Corpus Christi

Trump tells NYC to activate National Guard: 'The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart!'

After vowing Monday to deploy military force to restore order in states that fail to “dominate” unlawful demonstrations, President Trump on Tuesday all but ordered New York City to request help from the National Guard.

'My face exploded': Police firing rubber bullets have wounded and permanently disabled protesters and journalists

Experts tell Insider that rubber bullets are considered "less lethal" weapons — a "legitimate tool" employed by policemen for decades.

An 'ANTIFA' Twitter account that called for looting 'white hoods' was actually run by white nationalist group Identity Evropa

Twitter said this isn't the first time that users linked to Identity Evropa have created fake accounts to spread "hateful content."

In aftermath of George Floyd's death, San Diego police will 'immediately' end use of carotid restraint

The San Diego Police Department, spurred by the outrage after George Floyd's death, has immediately banned a controversial neck restraint.

Three white men to face Georgia judge in death of black jogger

Three white men charged with the murder of an unarmed black man in Georgia will face a judge Thursday morning in a case that caused a national outcry after cellphone video of the shooting was leaked on social media. Protests are expected outside the courthouse after more than a week of demonstrations across the United States over the death of George Floyd, a black American who was pinned down to the ground by a white police officer in Minneapolis. In the case in Georgia, the three men were not charged until more than two months after Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was shot dead while running on Feb. 23.

Tropical Storm Cristobal takes aim at U.S. Gulf Coast

The storm could bring heavy rain to Louisiana and its neighbors this weekend.

EU, China postpone September summit due to pandemic

The European Union and China have agreed to postpone a summit planned for this fall because of the coronavirus pandemic, German officials said Wednesday. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping and later with European Council President Charles Michel to discuss the Sept. 14 meeting, due to be held in the German city of Leipzig and seen as a key moment in EU relations with China. The European Union has tried to position itself as a mediator between China and the United States.

U.K. PM tells China that Britain will admit 3 Million from Hong Kong

"Many people in Hong Kong fear that their way of life — which China pledged to uphold — is under threat," Johnson said.

Powerful video from 1986 resurfaces showing Biden’s passionate speech against apartheid

A powerful video of then-Senator Joe Biden speaking about apartheid South Africa has resurfaced.The clip, taken from C-Span coverage of a Senate committee in 1986, shows Mr Biden passionately speaking out in support of the majority black population of South Africa, and against the oppressive apartheid regime.

2 dead after shooting at North Dakota air base

A shooting on Monday left two airmen dead at the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, the military said. The base’s emergency services members responded to the shooting, which occurred at 4:30 a.m. Officials said there is no risk to other personnel, and the shooting remains under investigation.

Voices captured on an NYC police scanner can be heard saying protesters should be shot and run over

The scanner broadcast people saying, "Shoot those motherf---ers," and "Run them over," referring to protesters.

The architect of Sweden's no-lockdown plan suggested the strategy was a mistake based on what we now know about the coronavirus

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said if Sweden had had the knowledge it had today, its response would have likely been harsher.

Cuomo Hypothesizes About Overthrowing de Blasio After NYC Riots: ‘Police Did Not Do Their Job Last Night’

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo openly hypothesized on Tuesday about overthrowing NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio after rampant looting and destruction swept across Manhattan on Monday night, overwhelming the NYPD and leaving the city looking like a war zone. “I’m disappointed and outraged by what happened in New York City last night. That criminal activity hurt everyone,” he said. De Blasio had doubled NYPD officers out on the streets to 8,000 on Monday night and imposed an 11 p.m. curfew after three nights of protests against police brutality were overshadowed by violence.But it was not enough to stop rampant looters from taking over midtown Manhattan. The Daily Beast witnessed hundreds of rioters roaming freely for hours through the city, looting countless stores, setting fires, loading stolen goods into SUVs, and damaging cars and storefronts. For hours, police were nowhere to be seen. “We’re spread a little thin,” one officer told The Daily Beast at about 10 p.m. after they arrested six men near Times Square, but were unable to chase down hundreds more who fled on foot.On Tuesday, the NYPD said it arrested 700 people the previous night for looting in Manhattan. An exasperated Cuomo said the police and the mayor failed to protect New York City—a city already on its knees from the coronavirus pandemic. “The police in New York [City] were not effective at doing their job last night, period. They have to do a better job,” he said. “You have 38,000 NYPD. They have protected the city before in these situations... They did not do it last night. But I believe in the inherent capacity of the NYPD.”Cuomo said he had offered all New York mayors the assistance of the National Guard and the state police to help stop looting on Monday, however de Blasio did not take up the offer. The mayor said the National Guard would not be helpful, and that the NYPD was sufficient. “Look at the videos, it was a disgrace,” Cuomo said. “I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem. I think he underestimates the duration of the problem, and I don’t think they’ve used enough police to address the situation because it’s inarguable that it was not addressed last night. Facts.”Cuomo said his option was to “displace” the mayor and bring in the National Guard during a state of emergency, “and basically take over... the mayor’s job.”However, he said “we’re not at that point” and that it would be too chaotic right now. He said the National Guard would not be needed if the entire NYPD—the largest police department in the nation—were properly deployed. Thousands of people peacefully protested across New York City on Monday night following the death of unarmed black man George Floyd, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. However, as night fell, large groups broke away and started smashing storefronts and looting hundreds of shops along Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Sixth Avenue, and more. In Manhattan, Cuomo said looters had “blurred” the line with peaceful protests and distracted from much-needed conversations about racism, inequality, and police brutality. He said Tuesday he would sign legislation, if it was brought before him, to make police officers’ complaint records public. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

How Rwanda genocide suspect spent 25 years on the run

When Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga was arrested at his home on the outskirts of Paris in mid-May, it marked an abrupt end to a quarter of a century on the run. At dawn on May 16, French police entered a modern five-storey apartment block in the eastern Paris suburb of Asnieres-sur-Seine. Next to him was an elderly man with a scar on his neck -– an identifiable feature of Felicien Kabuga.

Putin declines British invitation to take part in coronavirus summit: Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to take part in an online summit on a possible coronavirus vaccine being organised by the British government this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Putin received an invitation to take part in the summit from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week, the Kremlin had said. Scheduled to take place on June 4, the Global Vaccine Summit 2020 is designed to mobilise resources needed to ensure universal availability of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

Trump administration moves to block Chinese airlines from US

The Trump administration moved Wednesday to block Chinese airlines from flying to the U.S. in an escalation of trade and diplomatic tensions between the two countries. The Transportation Department said it would suspend passenger flights of four Chinese airlines to and from the United States starting June 16. The decision was in response to China's failure to let United Airlines and Delta Air Lines resume flights to China this month.

Tropical Storm Cristobal has formed in Gulf of Mexico and may approach US by weekend

Tropical Storm Cristobal is the third named storm of the 2020 hurricane season, which began Monday. It's forming in the Gulf of Mexico.

Esper, on thin ice with the White House, reverses decision on troop deployments

The Pentagon chief irritated the president when he complained about deploying active-duty soldiers.

PPP loan program accidentally paid some small-business owners twice

“Everyone is just flying by the seat of their pants," said one small-business owner.

Seattle protesters are using umbrellas to block pepper spray and tear gas, mirroring tactics used by the Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrations

Seattle anti police-brutality protesters showed up with umbrellas as a shield, and also as a potential new symbol in defiance of police action.

'You will move, or you will die': A frightened truck driver's widely shared Facebook post says truckers will 'defend themselves' by running over protesters

"Air horns will sound, steering wheels will be held tightly, but those brakes will not be touched," the truck driver wrote.

NYPD Says Looters Are Stashing Bricks. Brooklyn Locals Say Otherwise

On Wednesday morning, New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot F. Shea tweeted a low-resolution video of an unidentified officer picking up blue plastic crates on a city street corner. The crates, which appeared to be filled with chunks of masonry, had apparently been left next to a garbage can near Avenue X and West 3rd Street in Gravesend, a neighborhood by the water on Brooklyn’s south end that’s been largely untouched by the protests elsewhere in the borough and the city."This is what our cops are up against: Organized looters, strategically placing caches of bricks & rocks at locations throughout NYC," Shea wrote. On Wednesday afternoon, the White House included that clip in a video compilation of footage it claimed showed “Antifa and professional anarchists... invading our communities.”But Shea didn’t explain why organized looters would have left bricks in a quiet, mostly residential Brooklyn neighborhood, and conversations with people who work and live in the area suggest the NYPD’s Twitter bulletin threatened to stoke tensions for no reason.Cops Reclaim New York in Massive Show of ForceAn officer in Sector B of the 61st Precinct, which covers Gravesend, said he could not explain or discuss the details of the brick discoveries. NYPD coordinators for the neighborhood did not respond to requests for comment. A detective at the Office of the NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Public Information said he did not know anything about the incident. “The city is going through an unprecedented issue with looting and protesting,” he told The Daily Beast. “The normal people who would answer your questions are out trying to protect the city. So that’s why you’re not getting answers to your questions.”In the week of protests since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, cops and politicians alike have been quick to point to “organized looters” and “outside agitators” fomenting unrest. But the claims often come with little evidence, and seem to buckle under scrutiny. Last week, after NYPD vehicles were filmed driving into a crowd of protestors, Mayor Bill De Blasio claimed that “a small set of men… came to do violence in a systematic organized fashion.” And there have been reports of protesters throwing bricks at police in New York. But New York City Council Member Mark Treyger, who represents the Gravesend area, disagreed with the idea that external troublemakers were making mischief in his turf. In a phone call with The Daily Beast, Treyger said he became aware of the discovery of containers of suspect materials at two locations in his district when a constituent messaged him over social media, and that he confirmed the finding with the 61st Precinct. However, Treyger said that the NYPD acknowledged to him the containers might simply contain construction debris. The councilman said that he had not seen protests in the area or any signs of organized looting—and pointed out that at least one set of the containers were found near a construction site, suggesting that the bricks came from there. He called his conclusion “simple math.” "There is literally a construction site and construction fencing and signage. And they found five or six containers of what appears to me to be construction debris,” Treyger told The Daily Beast. “I believe that [Shea’s] tweet about my district is not responsible. Because he did not give the full set of facts and the full picture, especially when his own department says the discovery was still under investigation,” Treyger added, warning that such rumors could cause division in the racially diverse neighborhood. “The police commissioner needs to be very mindful with his words, because they could incite violence.”The commissioner’s claims about the crates in Gravesend were especially remarkable because they were nowhere near the locus of protests Tuesday, which is when five employees of local businesses told The Daily Beast the bins were removed.Employees at two businesses—Knapp Pizza II and New Fortune Wine & Spirit—on the block in question told The Daily Beast police had removed the crates on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Tuesday’s protests in Brooklyn were centered closer to the Barclays Center, nearly five miles away. A woman who asked to be identified only as Sabrina R. said that the medical offices next to the apparent site of the bins did have security cameras, but that they were blocked from a view of the corner. An employee at nearby New Fortune Wine & Spirit said they had heard about the bricks, but had seen no protest. She said that while the store was outfitted with security cameras, that they belonged to the landlord, who could not be reached by press time.Violent Social-Distancing Arrest Videos Go Viral, Putting NYPD on DefensiveAt Smart Choice Pharmacy, which sits across from the site where the crates appeared to be collected, a staff member told The Daily Beast the street has been very quiet. “We haven’t seen anything like that,” she said. “It was very quiet yesterday. We didn’t see anything like that… There was no protest in Gravesend last night.” An employee at the Dunkin Donuts across the intersection from the site in question told The Daily Beast they had not noticed the bricks at all. An NYPD spokeswoman told the Daily Beast no complaint report had been filed about the containers. “No one called it in to complain,” she said. “It wasn’t taken as a complaint report… Because it’s not a crime. [The crates were] just left there.”In a media availability Wednesday morning, Commissioner Shea discussed the issue with Mayor De Blasio. “So in terms of the tweet today, unfortunately it’s not an isolated incident,” Shea said. “That was two locations, one was in Brooklyn, one was in Queens, where pre-staged bricks are being placed and then transported to quote unquote peaceful protests—which are peaceful protests—but then used by that criminal group within to sow fear.” Shea did not provide any details on the incident in Queens or specify how NYPD had come to the conclusion that the debris containers were associated with protests, given that no major protests had been reported in that area. He did concede that they might have come from construction sites. “We’ve had construction sites burglarized in recent days in Manhattan,” Shea said. “It’s interesting. Construction site burglary is not that uncommon, but during a riot it’s interesting what was taken—bricks.” Shea also mentioned a pattern of protestors throwing water bottles filled with cement at police officers, but did not provide specific instances of when such incidents had occurred, or evidence that any of those had been  “an orchestrated attack.” “I do believe that the police commissioner needs to be clear in his messaging that this debris was found near a construction site,” Council Member Treyger said. “And as of this afternoon, I have not heard of organized looting in my district.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Looting and violence continues in New York City despite unprecedented curfew

People smashed their way into shops including Macy’s while Mayor Bill de Blasio says curfew would start earlier tonight, at 8pmAn unprecedented curfew in New York City on Monday night did little to prevent destruction, as people smashed their way into shops including Macy’s flagship store, grabbed merchandise and fled.Police said more than 200 were arrested and several officers were injured, following another day of peaceful protests throughout the city over the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died on 25 May after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.One officer was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the Bronx and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said.“Some people are out tonight not to protest but to destroy property and hurt others and those people are being arrested,” Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted. “Their actions are unacceptable and we won’t allow them in our city.”It was the fourth instance in a row of mainly peaceful daytime demonstrations followed by violence and arrests after nightfall.De Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats, announced an 11pm curfew late on Monday afternoon. De Blasio said Tuesday’s curfew would start earlier, beginning at 8pm and ending at 5am.Roving bands of people struck stores in Manhattan and the Bronx, even though many stores were boarded up pre-emptively as merchants feared more destruction.Video posted on social media showed piles of rubbish on fire on a debris-strewn street and people smashing into stores. Another video showed a group of men hitting a police officer with pieces of wreckage until he pulled his gun and they ran.People rushed into a Nike store and carried out armloads of clothing. Store windows were smashed near Rockefeller Center.The violence threatened to overshadow anger over the death of Floyd.On Monday, a federal judge agreed to release on bail two lawyers accused of throwing a molotov cocktail into a police van during protests in Manhattan on Friday.Urooj Rahman, 31, and Colinford Mattis, 32, were each released on a $250,000 bond, according to local media reports. They were expected to be confined to their homes as they await trial. Prosecutors had strongly argued against their release on bail.“We don’t believe this is the time to be releasing a bomb-thrower into the community,” one prosecutor said of Rahman, according to a Pix11 local news report.Defense lawyers argued that the government was alleging a “property offense” and highlighted the heightened risks of contracting Covid-19 in the Medical Detention Center in Brooklyn.Rahman, a human rights lawyer who studied at Fordham University School of Law, and Mattis, who works for a Manhattan law firm and was educated at Princeton, were charged with causing damage to a police vehicle by throwing a homemade incendiary device into an empty NYPD van outside the 88th precinct.Some police officers in New York City and around the nation have sought to show solidarity with demonstrators while urging calm.New York City’s highest-ranking uniformed member, Chief of Department Terence Monahan, clasped hands with protesters and kneeled on Monday in Washington Square Park, in Manhattan.“The people who live in New York want New York to end the violence,” Monahan said.

Peaceful protest as calls for resignation grow for Montgomery County commissioner

A peaceful protest was held in Montgomery County on Wednesday as calls grow for the resignation of Commissioner Joseph Gale.

George Floyd protests: All four former police officers face new charges as demonstrations continue nationwide

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has announced new charges against all four former officers involved in the death of George Floyd.The attorney general announced charges against Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J Alexander Kueng, the three officers seen alongside Derek Chauvin, an officer who kneeled on Mr Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes before his death, according to charging documents.

Pompeo aide tried to 'bully' ex-State Department watchdog and stop probe in Saudi arms deal, Dems say

The State Department's inspector general is probing two highly contentious allegations that touch on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's actions.

A Florida 'Karen' called the police on a solo Black Lives Matter protester standing completely alone on a street corner

"Shout to this guy for somehow getting the cops called on him for his one man protest," tweeted user @jonny_is_good in response to the clip.

Bar owner won't face charges in fatal shooting of Omaha protester

In response to outrage on social media, the county attorney said there was no "racial tone" to conversations between the shooter and the victim.

China sea security issues pushed Philippine U-turn on US troop pact

Security issues in the disputed South China Sea helped convince the Philippines to delay quitting a key US military pact, the nation's envoy to Washington said Wednesday. The government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced Tuesday it had suspended plans to cancel the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a deal that is important to Washington's moves to counter Beijing's rising regional power. Duterte has cosied up to China in search of trade and investment, sparking US concern that its long-time ally and former colony would change sides in a strategic boost to Beijing.

Police Identify German Man as Main Suspect in Madeleine McCann Disappearance

Police in the U.K. have asked the public for help in tracking the movements of a 43-year-old German man identified as the main suspect in the mysterious disappearance of Madeleine McCann.Madeleine vanished from a hotel apartment in Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve coast in May 2007, while on holiday with her parents and twin siblings.It is the first time British police have identified a key suspect, and senior police officers described the breakthrough to the U.K.’s Telegraph as “significant.” Friends of Kate and Gerry McCann told the newspaper it was the biggest development to date in a case often described as the most scrutinized missing persons case in modern history.Scotland Yard said in a statement that detectives had identified the 43-year-old German man, currently in prison in Germany on unrelated charges, as a suspect following a 2017 appeal on the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance. New Break in Maddie McCann Case Centers on Killer PedophileOn Wednesday, they appealed for help from the public in tracking the German man’s movements around the Algarve during the time Madeleine went missing.The man, whose name was not released due to German privacy laws, lived on and off in the Algarve between 1995 and 2008. At the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, he was 30 years old and was living in a camper van in the area.“He received a 30-minute phone call in Praia da Luz, the resort where the McCanns were on holiday, just an hour before the 3-year-old girl vanished,” the statement said.Police are trying to track down the man on the other end of the phone call and took the unusual step on Wednesday of releasing the Portuguese mobile phone number the suspect was using as well as the number of the person who called him.Police also released images of the distinctive VW camper the suspect was living in, and a 1993 Jaguar saloon car that the suspect owned and re-registered in Germany under another person’s name the day after Madeleine went missing. The Jaguar stayed in Portugal despite the man re-registering it in Germany. Scotland Yard said he was driving the camper around Praia da Luz in the days before Madeleine’s disappearance and had been living it in for days or weeks.Madeleine’s disappearance almost 13 years ago garnered an extraordinary amount of interest globally and led to a high-profile—but largely fruitless—search for answers.There has never been any trace of Madeleine since she vanished and no arrests have been made. British tabloids subjected the McCanns to vicious and baseless allegations of being involved in their daughter’s disappearance—however investigators have maintained that it was a criminal act by a stranger.In a statement, Kate and Gerry McCann said they welcomed the appeal and thanked police. “All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice. We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know, as we need to find peace.”Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, who leads the task force set up by U.K. police to investigate the disappearance, said: “While this male is a suspect we retain an open mind as to his involvement and this remains a missing person inquiry.“A similar public appeal for information was due to be made on German television on Wednesday. The suspect was described by police as white and in 2007 was believed to have been six feet tall, aged between 25 to early 30s, with short blond fair, a slim build, and fair skin. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

They wanted to protest peacefully. Police responded with force. On the ground in Minneapolis.

“We cannot back down now. We have come way too far. We are literally in the midst of history.”

Reopening schools completely will not cause second coronavirus wave, new research says

Allowing all children to return to school will not cause a second coronavirus wave, new modelling suggests. From this week, reception pupils as well as those in years one and six have been back in primary school classrooms, but some experts have voiced concerns that the coronavirus reproduction 'R' number is still too high to be releasing lockdown. Modelling from the University of Warwick suggests the partial lifting will not push the 'R' number above one and spark a rise in new cases. The study also shows that allowing all school years to return will not cause a second wave, but researchers say there must be close monitoring of the 'R' rate in order to make sure it is not creeping up. Despite the modelling, the authors say the Government should bring back pupils gradually so that they can see how schools will interact with other lockdown measures being lifted. Officials must be ready to reintroduce measures quickly should there be a significant rise in the number of new cases, they add.

Autopsy report shows Floyd had tested positive for COVID-19

A full autopsy of George Floyd, the handcuffed black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police, was released Wednesday and provides several clinical details, including that Floyd had previously tested positive for COVID-19. The 20-page report released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office came with the family's permission and after the coroner's office released summary findings Monday that Floyd had a heart attack while being restrained by officers, and classified his May 25 death as a homicide. Bystander video showing Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd's neck, ignoring Floyd's “I can't breathe” cries until he eventually stopped moving, has sparked nationwide protests, some violent.

McEnany responds to Esper’s opposition to using military for protests

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany responded to questions Wednesday on whether President Trump still has confidence in Defense Secretary Mark Esper after he opposed Trump on using the military to quell protests across the country.

Finland's PM says she hopes to give birth while in office

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin, the world's youngest leader at 34, told a magazine she would like to have a child while in office, which would make her only the third elected head of government to give birth while in power in modern times. "I am very much hoping for an addition to the family, a little sibling for Emma," her 2-year-old daughter, Marin told Me Naiset magazine in an interview. Marin took the reigns of Finland's centre-left five-party coalition in a sudden move at the end of last year, after her predecessor from her Social Democratic Party, Antti Rinne, stepped down.

One of America's most popular police trainers is teaching officers how to kill with fear-based warrior tactics

Dave Grossman's overly aggressive style prepares law enforcement officers for a job under siege, where they're "at war" on the streets.

New York police take seconds to restore reputation for brutality

Driving vehicles into protesters demanding justice for George Floyd earned the backing of the mayor, but of few others * George Floyd killing – latest US updates * See all our George Floyd coverageIt doesn’t take long to blow up a reputation. In the case of the New York police department, an institution with an already troubled history, the clip lasted all of 27 seconds.It showed an NYPD vehicle in Brooklyn lined up against a metal barricade behind which protesters were chanting during Saturday’s demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd. Projectiles were thrown on to the roof of the car, then suddenly a second police SUV drew up alongside and instead of stopping continued to plough straight into the crowd.Seconds later the first vehicle lurched forward, knocking the barrier over and with it propelling several protesters to the ground amid a harrowing chorus of shrieking.A 27-second video, now viewed more than 30m times, had quickly shredded years of effort to repair the deeply tarnished image of the NYPD. New York’s “finest” were firmly cast in a role normally reserved for the security corps of petty dictators.The shocking video was compounded hours later when the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, spoke about the incident. A politician who won election in 2013 largely on a promise to reform the NYPD and scrap its racially discriminatory stop-and-frisk policy, astounded even his closest supporters when he defended the police.De Blasio said: “I do believe the NYPD has acted appropriately.”Social media lit up. Was it appropriate to drive those two SUVs into the crowd? Was it appropriate for an NYPD officer forcibly to remove the coronavirus mask of a black protester whose arms were raised in the air, then pepper-spray his face?Was it appropriate for another officer to tell a protester to get off the street, then physically shove her several feet towards the curb where she landed on her head? Or that the police officers involved in the pepper spray incident had covered their badge numbers, presumably to avoid having to answer for their actions. Or to beat a nurse walking home from a shift at a hospital?The clashes between New York’s police and its protesters have reverberated around the city. The largest police force in the US, with its $5.6bn annual budget and 36,000 uniformed officers under the leadership of one of the most progressive mayors in the country, has responded to demonstrations about police brutality with more police brutality.The Black, Latino and Asian Caucus of the city council, which makes up more than half of the legislative body, was swift and devastating in its criticism. In a statement, it said that the NYPD had acted “with aggression towards New Yorkers who vigorously and vociferously but nonetheless peacefully advocated for justice”.Adrienne Adams, co-chair of the caucus, told the Guardian the NYPD had tried to suppress legitimate anger felt by African American and other minority communities following years of police abuse. “We cannot allow people who have kept people of color down for decades to say now that we don’t have the right to display our outrage,” she said.Though that sentiment applies nationwide, Adams believes New York stands out as having a “horrible history of police brutality”. It was the NYPD that set the tone, she said, when Daniel Pantaleo, the officer implicated in the 2014 death by chokehold of Eric Garner in Staten Island, avoided prosecution.“When nothing happened to the police officers who were responsible for the death of Eric Garner, New York set the blueprint for what happened to George Floyd,” she said. “There’s no penalty, no consequence, so it’s OK.”Adams’s framing of the Garner killing could equally be applied to a long string of notorious episodes of police misconduct that preceded it. In 1997, Haitian immigrant Abner Louima was handcuffed by an NYPD officer and sexually assaulted with a broken broomstick.Two years later, Amadou Diallo was shot near his home in a hail of 41 bullets after officers mistook his wallet for a gun. In an echo of that event, an unarmed Sean Bell was shot 50 times in Queens on the morning of his wedding in 2006 – it took six years for the NYPD detective who opened the fusillade to be chucked off the force while nobody has ever been convicted of any crime.In the policing of protest, the NYPD also has a contentious track record. In 2004 it rounded up more than 1,800 peaceful protesters rallying outside the Republican National Convention during the re-election bid of George W Bush and herded them into overcrowded pens on Pier 57 in Manhattan. In 2011 it was similarly criticized for heavy-handed tactics during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.Cutting across all this, the force has consistently targeted its efforts on neighborhoods of the city with majority black or Latino populations, straying at times into overt racial profiling. Though stop and frisk has been reined back in recent years, the NYPD continues to heavily and disproportionately police those communities despite a historically low homicide rate.Despite this long legacy of overreach, the force continues to be systemically resistant to public oversight. Under Section 50-A of New York state law, the disciplinary files of police officers are largely held in secret, making the task of holding them accountable almost impossible.Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney at the Cop Accountability Project (CAP) within the Legal Aid Society, told the Guardian that there were currently more than 200 police officers still being employed by the NYPD on full pay who should have been considered for termination following reports of misconduct.Data collected by CAP shows that where cases of misconduct arise they often involve escalation of low-level encounters into aggressive confrontations – something officers are supposed to be trained not to do. The project is currently litigating the case of Tomas Medina who was put in a chokehold and Tasered in 2018 after police were called to a complaint about loud music being played.Eric Garner’s fatal arrest was triggered by him allegedly selling single cigarettes.Although the use of chokeholds has been banned in New York, the project has found that between 2015 and 2018 the city settled 30 lawsuits involving NYPD use of the potentially lethal maneuver.Wong believes such endemic deployment of excessive force has spilled over into the NYPD’s handling of the George Floyd protests. She was present at a peaceful protest in Brooklyn that suddenly turned volatile not because of the behavior of protesters but by a sudden change of tack on the part of the police.“In a split second, the NYPD snapped and engaged in over-aggressive enforcement. They escalated it from 0 to 10 out of nowhere, arresting people and wielding their batons.”If there has been unrestrained use of batons in the city, it would be with the full approval of Ed Mullins, the provocative president of one of the main police unions, the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA). He wrote to members urging “each and every one of you to report for duty with your helmet and baton and do not hesitate to utilize that equipment in securing your personal safety”.The sister Police Benevolent Association of New York City has also spoken to its members in inflammatory terms about them being “under attack by violent, organized terrorists while New York City council and other politicians sit at home demanding we ‘de-escalate’”.There is no denying that the NYPD faces difficult challenges in the policing of mass protests, especially late at night when violent outbreaks have erupted as they did on Monday in Manhattan and the Bronx. Fires were started in the street and stores looted.For Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD officer and prosecutor in Brooklyn and Queens who is now a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Monday night’s spectacle of looting along Fifth Avenue amounted to a collapse of policing in the city.“This weekend, the job of police officer in New York became officially impossible when the police abolitionists won. They have created a model of zero tolerance towards force being used and any injuries being inflicted, and that’s absurd.”O’Donnell said the same pattern is repeating itself across America. “In city after city, the police were abolished this weekend. They stood back and watched as damage was inflicted that was irreversible.”

Thousands in Hong Kong defy Tiananmen vigil ban

Thousands of Hong Kong protesters lit candles and chanted democracy slogans as they defied a ban Thursday against gathering to commemorate China's deadly Tiananmen crackdown, with tensions seething in the financial hub over a planned new security law. Crowds streamed into one of the city's main parks that has hosted huge Tiananmen anniversary vigils for the past three decades, with smaller rallies erupting across the finance hub. Police arrested some demonstrators in a shopping district on although they allowed the main rally at Victoria Park to proceed.

At It Again: Russia's Black Sea Fleet Conducts Fresh Exercises

Deterrence never stops.

Gov. Cuomo apologizes to NYPD brass after critical 'do your job' comments, chief says

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo apologized privately to top New York City Police administrators after ripping their response to rioters as a "disgrace."

Coronavirus: Five-month-old Brazilian ‘miracle’ baby recovers after spending 32 days in coma

A five-month-old “miracle” baby has recovered from Covid-19 after spending over a month in a coma, his parents have said.Brazilian baby Dom was diagnosed with the novel virus at the Pro-Cardiaco hospital in Rio de Janeiro a few months after being born.

Carnival-owned Holland America is charging unpaid crew workers stuck on its ships $40 a month for internet, and employees are livid

One Holland America crew member told Business Insider that the cost "wouldn't sting as much if the internet worked half of the time."

Kellyanne Conway Lashes Out at Bishop Who Condemned Trump’s Church Photo-Op

Kellyanne Conway defended President Donald Trump’s decision to tear-gas protesters for a photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church Monday night by going after the bishop who presides over that congregation.The White House counselor was confronted with the criticism from Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde during an appearance on Fox News early Tuesday afternoon. Asked to respond to Budde, who told CNN’s Anderson Cooper she was “outraged” that Trump had used her church as a “prop,” Conway went on the attack.After listing various actions Trump has taken in the name of “religious liberty”—implying that all clergy should be grateful for his help—Conway addressed Budde directly.“That is not ‘her church,’ that is not ‘her Bible,’” Conway said. “We don’t look into other people’s hearts and souls and discern and judge what their faith is.” CNN’s Don Lemon Goes Off on Trump for ‘Declaring War on Americans’Then, after saying we can’t pretend to know why the president “felt compelled to walk there” and hold a Bible in the air awkwardly, Conway did just that. “That is a symbol to everyone that we will not allow arsonists and anarchists who set that fire ablaze, who demean the memory of those that lost their lives in the name of their respective faith and religions, we won't allow them to dissuade us from practicing our religion,” she said, failing to note that members of the church were among those tear-gassed on Monday. Before the interview was over, Conway made sure to get in one last dig at Joe Biden, who promised action on police brutality and systemic racism in a speech earlier in the day. “Joe, you’ve been here 40 years in this city,” she said snidely. “What do you mean you're going to do it now?”Kayleigh McEnany Insists Trump’s Not ‘Hiding’ While Speaking for HimRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

'Near impunity' for drug war killings in Philippines, U.N. says

Tens of thousands of people in the Philippines may have been killed in the war on drugs since mid-2016 amid "near impunity" for police and incitement to violence by top officials, the United Nations said on Thursday. It said the drugs crackdown, launched by President Rodrigo Duterte after he won election on a platform of crushing crime, has been marked by police orders and high-level rhetoric that may have been interpreted as "permission to kill". In Manila, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the "rehashed claims" of impunity were unfounded.

A Florida sheriff told residents to shoot looters who came into their homes

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference on Monday that he told homeowners to prepare their guns for potential looters.

Minneapolis public school board votes to terminate its contract with police

The district ‘cannot align itself with the Minneapolis police and claim to fight institutional racism’, said a board memberMinneapolis public schools are terminating their contract with the city’s police department following the death of George Floyd.The city’s public school board unanimously approved a resolution on Tuesday night that will end the district’s contract with the Minneapolis police department to use officers to provide school security. The Minneapolis superintendent said he would begin work on an alternative plan to keep the district’s more than 35,000 students safe in the coming school year.  “We cannot continue to be in partnership with an organization that has the culture of violence and racism that the Minneapolis police department has historically demonstrated,” Nelson Inz, one of the school board members, said. “We have to stand in solidarity with our black students.”While the vote does not bring justice for Floyd, “it will show that meaningful change is possible,” Nathaniel Genene, the school board’s student representative, said.Genene said an online survey of Minneapolis students had received more than 1,500 responses, and about 90% of them supported terminating the district’s contract with the police.Public schools “cannot partner with organizations that do not see the humanity in our students”, Minneapolis school board member Josh Pauly, who helped draft the resolution, wrote on Twitter last week.The school district “cannot align itself with [the Minneapolis police department] and claim to fight institutional racism”, Pauly added. The Minneapolis teachers union had endorsed the change, calling for the city’s schools to “cut all financial ties” with the police department, and to invest in additional mental health support for students instead.“The officers of the Minneapolis police department have become symbols of fear to the children those officers were sworn to serve and protect,” two local union officials said in a statement last week. During the school board meeting, several members praised the work of individual police officers who had served in Minneapolis public schools as “school resource officers” and said at least a few of the officers did have deep, meaningful community relationships that would be missed.But Pauly, the school board member, told the Guardian in advance of the vote that he had received hundreds of emails and phone calls from students in Minneapolis who support ending the school district’s relationship with the police department.Other school board members across the country – including from districts in Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon, New York, and Illinois – have also reached out privately for support in crafting similar resolutions, he said.A vote to end Minneapolis schools’ contract with the police department is a major victory for activists across the country who have been working to remove all police from schools. “It’s a very specific group of people who feel safe with police, but most black and brown children do not feel safe with police in schools,” said Jackie Byers, the executive director of the Black Organizing Project, which has been working since 2011 to end the use of police officers in Oakland public schools, including asking teachers and administrators to pledge to not call the police on their students.School districts “need to see someone step forward”, Byers said. “Folks are afraid of being the first district to do something.”More than 70% of public secondary schools and 30% of primary schools in the United States have sworn law enforcement officers who routinely carry firearms, according to 2015-2016 data from the National Center for Education Statistics.“In San Francisco, we’ve had 10-year-olds that have had the police called on them. Kindergarteners. Fifth-graders,” said Neva Walker, the executive director of Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, a non-profit group that focuses on creating more equitable public schools.“We have to get past the idea that police are the means to protect our children, especially for black and brown students,” she said.For decades, school shootings, typically carried out by young white men, have prompted the American government to invest hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in putting armed law enforcement officers inside schools.But studies have shown that more students enter the criminal justice system when more police officers are in schools, sparking concern from some advocates that the attempt to protect American children from mass shootings had unintentionally fueled a school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately harms students of color.Breaking that cycle has not been easy. But one “critically important” step forward, Byers said, had already come from the University of Minnesota, which announced “immediate changes” in its relationship with the Minneapolis police department in the wake of widespread protests over Floyd’s death. The university president, Joan Gabel, said in a letter last week that the university would no longer work with the police department to provide security for football games, concerts and other large events, and that it would limit its cooperation with the police to joint patrols and investigations “that directly enhance the safety of our community”. The university’s relationship with other police departments in other cities where it has campuses will remain unchanged, a spokesman said. The Minneapolis police department did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

China's Covid slump prompts return of disparaged street vendors to boost economy

They were only recently regarded by the Chinese authorities as a scourge on the well-ordered landscape of their brave new world. But now the Communist Party is praising the country’s street vendors as one of the solutions to the economic slowdown sparked by China’s deadly coronavirus pandemic. After years of cracking down on street vendors in order to 'beautify' its cities and improve hygiene standards, China is now allowing them back to give its Covid-ravaged economy a boost. Chinese premier Li Keqiang gave them his blessing when he recently praised the city of Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, for apparently generating 100,000 jobs overnight by allowing 36,000 street vendors to set up shop. Signalling a more tolerant attitude to the hustle and bustle of street stalls and markets, China's Central Civilization Committee office has said it will not include vendors who occupy outdoor spaces or other public areas in its city assessment program for 2020, indicating a temporary relaxation on the management of the sector. At the same time a delegate from China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress, called for the relaxation of controls on street vendors to grant them legal status. It came after local government officials appeared to give the green light for the return of street stalls, with pictures of vendors setting up shop to sell shoes, clothes and vegetables along a sidewalk in Chengdu going viral on social media. Officials in the city essentially turned a blind eye to street vendors operating without permits. For many it brought back memories of the city’s long lost bustling street life, with people posting under the hashtag “street vendor economy” and photographs of night markets circulating widely online. The move has been welcomed by the vendors, who are usually unemployed or from low-income families. Song, a 59-year-old street vendor in Beijing, said: "I feel that mobile stalls should be allowed, since if a small cart is used, it won't affect road traffic, and people can get things cheaper than in bigger stores." Some economists predict lifting restrictions on street vendors will lead to a jobs surge. Tian Yun, vice director of the Beijing Economic Operation Association, predicted that agricultural produce markets, small commodity markets and morning markets could create at least 100 million jobs. "Last year, one point of GDP growth was estimated to have generated about 2 million jobs. Assuming that there are 5 to 6 million new street stalls this year, it can be equivalent to about 2-3 percentage points of GDP growth," he told the Global Times. One immediate spin-off has been a surge in the stock value of Wulin Motors, which sells a cargo van that can turn into a mobile stall.

Why The Middle East Fears Russia's Alpha Group Commandos

A 2018 report recommended just that.