A police officer in Seattle was caught on video pressing a knee into the necks of white looting suspects who were arrested on Saturday night.Â
Floyd’s death kicked off a wave of unrest around the nation, including the demonstration in Seattle, where the unidentified officer used a similar technique on two men who were accused of looting.
In one case, a protester could be heard shouting “get your fucking knee off his neck.†A second officer then shoved the first officer’s knee off of the suspect’s neck and onto his back in footage captured by Crosscut journalist Matt McKnight:
A longer clip by McKnight showed the same officer apparently using his knee on the neck of another white looting suspect minutes earlier. Then, he runs to help officers catch the second suspect, where he uses his knee again:Â Â
AsianScientist (Jun. 1, 2020) – Cutting across not just geographical but also cultural, social and political divides, food security is a global problem that must be solved by all countries, whether developing or developed. By 2050, the global demand for food will be at least 60 percent greater than today, and the world must find enough food to feed nine billion people.
Asia Pacific region is the largest and one of the most diverse in the world, with significant variations in climate, levels of development and urban/rural population distribution. It is home to 60 percent of the world’s population, including the two most populous countries in the world, China and India.
The variations across the region also result in differences in agricultural production capacity, making some countries more vulnerable to food security risks than others. According to the Global Food Security Index, while its emerging economies are growing rapidly, the food security gap between developed and developing countries remains wide.
Without addressing food security, the region faces risks including malnutrition, hunger and even conflict. The United Nations made ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture all part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with ending hunger as the second of its 17 SDGs. With the SDG target of 2030 edging closer and much progress yet to be achieved, natural scientists and economists are looking at innovative solutions to the issue.
“We need to have a sustained supply of affordable food, feed and fiber. And to me, modern technologies are the only way to go,†said Professor Paul Teng, dean and managing director at the National Institute of Education International.
The emerging gene editing technology, CRISPR-Cas9, could help agriculture sectors become more productive, he told Asian Scientist Magazine. Bracing against a net food deficit
Teng began his career in US universities and in the late 1980’s joined the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, where he led cross-ecosystem research efforts towards addressing global rice supply and demand issues.
Today, he serves as an adjunct senior fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, while continuing to advise agricultural education institutions on food issues.
Early on, he recognized that more than just agricultural innovation is needed to tackle food security issues: one must also have a deep understanding of the cultural dimensions involved, such as convincing smallholder farmers throughout Asia to adopt new technologies.
“Roughly 87 percent of the world’s smallholder farmers are in Asia, and that’s roughly 500 million. That’s a lot of smallholder farmers!†he quipped. This is important, he noted, because smallholder farmers grow 70 percent of the world’s food.
As Teng explained, much of food production goes to animal feed, the need for which is spurred by the global demand for meat. In Asia alone, the hunger for animal protein has taken a heavy toll on farmers.
It may come as a surprise to many that the humble soybean, that most quintessential of Asian foods, doesn’t come from Asian farmers for the most part.
“Right now, Asia as a continent imports about 70 percent of the world’s soybeans, mainly from the western hemisphere,†Teng said.
The same is true for other crops, most of which are destined to feed our livestock rather than going straight to our mouths. “About 40 percent of the world’s corn comes to Asia.
“We just can’t get enough soybean and corn,†Teng shared. “And Indonesia is the world’s largest importer of wheat for food. This is a very vulnerable dependency.â€
It’s a trend that won’t let up anytime soon, and Teng is worried about this continued dependence on food imports from the west. “Going forward for the next ten years, Asia is going to be at a net food deficit region. We’re going to continue importing food from the west,†he lamented. There is no doubt in Teng’s mind that biotechnology will have to come in at some point if we want to address Asia’s food security issues. A CRISPR future
“For Southeast Asia to want to become competitive in food production, it has to adopt modern technologies,†Teng told Asian Scientist Magazine.
Chief among these of course is CRISPR gene editing technology, which has been in the spotlight of scientific research and public imagination ever since its mechanism was unraveled in 2012.
CRISPR uses a scissor-like protein to cut specific portions of an organism’s DNA with unprecedented accuracy. The technology can be used to cut out or splice specific portions of DNA, much like how a movie director might edit a film. Extending this analogy, the end result is the same body of work, albeit precisely altered at a particular segment on a film reel.
In contrast, standard genetic modification (GMO) techniques introduce genetic material from other organisms—a process which, though proven to be scientifically sound, comes across to some as unnatural.
A way in which the public may be better primed to welcome the benefits of CRISPR is by highlighting its immediate benefits to consumers, Teng suggested. For this, he made a distinction between ‘input traits’ that benefit farmers directly, and ‘output traits’ that benefit consumers directly.
Input traits include herbicide tolerance, insect resistance and draught tolerance—traits that appeal to farmers because they help ensure crop yields. Output traits, on the other hand, include traits such as improved taste and longer shelf life—attributes that shoppers would find appealing, and make them more likely to buy a product.
Output traits resonate much better with consumers “because it’s a direct benefit to them,†Teng said. And while input traits still indirectly benefit consumers by helping ensure supply and thereby keeping prices low, these benefits are not immediately apparent.
“Consumers don’t see the direct benefit [to them],†Teng said.
A need for an Asian dialogue
And here’s where the battle for public perception is key. There is less of a potential for stigma towards gene editing—CRISPR specifically, seeing as it is front and center in the public eye when it comes to the latest biotechnology—because it builds on an organism’s naturally occurring genetic material to produce benefits that are immediately apparent for farmers and consumers.
“[CRISPR] gene editing is being seen now as a possible way around some of the battles in public acceptance and regulatory approvals that plagued GMOs,†Teng said.
But the problem is that government regulators have yet to even just talk about, much less discuss, the implications of CRISPR gene editing in agriculture. Thankfully, that’s beginning to change.
“We’re at the stage now where, in terms of communication, we need to overcome the knowledge deficit,†Teng said.
Buildings near the White House were set ablaze Sunday night during the third day in a row of protests in Washington D.C. over the death of George Floyd.
Police said a fire was set in the basement of the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church as some protesters began to clash with police. Part of the building was vandalized and graffiti reading, “The Devil is across [the] street,†was painted on the church. The blaze was later extinguished and authorities said it didn’t appear to do much damage.
“I guess God was on its side,†Vito Maggiolo, a spokesman for the Washington D.C. Fire Department, told The Washington Post.
Next door, the headquarters of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of unions, was vandalized and a fire set in the building’s lobby. One reporter said the lobby appeared “engulfed†and that it was “filled with smoke†after the windows were broken and graffiti spray-painted across the exterior.
Another structure near Lafayette Square was also on fire and other blazes were set in the area, fire officials said.Â
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Demonstrators hold their fist in the air while a fire burns inside the office building of the AFL-CIO headquarters.Â
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A fire burns in a dumpster near the White House in Washington.Â
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A firework explodes by a police line as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd.Â
As the protests continued, exterior lights surrounding the White House were shut off, plunging the grounds in darkness. Police gathered outside fired tear gas toward demonstrators as an 11 p.m. curfew set in, with some protesters throwing water bottles toward officers or setting off fireworks as the night went on.
Aerial footage showed smoke rising over the city with the Washington Monument shrouded in haze.
The demonstrations add to a growing chorus of rage around the country over the death of Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The officer has since been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
President Donald Trump has not made many public appeals to angry protesters this weekend, instead wielding his Twitter account to attack Democrats and castigate demonstrators as “thugs†and “anarchists.†On Friday night, the Secret Service rushed him to a secure bunker beneath the White House that has been used during terrorist attacks, according to reports from The New York Times and Associated Press.
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The Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have hiked the price of Liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder rates effective from today (1 June) to Rs 37 for a cylinder of non-subsidised LPG in metro cities.
Non-Subsidised #LPG cylinder’s price increased by Rs 11.50/cylinder to Rs 593 from Rs 581.50 for 14.2 kg cylinder in Delhi pic.twitter.com/czb1pjJzX0
The government currently subsidises 12 cylinders of 14.2 kilograms each per household in a year.
The price of the 14.2 kilogram cylinder of non-subsidised LPG gas in Delhi has been raised by Rs 11.50 from May to Rs 593 per cylinder while it costs Rs 616 in Kolkata (against Rs 584.50 earlier) and Rs 590.50 (Rs 579 earlier) in Mumbai.
The highest increase is in Chennai where the price has been hiked by Rs 37 to Rs 606.50 against Rs 569.50 in Chennai.
Additional purchases have to be made at the market price.
In a statement on Sunday, Indian Oil Corp said that the retail selling price of LPG in Delhi market for the month of May 2020 was reduced from Rs 744 to Rs 581.50 per cylinder for all consumers in line with drop in International prices.
“For the month of June, there has been an increase in International prices of LPG. Due to increase in the prices in international market, the RSP of LPG in Delhi market will be increased by Rs 11.50 per cylinder,” it said.
It,however, said that, this increase will not impact the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala (PMUY) beneficiaries, as they are covered by the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, and entitled to a free cylinder till June 30.
ATF prices hiked
Price of ATF in the national capital has been raised by Rs 11,030.62 to 33,575.37 per kilolitre, according to data on the Indian Oil Corp’s website.
Similarly, that in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai has been raised to Rs 38,543.48, Rs 3,070.56 and Rs 34,569.30 per kilolitre.
A kilolitre of jet fuel in June will cost airlines Rs 33,575 in comparison to Rs 22,544 in May — an increase of Rs 11,031 per kilolitre. The price of a kilolitre of ATF will cost Rs 33,575 in Delhi while the cost will rise to Rs 38,543 in Kolkata. In Mumbai, a kilolitre of ATF will now cost Rs 33,070.
“Just when we were just beginning to take to the skies again, there has been a steep hike of 48%. With poor aircraft occupancy, higher fuel price and weaker rupee, airlines will need to closely examine how many planes should they be flying to keep costs in check as revenue stream is very weak,” an official told The Times of India.
The smoke is still rising from some of these Minneapolis businesses after protests over George Floyd’s death turned violent.
Wochit
MINNEAPOLIS — Brandy Moore likened the charred remains of her south Minneapolis clothing store and recording studio to the pangs for equality that minorities here feel.Â
Smoke continued to waft in the air 24 hours after people protesting the death of George Floyd lit fire to Moore’s storefront, and several others along Lake Street.
“My business burned down two days ago, you see the flames? It’s still going,” Moore, 41, said Sunday. “That flame down in people’s soul? It’s still going. They want justice.”
She is among dozens of Minneapolis and St. Paul business owners, small and large, trying to rebuild after fiery riots and demonstrations in the Twin Cities on Thursday and Friday. Her company, “Levels,” which also has a St. Paul location that remains undamaged, was Moore’s “baby.”Â
Moore, a black woman, said she started the business from the trunk of her car once she left a job with Minneapolis Public Schools in 2011 to pursue her passion for fashion and music.
It had been opened for five years before people broke in Friday and started a fire that destroyed her business and several adjacent stores. When she was alerted to the break-in, Moore went to Lake Street and watched nearly a decade of work collapse into the concrete.Â
“I’m hurt that I lost this. But … I can’t cry right now,” she said. “I can’t go home and cry and be hurt because I lost businesses. George Floyd lost his life. He’ll never be here again.”
She’s confident she can recover but isn’t sure if she can rebuild at the same location — in the heart of a diverse southside neighborhood. A GoFundMe has been started to help with those expenses. Other small businesses face similar uncertainty, but several fundraisers have been started to help support Minneapolis’ littlest companies.
As looters ransacked his St. Paul store, this business owner hid in the bathroom and whispered to 911
In St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood, just blocks from where Moore’s second Levels location was protected by armed men standing on its porch, one business owner said he hid in his office as people ransacked, urinated in and damaged the building.
Jim Segal closed Ax-Man Surplus earlier than normal Thursday afternoon because daylight looting took hold at the nearby intersection of University and Snelling avenues. After sending customers and employees home and locking the front door, Segal said he continued to work in the office of the six-decade-old company. Then he heard multiple glass windows break.Â
“Luckily, I have a steel door because they were trying to enter the office,” said Segal, who bought the surplus store about 20 years ago. “I don’t think they knew anybody was in there, but I basically barricaded myself within a bathroom inside the office.”
He felt as if he were in a movie, the St. Paul native said. As display cases were shattered and electronics taken from inside his store, he whispered to 911 dispatch asking for help.
“Police said, ‘Don’t even bother boarding up your store,'” Segal said Saturday. “‘There’s a 50/50 chance it won’t be here tomorrow.”
About 6:30 p.m. Thursday, he returned to the St. Paul Ax-Man location, one of three in the metro, in an unsuccessful effort to shoo away people running in and out of his store.
A company agreed to board up his windows, Segal said, but left quickly after arriving, not wanting to work amongst the crowd. He tried to get a license plate of someone stealing, but others tried to take his phone so he retreated to his car.Â
Segal sat in his vehicle for hours as rioters peed in his store and took items ranging from knick-knacks and DVDs to a snow-blower. He said coronavirus concerns forced him to close his business for the better part of two months. They’d been reopened a little more than a week when the building was ransacked.Â
“I don’t recall ever being in a situation where I was that panicked. I was petrified, actually,” he said. Ax-Man won’t reopen for at least a week or two, and Segal fears it may close permanently because of the lack of sales during the spring. That would mean a loss of livelihood for him and about 10 employees.
He sympathizes with those upset about Floyd’s death in police custody on Memorial Day, describing the video of Minneapolis police officers’ actions “horrific.”Â
“This is just stuff, no comparison (to a person dying),” said Segal, a white man. “But what I’m disappointed about is the lack of leadership in the government — Mayor (Melvin) Carter, Mayor (Jacob) Frey, Gov. (Tim) Walz — to just allow lawlessness.Â
“Indefensible what happened to Mr. Floyd, but this doesn’t make it better. And I don’t know what does.”Â
Insurance helps small business owners, but a full recovery is ‘a lot more complicated’
While Moore and Segal both said they are insured, they don’t believe insurance alone will enough to replace everything they’ve lost. People typically see business owner and think “wealth,” Segal said.Â
“That’s not true for me,” he said. “I’m the last one to get paid.”Â
Understanding insurance policies can be difficult for many small business owners, said Allison Sharkey, executive director of the Lake Street Council, which supports local companies. Lake Street has always been an area for Minneapolis’s immigrant entrepreneurs to start businesses, she said, and many of those folks may not be familiar with aid systems or insurance proceedings.Â
“There’s a lot of detail to go through in your contract that most people don’t really understand until a situation like this happens,” Sharkey said. “It’s a lot more complicated than just paying a $500 deductible and thinking the rest is going to be covered.”
Minority business owners may not have the credit or assets to withstand closures as long as white business owners with more resources, she said. The council, and other metro business associations like it, try to fill that gap and provide guidance, but insurance claims won’t stop some businesses from completely fading away.
For Moore, she’s frustrated when people bring up the fact she’s insured because it ignores the work she put into the building and the items she won’t get back.Â
“When you get it out the mud — meaning when you get it on your own, no handouts … someone just handing you money doesn’t equate,” she said. “It’s deeper than that.”
Financial support is coming for Twin Cities small businesses left in rubble amid George Floyd protests
When Segal returned to his business Friday, he found a person who lived nearby sweeping glass from the sidewalk, which raised his spirits.
Monetary support has begun, too. It’s especially vital, small business advocates say, because many companies were already running out of money because of closures due to COVID-19.Â
The Lake Street Council has received over $1.5 million to help support the hundreds of businesses that line the heavily damaged area. Sharkey said companies owned by people of color and immigrants have been especially affected by the days of unrest. Several “big, beautiful” buildings on the southside have been replaced by rubble, which will be eventually replaced by vacant lots.Â
“($1.5 million) sounds like a big number, but we’re gonna need a lot more government and nonprofit support,” Sharkey said. “We have a long road ahead of us.”Â
She said her organization had already begun to save money to distribute to companies dealing with financial contractions from the coronavirus, but it’s not been shifted to riot recovery. The council will request an aid package from the state, but Sharkey thinks they’ll need federal dollars as well.Â
“We’re headed toward a recession,” she said. “We’re really going to have to create a long-term strategy along with stakeholders, business owners, property owners business groups, elected officials.”
Fundraising has begun in Segal’s area, as well. The Hamline Midway Coalition has received more than $75,000 to help aid small businesses in their recovery from property damage and lost sales.Â
Kate Mudge, the coalition’s director, said the organization has been raising funds to help small and minority business owners worried about gentrification and corporatization coming with the new U.S. soccer stadium built nearby.Â
“We already have been dealing with a pandemic, we’ve been dealing with some long-term issues in our community, and this is the icing on the cake. We hope that thisÂ
is gonna bring new people to Midway, new businesses,” she said. “We’ve dealt with worse.”
Despite the uncertainty, the organizations are confident many businesses will survive if community support keeps up.Â
“I’m not blaming people, you can’t judge anybody’s pain or anger. Everyone acts and reacts to things in different ways,” Moore said. “I have a black-owned business, it was burned down and we were protesting, for a black man’s life that was taken. So, I was just a little confused on where we’re going with this. But, at the end of the day, everything is about sacrifices.”
Tyler Davis can be contacted at tjdavis@dmreg.com or on Twitter @TDavisDMR.
Liquor stores: Tops opening times, trading hours and limits for Monday 1 June
Hot-spots in Gauteng and the Western Cape have all seen lines of people snake around the block, as citizens try to get their fix for the first time in almost 10 weeks. Bottle stores can now operate from 9:00 – 17:00, from Monday through to Thursday. Supermarkets and other licensed vendors can also sell booze during this window. These establishments will not open for alcohol sales over the weekend.
The controversial alcohol ban ends at Level 3 of lockdown, which officially came into force on Monday. It already seems like many South Africans have a cause for celebration.
Watch: Liquor stores open up for Level 3
Most of the people in this queue say they are here for alcohol. This store opposite Thokoza Park in Soweto has been open for essentials but will also open its liquor section as well @Newzroom405#Level3pic.twitter.com/gU9F5qzCBy
Level 3 alcohol sales – people queuing overnight at Tops
Even before shops opened their doors, people had quite literally set their stalls up in preparation. Some shoppers even camped out overnight at certain liquor stores, adamant that they’d be the first to get their alcohol after such a long wait. Social distancing measures have varied in different places, though.
Tens of thousands of people protested across the United States and in major world cities for a sixth night as outrage over police brutality intensified over the death of George Floyd.
Floyd, 46, an unarmed black man, died last Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck as he pleaded “I can’t breathe”, sparking outrage that has swept across a politically and racially divided nation.
More:
In Minneapolis on Sunday, a tanker truck driver drove into a massive crowd of demonstrators. The driver was pulled from his rig and beaten. No protesters appeared to be injured and the driver was later arrested.
“I hate to see my city like this but at the end we need justice,” said 18-year-old Jahvon Craven as he stood on an overpass watching protesters below in downtown Minneapolis.
Protesters in Philadelphia hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, while thieves in more than 20 Californian cities smashed their way into businesses and ran off with as much as they could carry.Â
Major US cities imposed curfews in fear of another night of demonstrations descending into violence and looting.
In Washington, DC, protesters set fires near the White House, the smoke mixing with billowing clouds of tear gas as police sought to clear them from the area. Sporadic violence broke out in Boston following peaceful protests as activists threw bottles at police officers and lit a police 4WD on fire.
Several hundred demonstrators marched through downtown Miami chanting: “No justice, no peace,” past a detention centre where inmates could be seen in the narrow windows waving shirts.
The Minneapolis Police Department said on Twitter about 150Â protesters who remained out after the 8pm curfew were arrested.
Protests spread around the globe with events in London and Berlin on Sunday, and others on Monday including in New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands.
Coronavirus fears
The closely packed crowds and demonstrators not wearing masks sparked fears of a resurgence of COVID-19, which has killed more than 100,000 Americans.
Demonstrators have flooded streets after weeks of lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic, which threw millions out of work and hit minority communities especially hard.
Sunday’s protests demonstrated that the arrest of Derek Chauvin, the police officer seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck, failed to satisfy protesters. Three officers who stood by as Floyd died have yet to be charged.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Attorney General Keith Ellison will take the lead in any prosecutions over the death of Floyd.
Walz told reporters that Ellison “needs to lead this case”. He said he made the decision after speaking with Floyd’s family who “wanted to believe that there was a trust, and they wanted to believe that the facts would be heard”.
Protesters holding a large banner with George Floyd’s name in Brooklyn, New York [Justin Heiman/ AFP]
In San Francisco, more than 1,000 people marched through the streets, carrying signs and chanting “George Floyd” and “Black Lives Matter”.
Los Angeles County declared a 6pm curfew to prevent a repeat of the violence that broke out on Saturday night. But fires were lit in Long Beach and National Guard troops were called in.
The county and city of Los Angeles declared states of emergency on Sunday after a night of looting, vandalism and arson that followed mostly peaceful protests.
Philadelphia announced a 6pm curfew and ordered all businesses to close as local news showed images of groups of protesters attacking police cars. Other people went into nearby stores and came out with armfuls of merchandise.
One closely watched protest was outside the state capitol in Minneapolis’ twin city of St Paul, where several thousand people gathered peacefully before marching down a highway.
“We have black sons, black brothers, black friends, we don’t want them to die. We are tired of this happening, this generation is not having it, we are tired of oppression,” said Muna Abdi, a 31-year-old black woman who joined the protest.
US protesters defy curfews as outrage over police brutality intensifies
In St Paul, state troopers surrounded the state capitol building. About 170 stores in the city have been looted, its mayor said.
In response to the protests, Target Corp announced it was temporarily closing 100 stores, about 30 of them in Minnesota.
‘World is watching’
The administration of President Donald Trump, who has called protesters “thugs”, will not federalise and take control of the National Guard for now, national security adviser Robert O’Brien said.
The National Guard said on Sunday that 5,000 soldiers and airmen had been activated in 15 states and Washington, DC, but that “state and local law enforcement agencies remain responsible for security”.
A presidential move to federalise National Guard troops is rare, occurring about 12 times since the mid-1900s, mostly during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, according to the National Guard press office. It was not invoked in protests following the deaths of other Black men in recent years in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore.
Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors. These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW. The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020
Trump said on Sunday the US government would designate anti-fascist group Antifa as a “terrorist” organisation. It was not clear how many of the protesters participating in demonstrations are from Antifa.
“Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors,” Trump said on Twitter on Sunday afternoon. “These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW. The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!!”
“Sleepy Joe” is Trump’s nickname for Democrat Joe Biden, his presumptive rival for the presidency in the November election.
One closely watched protest was outside the state capitol in Minneapolis’ twin city of St Paul, where several thousand people gathered before marching down a highway.
“We have black sons, black brothers, black friends, we don’t want them to die. We are tired of this happening, this generation is not having it, we are tired of oppression,” said Muna Abdi, a 31-year-old black woman who joined the protest.
In many parts of the world, the death of yet another black man at the hands of the police in the United States is setting off mass protests against police brutality and reviving concerns that America is abandoning its traditional role as a defender of human rights.
On the streets of London and Toronto, in halls of power in Addis Ababa and Beijing, a broad chorus of criticism has erupted alongside the unrest in the United States over the death of George Floyd. Mr. Floyd died last week after he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
In Vancouver, thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets with signs reading, “Black Lives Matter.†In Berlin, newspapers published photos of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer charged in the death of Mr. Floyd, calling him “the killer-cop†who “set America ablaze.†In Lebanon, activists flooded social media sites with messages of support for protesters in the United States.
The widespread condemnation reflects growing unease about America’s rapidly eroding moral authority on the world stage. President Trump already faces criticism across the globe for his response to the coronavirus pandemic that has pushed the United States to relinquish its longtime role as a global leader in times of crisis. Even some of America’s closest allies have shown increasing opposition to his agenda.
The death of Mr. Floyd has brought protests to at least 140 American cities, turning many into tear gas-filled battlefields. Images of police officers and protesters engaged in heated street fights have spread swiftly across social media sites around the world, drawing furious comments and calls for action.
The tensions have also given American rivals an opportunity to deflect attention from their own problems.
In China, the state-run news media heavily featured reports about Mr. Floyd’s death and portrayed the protests as another sign of America’s decline.
When an American official on Saturday attacked the ruling Communist Party on Twitter for moving to impose national security legislation to quash dissent in Hong Kong, a spokeswoman for the Chinese government fired back with a popular refrain among protesters in the United States.
“‘I can’t breathe,’ †the spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, wrote on Twitter.
In Iran, Javad Zarif, the foreign minister, accused the United States of hypocrisy. He posted a doctored screenshot of a 2018 statement by American officials condemning Iran for corruption and injustice. In his version, the references to Iran were replaced with America.
“Some don’t think #BlackLivesMatter,†Mr. Zarif wrote on Twitter.
The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said in a statement on Friday that Mr. Floyd’s death was a murder, and he criticized the “continuing discriminatory practices against Black citizens of the United States of America.â€
After a weekend of protests in London, Jerusalem and elsewhere, activists around the world have vowed to continue to organize rallies and speak out about Mr. Floyd’s death in the coming days. In many places, demonstrators are taking direct aim at Mr. Trump and his policies. They are also raising concerns about police brutality in their own communities.
Holding signs and clapping their hands, hundreds of protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square in London on Sunday in defiance of stay-at-home restrictions in effect across Britain to fight the coronavirus. They chanted “I can’t breathe,†“black lives matter†and “no justice, no peace†before crossing the Thames to march peacefully to the United States Embassy.
In Berlin, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the American Embassy, some holding signs saying, “stop killing us,†Reuters reported.
In Germany’s top soccer league, two players — the English forward Jadon Sancho and the French striker Marcus Thuram — made references to the killing of George Floyd as part of goal celebrations during matches on Sunday.
The unrest in the United States has prompted activists from around the world to offer advice to American demonstrators on how to keep the movement alive. In Lebanon, a group of activists compiled a document they titled “From Beirut to Minneapolis: A protest guide in solidarity†as a guide for documenting state abuses and escalating demonstrations.
In Australia, where rallies protesting racism are planned for later this week, the images of unrest have reignited debate about the country’s own troubles with police brutality.
While some Australians expressed appreciation for living far from the United States and its problems with race, others quickly pointed out that more than 400 Indigenous Australians have died in police custody since 1991, without a single police officer convicted of abuse.
The hashtag #aboriginallivesmatter was trending on Twitter on Monday, with many Australians expressing outrage and sadness about both the death of Mr. Floyd and the racism in their own country.
The family of David Dungay, an Aboriginal man who said “I can’t breathe†12 times before he died while being restrained by prison guards in 2015, also said this week that they had been traumatized by footage of Mr. Floyd’s death, prompting them to call for another investigation into Mr. Dungay’s death.
And with tensions rising, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Monday that while the video of Mr. Floyd’s death was upsetting and shocking, Australians should be careful not to adopt the destructive response seen in some American cities.
“There’s no need to import things happening in other countries here to Australia,†Mr. Morrison told a conservative radio station Monday morning.
“I saw a good meme on the weekend,†he added. “Martin Luther King didn’t change anything by burning anything down or by looting any shops.â€
To which many Australians quickly responded: You don’t understand Dr. King.
“What is with all these white people quoting MLK who’ve not read anything of King’s beyond a meme or seen anything beyond a 30-second YouTube clip of ‘I Have a Dream,’†said Benjamin Law, an Asian-Australian writer and essayist, on Twitter.
Damien Cave contributed reporting from Sydney, Australia, Vivian Yee from Beirut, Lebanon, and Elian Peltier from Paris. Albee Zhang contributed research.
A French national has been jailed for his part in an elaborate international jewellery heist that resulted in the theft of diamonds worth millions of dollars.
Mickael Jovanovic, 27, from the Le Blanc-Mesnil region in north-eastern Paris, was part of an organised group that pretended to be diamond buyers in 2016, the United Kingdom’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement today.
Over several weeks, the group communicated with the owners of the diamonds – including in a meeting held in Monaco in March, 2016 – before a viewing was scheduled in central London.
Frenchman Mickael Jovanovic, 27, has been jailed for three years and eight months over an elaborate diamond heist in London in 2016. (Supplied)
The seller was told a gemmologist named “Anna” – who was secretly part of the group – would assess the jewels, worth £4 million ($7.3m), in a shop in the affluent suburb of Mayfair.
During that meeting, police say the woman – who had travelled to the UK along with Jovanovic and another man – distracted the seller and replaced the diamonds in a padlocked bag with fake jewels.
After leaving the store, the woman met up with the two other men on a London street and handed the jewels over before the three people left in different directions. Within three hours the trio had returned to France.
A UK police investigation that was launched afterwards reviewed the trio’s movements on CCTV footage. Despite that, Jovanovic was not located, extradited from Italy and arrested until January 30 this year.
The Frenchman was today sentenced to three years and eight months in a British jail after he pleaded guilty earlier to conspiracy to steal.
“This was a well-organised theft which evolved over a number of weeks both in London and on the continent,” detective constable William Man from the UK police said in a statement.
Affluent UK jeweller Boodles is believed to be the seller at the centre of the heist. (Google Maps)
“Like the plot of a film, this was a truly audacious crime. They stole the diamonds and fled in a matter of hours.
“However, they left behind a trail of evidence which led us to where they were staying and the Citroen they had hired in Paris.
“As a result of piecing together all of the bits of information, we knew it was only a matter of time before arrests were made.”
are homes are the focus of the Covid-19 outbreak in England and Wales. At least 40% of all coronavirus deaths have occurred in the very places dedicated to keeping people safe in their later years.
Such carnage points to a catastrophic failure at the highest level to protect care home residents and staff alike. The under-reporting of deaths, the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing available to staff, and the total focus on the NHS at the expense of the social care sector have all contributed to an estimated 22,000 deaths in care homes – places that government had originally advised were “very unlikely†to experience infection.
But how could care homes have been failed so badly, and what checks and balances should have been in place to prevent this?
Care homes in England are regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). One of its key responsibilities is to carry out inspections and visits to ensure providers meet fundamental standards of quality and safety; however, as of 16 March, the regulator stopped all routine inspections to “focus on supporting providers to deliver safe care during the pandemicâ€.
While this might sound like a positive move, stopping inspections as the country locked down has left residents of care homes at heightened risk of abuse and neglect, particularly those in homes already designated in need of improvement or inadequate.
We at Hourglass (formerly known as Action on Elder Abuse) have campaigned for nearly 30 years to promote safer ageing in a society where older people are free from abuse. Before the pandemic, it was estimated that nearly two million people aged 60 and over suffer some form of abuse in the UK every year – a horrifying figure in its own right. But we could never have comprehended the level of neglect, indifference and failure by the state to protect so many older people as we’re seeing in this terrifying pandemic.
Calls to our confidential helpline relating to concerns over neglect have increased by more than 25% since the lockdown began. Family members of care home residents have reported being unable to speak to their loved ones for weeks at a time, and to being powerless to act even when they knew that homes were taking in new residents without testing or observing isolation periods.
The biggest issue facing care homes has been their ability to protect vulnerable older people from infection in spaces where outbreaks can prove devastating. Had the CQC continued its inspections, it would have been in a position to challenge cases where PPE was being diverted away from care homes to the NHS, and to aid struggling homes in their battle to secure tests for staff and residents.
Instead, care homes have effectively been left to fend for themselves.
On top of this, the CQC joined similar bodies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in refusing to publish detailed data on care home deaths, arguing instead for a need to “avoid confusion†and to protect “the privacy and confidentiality of those who have died and their familiesâ€.
Families and the wider public have a right to know when and where Covid-19 outbreaks are happening, and this lack of transparency is deeply troubling. Registered care homes are required to report the death of anyone using the service, meaning the CQC would have known from the start that mortality rates were increasing, and which homes were worst affected.
It would be unfair and inaccurate to lay all blame on one organisation. There are a number of watchdogs in England dedicated to ensuring good quality care and safely managed staff in the sector, but at this vital time all have failed to deliver.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) could and should have done more to raise the alarm on unsafe working conditions as staff struggled to care for residents. The chief coroner’s office should reverse its baffling decision to instruct coroners to avoid examining systemic failures in provision of PPE when conducting inquests.
And the health and social care committee should ensure its investigation into the management of the coronavirus outbreak is thorough and fair.
Many roots of the national failure to prepare for this pandemic lie in the under-funding and downsizing of health and social care services, much of which took place under the watch of former heath and social care secretary Jeremy Hunt. But with Hunt now chair of the committee, there is a potential conflict of interest. Perhaps in this case he should cede the chair.
Hourglass wants clarity on who is providing oversight to care homes at this crucial time. Care providers need to know where to turn for support and who will be responsible for rectifying failures to protect residents and staff.
The CQC, HSE, chief coroner’s office and select committee all have a clear duty to ensure that our loved ones are safe and well cared for.
They are supposed to be independent of government and where appropriate have a duty to hold those in power to account; but by every conceivable measure, they have failed. With more than 22,000 now dead as a result of Covid-19 in care homes alone, the public and grieving families deserve far, far better.
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