Trump and never invested as much political capital in it, but his NASA administrator, Charles F. Bolden Jr., stuck with the program, steadily advancing it.

Mr. Trump made no mention of that on Saturday, but his own NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine, has credited his predecessor in recent days. Mr. Bolden “did just yeoman’s work in order to get this program off the ground to get it going,” said Mr. Bridenstine, a former Republican congressman who carried the project across the finish line after being confirmed by the Senate in 2018. “And here we are, all these years later, having this success.”

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the putative Democratic nominee challenging Mr. Trump in the fall, was not willing to cede the ground entirely. “This mission represents the culmination of work begun years ago, and which President Obama and I fought hard to ensure would become reality,” he said in a statement.

But emailed statements were no match for being there. It was Mr. Trump, not Mr. Obama or Mr. Biden, who talked with the astronauts, Robert L. Behnken and Douglas O. Hurley, before they took off. He said he told them, “God bless you. There’s nothing else you can say. God bless you. They have a lot of courage.”

Mr. Trump looked happier than he had in a while, exulting over the day as he noted the roar of the takeoff and the tremble felt on the rooftop a few moments later. It was, he said, “a beautiful sight.” And one he would like Americans to see again and again in the days and months to come.

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George Floyd’s Brother Says Trump Was Dismissive On Condolence Call

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George Floyd’s Brother Says Trump Was Dismissive On Condolence Call

A condolence phone call from President Donald Trump ended up frustrating George Floyd’s brother, who said Trump “didn’t give [him] the opportunity to even speak.”

“It hurt me,” Philonise Floyd said in an interview Saturday on MSNBC. Floyd’s brother George died Monday during an arrest by white police officers in Minneapolis. He was 46.

The call with Trump was “so fast,” Floyd told the Rev. Al Sharpton on “Politics Nation.”

“He didn’t give me the opportunity to even speak,” Floyd said, as his son Brandon sat beside him. “It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off, like: ‘I don’t want to hear what you’re talking about.’”

Floyd said: “I just told him I want justice. I said that I couldn’t believe that they committed a modern-day lynching in broad daylight. I can’t stand for that. I can’t. And it hurt me.”

George Floyd, who was Black, died after police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for several minutes while an unarmed Floyd was restrained and held on the ground. Chauvin has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The other three officers involved in the arrest were fired, but remain free.

“They all need to be convicted of first-degree murder and given the death penalty,” Philonise Floyd told Sharpton. “They didn’t care about what they wanted to do with my brother. He wasn’t a person to them. He was scum, he was nothing [to them]. I can imagine how many people they did like that.”

Floyd became emotional later in the interview. “I just don’t understand, man,” he told Sharpton tearfully. “Why we gotta go through this? Why we gotta have all this pain, man? I love my brother. I’m never going to see him again.”

Check out the interview in the video above.



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Elon Musk ‘overcome with emotion’ after SpaceX’s 1st astronaut launch

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Elon Musk ‘overcome with emotion’ after SpaceX’s 1st astronaut launch

SpaceX founder Elon Musk was choked up with emotion after his company successfully launched astronauts to space for the first time on Saturday (May 30). 

“I’m really quite overcome with emotion on this day, so it’s kind of hard to talk, frankly,” Musk said in a post-launch press conference at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Saturday evening. “It’s been 18 years working towards this goal, so it’s hard to believe that it’s happened.”



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Donald Trump vows to stop ‘mob violence’ protesting George Floyd death

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Donald Trump vows to stop ‘mob violence’ protesting George Floyd death

By: Bloomberg |

Updated: May 31, 2020 8:02:03 am





US President Donald Trump said, “There will be no anarchy.” (AP)

President Donald Trump vowed his administration would end what he called “mob violence” in US cities following the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of Minnesota police, blaming leftist groups for clashes with police and property damage around the nation.

“The mobs are devastating the life’s work of good people and destroying their dreams,” Trump said at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in remarks following the first launch of US astronauts into orbit from US soil since 2011.

“There will be no anarchy,” Trump said. “Civilization must be cherished, defended and protected. The voices of law-abiding citizens must be heard, and heard very loudly.”

Saturday’s successful rocket launch by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which will carry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, had served as a chance for Trump to take a victory lap for an electoral promise to reestablish American dominance in space.

It’s also a symbolic step; the U.S. is resuming manned spaceflight just as most of the country begins to emerge from lockdowns from the coronavirus pandemic and is in a deep economic downturn. Trump touted the launch as part of his “America First” agenda.

Demonstrations all over

Instead, the day was overshadowed by demonstrations in Minneapolis, Louisville, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and other cities, continuing the political strife and racial division that have accompanied Trump’s presidency. Protesters demanded justice for George Floyd, who died this week after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.

The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter. He is white.

“Radical left criminals, thugs and others, all throughout our country and throughout the world, will not be allowed to set communities ablaze,” Trump said. “We won’t let it happen.”

Trump didn’t specify how his administration would act against violent protesters.

“The leadership of the National Guard and the Department of Justice are now in close communication with state and city officials in Minnesota,” he said, “and we are coordinating our efforts with local law enforcement all across the nation.”

Friday’s skirmishes

Even as Trump spoke in Florida, protesters were gathering again outside the White House. Demonstrators in Lafayette Park across from the White House skirmished with the Secret Service on Friday, leading to six arrests and “multiple” injuries among the agency’s personnel, it said in a statement.

Earlier Saturday, the president encouraged his supporters to rally outside his residence as well, inviting a potentially dangerous confrontation.

On his way to Florida, Trump threatened to unleash the “unlimited power” of the U.S. military on demonstrators, ignoring legal barriers to deploying the military within the nation’s borders for law-enforcement purposes. He has also repeatedly needled the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, expressing outrage that protesters in the city were able to enter and burn a police precinct station.

“Those making excuses or justifications for violence are not helping the downtrodden but delivering new anguish and pain,” Trump said at Cape Canaveral.

Bad apples

Despite the outpouring of anger from protesters, who argue that Floyd’s death was the result of systemic police brutality and racism, Trump defended the “overwhelming majority” of police whom he said are “incredible in every way.”

“No one is more upset than fellow law enforcement officers by the small handful who fail to abide by their oath to serve and protect,” the president said.

In a series of tweets Saturday morning, Trump appeared to revel in the potential for violence outside the White House, warning that Friday’s protesters would have been met by “vicious dogs” and “most ominous weapons” had they dared to breach the fence around the property.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Saturday that the reference to attack dogs was “no subtle reminder to African-Americans of segregationists that let dogs out on women, children and innocent people in the South.” She called the comments “an attack on humanity.”

Trump depicted Secret Services agents as eager to battle the demonstrators, and later issued an appeal to his supporters to assemble: “Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???”

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As U.S. cities burn, Twitter fact-checks messages that may inflame racial tensions

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As U.S. cities burn, Twitter fact-checks messages that may inflame racial tensions

As unrest over the death of George Floyd rocks the U.S. for the fifth straight day, Twitter said it has been applying fact-check labels to tweets that could inflame racial tensions.

Twitter, which got into an open confrontation with President Donald Trump this week by applying labels to his tweets, told Newsweek it was focusing its campaign against misinformation on “manipulated media” as well as on the pandemic and U.S. elections.

For example, some tweets involving the Floyd incident had been flagged. Tweets from rapper Ice Cube and Bishop Talbert Swan that claimed Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer shown kneeling on Floyd’s neck, had worn a “Make Whites Great Again” hat were labeled “Manipulated Media.” The label linked to a landing page providing information that the photo was a hoax, and that the man wearing the hat was not Chauvin.

Twitter’s labeling system was unveiled on May 11, and the social media giant says the aim is to “provide additional context and information” on tweets.

“Rather than saying something is true or false, we are providing people with more context so they can make their own informed decisions about what they see on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesperson told Newsweek via email on Saturday.

“Given the dynamic situation, we will prioritize review and labeling of content that could increase people’s likelihood of being harmed,” she added.


In this photo illustration the Twitter logo is displayed on the screen of an iPhone in front of a computer screen displaying Twitter logos on February 07, 2019 in Paris, France. Twitter told Newsweek on Saturday that it had been labeling tweets that could inflame racial tensions amid the George Floyd protests.
Chesnot/Getty

On Tuesday, Trump accused Twitter of “stifling free speech” and attempting to influence the 2020 election by putting a fact-check label on Trump’s tweets about mail-in voting.

“There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one,” Trump tweeted.

Twitter added a label to his tweets, reading “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.” The label directs users to a landing page that says that past studies of voting by mail have not linked the practice with widespread voter fraud.

Trump reacted to the label by tweeting, “.@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election,” Trump wrote in response. “They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post……..Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”

Wednesday, Trump accused the platform of “totally [silencing] conservative voices,” and threatened to shut down social media platforms “before we can ever allow this to happen.”

The next day, Trump signed an executive order. The order would remove a liability shield from the Communications Decency Act if social media platforms edit content. In the past, platforms have been protected from liability, because they are considered forums rather than traditional publishers that are responsible for the content they publish.

Twitter has continued to label tweets by Trump, including a notification on Friday that Trump’s tweet about the protests that included the line “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” violated Twitter’s policy against glorifying violence. The tweet remained on Twitter, however, because the company “has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”



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Curfews go into effect in cities around the country

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Curfews go into effect in cities around the country

Curfews have been instituted around the country on Saturday as mass demonstrations broke out nationwide and cities braced for another night of protests.

Minneapolis

A curfew went back in effect in Minneapolis on Saturday at 8 p.m. after the city braced for another night of unrest.

“By being out tonight & breaking the 8pm curfew, you are helping the people using crowds as cover to prey on Minneapolis & destroy community,” Mayor Jacob Frey wrote on twitter. The city was also under curfew on Friday night.

Frey said the governor has “fully mobilized” the Minnesota National Guard to respond to demonstrations in the city on Saturday. Violating curfew is punishable by up to a $1000 fine and 90 days in jail, the mayor’s emergency regulation said.

Chicago

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Saturday that Chicago would go under a curfew at 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. “until further notice.”

On Saturday, thousands marched through the Windy City’s downtown after more than 100 protesters were arrested Friday night.

Los Angeles

Demonstrators protest the death of George Floyd in Los Angeles on May 30, 2020.Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP

Mayor Eric Garcetti said a curfew will begin in Downtown LA starting at 8 p.m. and will last until 5:30 a.m.

“We will always protect free speech and Angelenos’ right to live without fear of violence or vandalism,” Garcetti wrote on Twitter, saying the curfew is meant to “increase safety for demonstrators, law enforcement and all citizens of Los Angeles.”

Protests in LA were already underway on Saturday as buses were overtaken and multiple police cars were set on fire in the city’s 4th day of protests.

Beverly Hills also issued a dusk to dawn curfew amid protests and vandalism.

Atlanta

Atlanta went under a curfew Saturday evening, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced in an executive order.

The decree applies to the entire city and began at 9 p.m. and will last until sunrise. The city said the curfew is a result of the “recent acts of violence” during protests.

On Friday, Atlanta saw mass demonstrations where protesters set a police car on fire, struck officers with bottles, and vandalized the headquarters of CNN.

Denver

After Denver was rocked by two days of protests, Mayor Michael Hancock announced he is enacting a curfew on Saturday “to help protect people and property.”

The curfew began at 8 p.m. on Saturday and will last until 5 a.m. Sunday, Hancock said in a press release. There will also be a curfew in place on Sunday evening.

The mayor said 34 people have been arrested in the past two nights of protest, and called the “destruction” in the city “reckless, inexcusable, and unacceptable.”

Philadelphia

Smoke rises from a police cruiser in Philadelphia’s City Center on Saturday, May 30.Yong Kim / The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP

Mayor Jim Kenney announced he was placing Philadelphia under a curfew on Saturday.

The city’s curfew started at 8 p.m. and will last until 6 a.m. on Sunday.

On Saturday, thousands of people marched in Philadelphia in a protest that led to many fires. One Starbucks became engulfed in flames, in addition to some police cars.

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh went under curfew at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The news comes after the city declared the protest an “unlawful assembly” and police reported “rioting and looting” throughout downtown, telling residents to avoid the area.

Seattle

Seattle joined the growing list of cities under curfew Saturday, with its curfew beginning at 5 p.m.

Mayor Jenny Durkan said “crowds need to disburse from downtown immediately.”

“While many individuals gathered peaceful, some individuals have started fires and are destroying buildings,” the mayor wrote on Twitter. “There are multiple fires downtown and it is an extremely dangerous situation.”

Cleveland and Columbus

Both Ohio cities announced curfews as the governor has ordered the Ohio National Guard to respond to the growing unrest.

In Cleveland, the curfew began at 8 p.m. and will last until 8 a.m. Sunday morning. The curfew will also be in place Sunday evening into Monday morning.

The Columbus curfew began at 10 p.m. Saturday and goes until 6 a.m. Sunday.

“In this time of deep anger, sadness, and frustration, we stand with those who are expressing their First Amendment rights, but we will not stand for those who wish to inflict pain and cause destruction,” Gov. Mike DeWine wrote on Twitter Saturday.

Portland

Portland will go back under curfew on Saturday night. Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency early Saturday morning, immediately putting the city into a curfew until 6 a.m. The curfew will resume on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and will lift on Sunday at 6:00 a.m.

Eugene, Oregon, south of Portland, also enacted a curfew on Saturday, beginning at 9 p.m. and lasting until 6 a.m. Sunday.

Rochester

Rochester, New York enacted a curfew on Saturday in the city between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Sunday morning. Mayor Lovely Warren said the order was put into effect “due to potential for widespread breach of peace.”

The city saw a large demonstration, where police shot pepper balls at protesters, according to NBC Rochester affiliate.

Miami

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez announced a countywide curfew Saturday. The announcement comes after the city saw widespread demonstration, and dozens of protestors and police faced off outside a Miami police department.

Milwaukee

Wisconsin’s biggest city will be under curfew on Saturday after the Mayor said demonstrations turned “unlawful and violent” on Friday.

The lockdown will last from 9 p.m. Saturday until 7 a.m. Sunday.

Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City, Utah is under curfew Saturday night until 6 a.m. Monday morning.

Mayor Erin Mendenhall said the curfew is due to protests that hit the city on Saturday, and people cannot be on the streets except for certain exceptions.

Utah also deployed the state’s national guard to the city on Saturday.



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Looting of Retail Takes Over L.A.’s George Floyd Protests

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Looting of Retail Takes Over L.A.’s George Floyd Protests



Fears among retailers and brands that protests in Los Angeles over the death of George Floyd would devolve into looting have been realized in many areas.

On Saturday evening, around 6 p.m., an Alexander McQueen store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills was broken into and looted, according to live video aired by a local CBS station. Dozens of mainly young men streamed into the McQueen store after the glass of its doorway was broken. A large display window was tagged with “Make America Pay.” The store had not been boarded up like most of its neighbors had earlier in the day. Some that entered the store ran out with handfuls of merchandise and handbags.

Not long before, the Gucci store on rodeo was tagged with “Eat the rich” and managed to breach its blue plywood barricade and starting to break the glass facade behind, but left when police started to run over. Dozens of police, many in riot gear, were present in and around the Rodeo area since early afternoon as protests in L.A. began to grow and move west from the Fairfax/Grove area of L.A.. The police did not attempt to stop the looting of the McQueen store.

Man runs from a Nordstrom in The Grove shopping center after the store was robbed during a protest over the death of George Floyd, in Los Angeles. Protests were held throughout the country over the death of Floyd, a black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25Minneapolis Police Death , Los Angeles, United States - 30 May 2020

The Nordstrom in The Grove shopping center was broken into from a rear entrance. 
Mark J Terrill/AP/Shutterstock

As of 6:30 p.m., the CBS station was showing video of a Nordstrom department store within The Grove shopping center that had its rear entrance broken into, allowing the looting of merchandise to begin. The Apple store in the Grove was also broken into and looted, as was a Ray-Ban store.

The Marc Jacobs on Melrose Ave. had also been breached by this time, with its glass door shattered. The store had not barricaded its windows, but from video on social media it appears the store was cleared of any available merchandise. Unbroken glass on the store’s window read “F*** capitalism.” The large placard reading Marc Jacobs at the entrance had the names George Floyd and Sandra Bland added to it. Floyd was killed Monday by a police officer while being arrested in Minneapolis for a nonviolent crime, sparking the current wave of protests in the U.S. Bland was found hanged in a jail cell in Texas in 2015 after being detained by police during a traffic stop.

Signs near Rodeo Drive during protests for justice for the kiling of George Floyd in Beverly Hills, California on May 30, 2020.Black Lives Matter protest, Los Angeles, USA - 30 May 2020

Graffiti on a closed store on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles amid protesting. 
Michael Buckner/Variety/Shutterstock

Just before 8 p.m., Flight Club, a popular sneaker store on Fairfax with many expensive pairs, had its metal gate broken through and was quickly looted of merchandise. Dozens of people went in empty-handed and came out with display sneakers, which the store typically shrink wraps, and all the boxes they could carry. Numerous shoe boxes could be seen strewn on the sidewalk and the street in front of the store as looters went through merchandise and some even filled cars with boxes of shoes. Police did not intervene as looters went in repeatedly.

By 9 p.m. more stores were being looted, including an Adidas Originals location on Melrose, which also had a metal gate lifted, its glass door broken and saw most of its merchandise taken, and a nearby Urban Outfitters. Also on Melrose in West Hollywood The Real Real’s location was broken into and looted. A trio of small retail establishments on Melrose were also set on fire: Tony K. a shoe store, Reloaded, an apparel store, and a Dr. Martens store. A Target store in the Fairfax neighborhood was also being looted by this time.

Shortly before 7 p.m. L.A. instituted a city-wide curfew of 8 p.m. as the protests became increasingly chaotic. Shortly before, the gathering in front of The Grove was officially deemed unlawful by police, leading to a number of arrests. Overnight on Thursday, when protests in L.A. were concentrated in the Downtown area, police reportedly arrested around 500 people.

People protest near Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California on May 30, 2020.Black Lives Matter protest, Los Angeles, USA - 30 May 2020

Protestors meeting armed police on Rodeo Drive. 
Michael Buckner/Variety/Shutterstock

“This is no longer protest, this is destruction,” L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Saturday night. But the curfew did little to deter all people and protestors, thousands of which were still out on the streets of L.A. as 8 p.m. approached. L.A. police said later Saturday evening that it had mobilized the entire police force, close to 10,000 officers. This is the first time the entire police force has been mobilized since 1994, when severe earthquakes hit the San Fernando Valley region of L.A. County.

By 8:30 p.m., California Governor Gavin Newsom approved the state’s National Guard to come to L.A. and assist the police. They are expected to arrive in the city by midnight.

This is the third night of protesting in L.A., which has been predominately peaceful. Other cities across the U.S. are seeing protests as well, including Seattle, Portland, Nashville, Washington D.C., Philadelphia Atlanta, Tampa, Brooklyn and Minneapolis, the city where George Floyd was killed.



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