| A group of D.C. protesters now has a list of demands Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:49 PM PDT  As protests continue to erupt around the country, a group of three young African-American activists is attempting to link the demonstrations to a list of demands.
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| Cities remove racist monuments before protesters can topple them Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:11 PM PDT  As the protests following the death of George Floyd in some cities have turned to targeting racist iconography, officials are trying to preempt them.
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| Welcome Home, Hong Kong Posted: 04 Jun 2020 10:30 AM PDT  London doesn't have the power to push the corrupt little junta in Beijing into being halfway decent to the people of Hong Kong, but Boris Johnson has a bold solution for almost half of those people: Come to the United Kingdom.Hong Kong is a former British territory, and about 3 million of its 7.5 million residents hold or are eligible for a limited kind of British passport (the "British national overseas" passport issued to those born in Hong Kong before the territory was relinquished to China in 1997) that entitles them to travel to the United Kingdom but not to permanently reside or work there. As Beijing prepares to implement in Hong Kong a robust version of the totalitarianism it practices everywhere else in China — in contravention of its agreement with the British requiring the Chinese government to honor Hong Kong's liberty and democracy — Johnson says that his government, bound by "our profound ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong," will allow all of those 3 million Hong Kongers the option of coming to the United Kingdom with the British version of a green card (renewable legal residency and permission to work) and a path to full citizenship for those who desire it.This is an almost heroic proposal. It is also a smart one.The United Kingdom is an astonishingly inventive and productive nation, and it punches above its weight both economically and, especially, culturally. But Hong Kong has long practiced a kind of supercharged version of British economic liberalism, and its people are even more productive than the British, with a GDP per capita about 15 percent higher than the United Kingdom's. You don't have a rich, smart, productive country without rich, smart, productive people, and Johnson is proposing to roll out the red carpet for 3 million of them.Because of Brexit, Johnson often is numbered among the recently ascendant right-wing populists, but while his European counterparts (and, unhappily, many of his American counterparts) rail against immigration and immigrants, Johnson's government would welcome a new group of immigrants who would by themselves equal about 4.5 percent of the current U.K. population.During the Cold War, defectors from the Eastern bloc were symbols of the fundamental difference between the free world and the unfree world, and people of good will cheered when some daring person successfully made it over the Berlin Wall. But the men and women fleeing the brutality of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany could do so only because there was a West Berlin for them to run to. Boris Johnson proposes that the United Kingdom play that role for the people of Hong Kong who are being oppressed by a government that in too many ways practices an updated version of socialism as it actually existed only a few decades ago, as opposed to the socialism of 10,000 dorm-room philosophers.Beijing is infuriated. The Chinese government accuses the United Kingdom of "interfering in China's internal affairs." But Beijing is bound by the Sino–British Joint Declaration regarding the liberty of Hong Kong, so the U.K. is not crashing the party. Johnson's government does not have the force to change Beijing's internal affairs, but it does have the power to make 3 million Hong Kong residents external affairs.Washington does, too. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) the Senate majority leader, already has suggested that the United States implement something like what Johnson's government is doing. "Our nation has a rich heritage of standing as a beacon of light and freedom, from refugees of war to those escaping the Iron Curtain," McConnell said. "We should exercise it again for the people of Hong Kong."Some of our neo-Malthusian friends will insist that there is no room in the United States for these immigrants, that we are all full up, that there aren't enough jobs to go around as it is. But consider this: In the 1940s, Hong Kong was one of the poorest places in the world, hungry, depopulated, and war-ravaged. With very little in the way of natural resources, and starting without a great deal of modern infrastructure, Hong Kong grew to become the wealthiest city in the world. If Hong Kong were an independent country (and why not? It works for Singapore), it would be one of the world's wealthiest, a little ahead of the United States and just a step behind Switzerland. The people of Hong Kong did that with very little other than liberty, the rule of law, and a reasonably good location as a port. Why shouldn't those people thrive in the United States, with its abundant blessings? They can expect to thrive in the United Kingdom.The loss of liberty in Hong Kong is a jolting, unwelcome reminder that history does not move in one direction only, toward progress and human flourishing. Perhaps the city cannot be saved, for now. But the British proposal is both an act of practical aid and a splendid gesture. For the moment, it may be that the best that can be done is for the free world to declare that the people of Hong Kong live where freedom lives.Welcome home.
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| 10 Years Ago Today, SpaceX's Falcon 9 Blasted Off for the First Time Posted: 04 Jun 2020 07:36 AM PDT |
| At least 39 injured in knife attack at China kindergarten Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:31 PM PDT |
| In 1985, A Nuclear Submarine Explosion Contaminated Russia's Far East Posted: 04 Jun 2020 02:30 PM PDT  The accident scene was heavily contaminated with radioactivity.
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| Amy Cooper: Central Park dog walker who called police on black man has pet returned Posted: 04 Jun 2020 01:01 PM PDT  Amy Cooper has got her dog back 10 days after she gave it up following a public outcry over her calling the police on a black man in Central Park.In a video of the 25 May incident, Cooper claimed in a phone call to police that bird watcher Christian Cooper was threatening her life - after he'd asked her to place a leash on her dog.
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| As protests rock cities, Rand Paul holds up passage of anti-lynching bill Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:31 PM PDT  Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is holding up passage of an anti-lynching bill with broad bipartisan support — the latest delay in an effort to pass a federal law against lynching that goes back over a century.
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| Airlines to drop service to 75 domestic airports Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:00 AM PDT  Fifteen U.S. airlines were granted final government approval on Wednesday to temporarily halt service to 75 domestic airports as travel demand has been crushed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Counties in Florida, Iowa worry CDC as emerging coronavirus 'areas of concern' Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:54 AM PDT  A document created by the CDC and reviewed by Yahoo News lists nine counties and one city with rising infection levels, many in states that have eased lockdown restrictions.
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| Protests in Minneapolis turned violent: Officials first blamed outsiders, but that’s not what arrests show Posted: 04 Jun 2020 12:39 PM PDT  Minnesota officials originally said outside agitators, not local residents, were responsible for the violence and riots. Arrest data shows otherwise.
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| Man accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery allegedly used racial slur after shooting Posted: 04 Jun 2020 03:05 PM PDT  Suspects Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William "Roddie" Bryan were bound over for trial.
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| Hong Kong: Tens of thousands defy ban to attend Tiananmen vigil Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:09 AM PDT  It comes as lawmakers approve a controversial bill criminalising insulting China's national anthem.
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| New York's Cuomo, concerned about COVID-19 spread, asks protesters to get tested Posted: 04 Jun 2020 10:53 AM PDT  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday said several days and nights of demonstrations in the state after the killing of George Floyd could accelerate the spread of the coronavirus, and urged protesters to get tested. "I'm not a nervous Nellie, I'm just looking at the numbers," said Cuomo, noting that an estimated 30,000 people have protested in the state. Officials in Chicago this week expressed similar concern, and asked protesters to quarantine themselves for 14 days.
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| Boris Johnson told Italy's prime minister the UK had been aiming for coronavirus herd immunity, new documentary reveals Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:10 AM PDT  Italian health minister Pierpaolo Sileri said Johnson's early COVID-19 plan was pursuing herd immunity in an interview with Channel 4's Dispatches.
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| NYPD Says Looters Are Stashing Bricks. Brooklyn Locals Say Otherwise Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:57 PM PDT  On Wednesday morning, New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot F. Shea tweeted a low-resolution video of an unidentified officer picking up blue plastic crates on a city street corner. The crates, which appeared to be filled with chunks of masonry, had apparently been left next to a garbage can near Avenue X and West 3rd Street in Gravesend, a neighborhood by the water on Brooklyn's south end that's been largely untouched by the protests elsewhere in the borough and the city."This is what our cops are up against: Organized looters, strategically placing caches of bricks & rocks at locations throughout NYC," Shea wrote. On Wednesday afternoon, the White House included that clip in a video compilation of footage it claimed showed "Antifa and professional anarchists... invading our communities."But Shea didn't explain why organized looters would have left bricks in a quiet, mostly residential Brooklyn neighborhood, and conversations with people who work and live in the area suggest the NYPD's Twitter bulletin threatened to stoke tensions for no reason.Cops Reclaim New York in Massive Show of ForceAn officer in Sector B of the 61st Precinct, which covers Gravesend, said he could not explain or discuss the details of the brick discoveries. NYPD coordinators for the neighborhood did not respond to requests for comment. A detective at the Office of the NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Public Information said he did not know anything about the incident. "The city is going through an unprecedented issue with looting and protesting," he told The Daily Beast. "The normal people who would answer your questions are out trying to protect the city. So that's why you're not getting answers to your questions."In the week of protests since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, cops and politicians alike have been quick to point to "organized looters" and "outside agitators" fomenting unrest. But the claims often come with little evidence, and seem to buckle under scrutiny. Last week, after NYPD vehicles were filmed driving into a crowd of protestors, Mayor Bill De Blasio claimed that "a small set of men… came to do violence in a systematic organized fashion." And there have been reports of protesters throwing bricks at police in New York. But New York City Council Member Mark Treyger, who represents the Gravesend area, disagreed with the idea that external troublemakers were making mischief in his turf. In a phone call with The Daily Beast, Treyger said he became aware of the discovery of containers of suspect materials at two locations in his district when a constituent messaged him over social media, and that he confirmed the finding with the 61st Precinct. However, Treyger said that the NYPD acknowledged to him the containers might simply contain construction debris. The councilman said that he had not seen protests in the area or any signs of organized looting—and pointed out that at least one set of the containers were found near a construction site, suggesting that the bricks came from there. He called his conclusion "simple math." "There is literally a construction site and construction fencing and signage. And they found five or six containers of what appears to me to be construction debris," Treyger told The Daily Beast. "I believe that [Shea's] tweet about my district is not responsible. Because he did not give the full set of facts and the full picture, especially when his own department says the discovery was still under investigation," Treyger added, warning that such rumors could cause division in the racially diverse neighborhood. "The police commissioner needs to be very mindful with his words, because they could incite violence."The commissioner's claims about the crates in Gravesend were especially remarkable because they were nowhere near the locus of protests Tuesday, which is when five employees of local businesses told The Daily Beast the bins were removed.Employees at two businesses—Knapp Pizza II and New Fortune Wine & Spirit—on the block in question told The Daily Beast police had removed the crates on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Tuesday's protests in Brooklyn were centered closer to the Barclays Center, nearly five miles away. A woman who asked to be identified only as Sabrina R. said that the medical offices next to the apparent site of the bins did have security cameras, but that they were blocked from a view of the corner. An employee at nearby New Fortune Wine & Spirit said they had heard about the bricks, but had seen no protest. She said that while the store was outfitted with security cameras, that they belonged to the landlord, who could not be reached by press time.Violent Social-Distancing Arrest Videos Go Viral, Putting NYPD on DefensiveAt Smart Choice Pharmacy, which sits across from the site where the crates appeared to be collected, a staff member told The Daily Beast the street has been very quiet. "We haven't seen anything like that," she said. "It was very quiet yesterday. We didn't see anything like that… There was no protest in Gravesend last night." An employee at the Dunkin Donuts across the intersection from the site in question told The Daily Beast they had not noticed the bricks at all. An NYPD spokeswoman told the Daily Beast no complaint report had been filed about the containers. "No one called it in to complain," she said. "It wasn't taken as a complaint report… Because it's not a crime. [The crates were] just left there."In a media availability Wednesday morning, Commissioner Shea discussed the issue with Mayor De Blasio. "So in terms of the tweet today, unfortunately it's not an isolated incident," Shea said. "That was two locations, one was in Brooklyn, one was in Queens, where pre-staged bricks are being placed and then transported to quote unquote peaceful protests—which are peaceful protests—but then used by that criminal group within to sow fear." Shea did not provide any details on the incident in Queens or specify how NYPD had come to the conclusion that the debris containers were associated with protests, given that no major protests had been reported in that area. He did concede that they might have come from construction sites. "We've had construction sites burglarized in recent days in Manhattan," Shea said. "It's interesting. Construction site burglary is not that uncommon, but during a riot it's interesting what was taken—bricks." Shea also mentioned a pattern of protestors throwing water bottles filled with cement at police officers, but did not provide specific instances of when such incidents had occurred, or evidence that any of those had been "an orchestrated attack." "I do believe that the police commissioner needs to be clear in his messaging that this debris was found near a construction site," Council Member Treyger said. "And as of this afternoon, I have not heard of organized looting in my district."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Powerful video from 1986 resurfaces showing Biden’s passionate speech against apartheid Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:54 AM PDT  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.
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| Magnitude 5.5 quake hits shaky California desert region Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:54 PM PDT |
| Cars Most Likely to Need a Transmission Replacement Posted: 04 Jun 2020 07:33 AM PDT  Drivers naturally become concerned about reliability as a car ages, since the risk of inconvenience and unexpected expenses rises while the miles rack up. Most modern cars can make it to 200,000 ...
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| Brazil, Mexico suffer record daily rise in coronavirus deaths Posted: 04 Jun 2020 03:35 AM PDT  Brazil and Mexico suffered a record rise in daily coronavirus deaths amid fears Latin America is reopening too soon. On Wednesday, Mexico reported a daily death toll that exceeded 1,000 for the first time since the outbreak began, while Brazil announced 1,349 deaths for the day, a record for the country. Both nations now rank in the top ten countries that have suffered the highest number of fatalities, but there is grave concern that, unlike their European counterparts, Latin nations have yet to reach the peak of the epidemic. Countries in Europe are beginning to emerge from their lockdowns, with borders reopening and people returning to work. But in South America, new hotspots are emerging and hospitals are threatened to be overwhelmed.
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| The trucker who drove through a crowd of protesters in Minneapolis was once arrested for domestic assault Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:52 AM PDT  Bogdan Vechirko drove an empty tanker through a crowd of George Floyd protesters in Minneapolis on Sunday. No one was hurt.
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| Robert E Lee statue: Virginia governor announces removal of monument Posted: 04 Jun 2020 11:27 AM PDT  Virginia's governor says the monument to the Confederate general will be taken down in Richmond.
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| Britain says nearly 30,000 COVID-19 tests sent to U.S. lab came back void Posted: 04 Jun 2020 06:33 AM PDT  Nearly 30,000 COVID-19 tests which Britain sent to a U.S. lab for processing came back void, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said on Thursday, adding to a mounting pile of questions over the UK's testing regime. Johnson's spokesman said that "operational issues in our lab network" had meant that 67,000 tests were sent to the United States for processing.
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| U.K. PM tells China that Britain will admit 3 Million from Hong Kong Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:58 AM PDT  "Many people in Hong Kong fear that their way of life — which China pledged to uphold — is under threat," Johnson said.
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| Esper, on thin ice with the White House, reverses decision on troop deployments Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:25 AM PDT  The Pentagon chief irritated the president when he complained about deploying active-duty soldiers.
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| Syria: Israeli warplanes strike targets in central Syria Posted: 04 Jun 2020 12:20 PM PDT |
| US suspends flights by Chinese airlines in new spat with Beijing Posted: 03 Jun 2020 05:04 PM PDT  Washington on Wednesday ordered the suspension of all flights by Chinese airlines into and out of the United States after Beijing failed to allow American carriers to resume services to China. The US action, which takes effect June 16 but could be implemented sooner if President Donald Trump orders it, applied to seven Chinese civilian carriers, although only four currently are running service to US cities including Air China and China Eastern Airlines, the Department of Transportation (DOT) said. US air carriers sharply reduced or suspended service to China amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| Lewis Hamilton ‘completely overcome with rage’ as he says black people ‘should not have to feel as if they were born guilty’ Posted: 02 Jun 2020 10:42 PM PDT  Lewis Hamilton has explained the feeling behind his passionate outburst over Formula One's silence against racism, with the reigning world champion saying that he has been "completely overcome with rage" at the sight of George Floyd's death in the United States and saying that people of Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity backgrounds should "not feel as though we were born guilty".The six-time F1 world champion has taken a vocal stance against racism, having previously spoken of the sport's white-male dominated industry given he is the only black driver to have competed, and this week he has broadened his outrage over racial inequality following the disturbing death of African-American Floyd.
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| I'm a doctor in Minneapolis treating coronavirus patients. Until racism is abolished, it will always be a greater threat to justice than this virus. Posted: 04 Jun 2020 08:45 AM PDT  "Yes, wear a mask. Yes, wash your hands. Yes, do your best to maintain distance. And yes, absolutely yes, join your allies to abolish injustice."
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| No charges by St. Louis Circuit Attorney have people arrested for looting back on the streets Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:42 PM PDT  Arrests made during the looting and rioting in St. Louis City Monday night and into Tuesday morning have resulted in no charges from St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner.
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| Exclusive: Former police officer accused of killing George Floyd gets new lawyer Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:06 AM PDT  The ex-officer, Derek Chauvin, is now being defended by Eric Nelson of the Halberg Criminal Defense firm, according to Marsh Halberg, the firm's chief executive. Chauvin's legal representation is being provided by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association (MPPOA) which draws from a panel of about a dozen attorneys, which includes both Nelson and the lawyer he replaced, Tom Kelly of Kelly & Jacobson.
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| New U.S. ban on Chinese airlines hurts Chinese students who were already struggling to get home Posted: 04 Jun 2020 10:08 AM PDT  The DOT has now banned Chinese airlines from the U.S., an added burden for Chinese students already stuck here because of their own government's policies.
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| I helped create the worst photo-op ever. Thanks to Trump, now it's only second worst. Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:32 PM PDT  The St. John's photo-op wasn't just odd and uncomfortable. It was built on violations of the Constitution, the law, simple decency and common sense.
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| Prince Charles on missing grandchildren and Prince Philip: 'You really want to give people a hug' Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:31 AM PDT  The Prince of Wales has spoken of missing his family "terribly" in lockdown, saying he has not seen his father the Duke of Edinburgh for a "long time" and wanted to give people a hug. The Prince, who is at Birkhall in Scotland, lamented that his father would celebrate his 99th birthday without him next week, saying how "terribly sad" it is to be away from family and friends. Saying he has been "doing the Facetime", the Prince told he has been missing grandchildren Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, and Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, who is in Los Angeles. The prince has been staying at Birkhall since contracting a mild version of Covid-19 in March. He spent two weeks in isolation, separate from the Duchess of Cornwall, and has since been working from home. Interviewed via video call by Sky News for the After The Pandemic series, the Prince was asked about being apart from his family.
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| Tropical Storm Cristobal takes aim at U.S. Gulf Coast Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:50 AM PDT  The storm could bring heavy rain to Louisiana and its neighbors this weekend.
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| Amazon drops $2 coronavirus pay rise for warehouse workers as CEO Jeff Bezos' fortune nears $150 billion Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:45 AM PDT  Amazon has now phased out two major policies brought in to protect workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
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| US says Alaska man laundered nearly $1B for Iran through UAE Posted: 04 Jun 2020 03:09 AM PDT |
| Argentina extends lockdown in Buenos Aires as coronavirus cases surpass 20,000 Posted: 04 Jun 2020 04:58 PM PDT  Argentina extended on Thursday a mandatory lockdown in Buenos Aires, the capital, and some other parts of the country until June 28, as confirmed coronavirus cases continue to rise, surpassing 20,000 earlier in the day. The three-week extension of the lockdown, which had been due to expire June 7, will impact the capital city, the province of Buenos Aires and some other areas that account for the highest concentration of confirmed infections, President Alberto Fernandez said during a press conference. The next phase will include new permissions, including outdoor exercise during certain hours in the city of Buenos Aires, which has the highest concentration of cases, officials said.
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| George Floyd death: Three former Minneapolis police officers charged in killing due in court Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:51 AM PDT  Three former Minneapolis police officers charged as accomplices to the killing of George Floyd are set to make their first court appearance on Thursday after Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that they face charges of abetting and aiding second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are each charged with one count, considered "unintentional" felonies. They are currently in custody in Hennepin County Jail.
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| Trump tried to vote with wrong address while railing against voter fraud Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:29 PM PDT  Records reviewed by the Post found the president had to resubmit his application, despite railing against the vote by mail processDonald Trump has been railing against vote by mail for the past few months – falsely citing the potential for voter fraud, which is extremely rare. As it turns out, the president himself bungled the system.Trump registered to vote in Florida last September under his White House address – 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, according to the Washington Post. But Florida does not allow people to register to vote without an in-state address, and one month later, Trump resubmitted his application with a Florida address and voted in the Republican primary.On his registration form, Trump told Florida officials his legal residence was in Washington DC but on another day also said he was a "bona fide resident" of Palm Beach, Florida, home to his Mar-a-Lago Club, according to the public records reviewed by the Post.Other voters have faced significant consequences for the same mistake. In fact, as some Democrats pointed out, the same issue is listed on White House website as voter fraud.> Beyond Trump's dangerous, dishonest claims of widespread voter fraud, it's really rich because the WH website uses the case of someone trying to vote at their second home as an example of voter fraud! https://t.co/syhg4fsehh pic.twitter.com/pEIyXy89Ck> > — American Bridge (@American_Bridge) June 3, 2020A city manager in Florida paid $5,000 in fines for putting the wrong address on her registration, as did a restaurateur in Palm Beach county. Florida Republicans also challenged state Democrats in 2018 in a vote-by-mail investigation, but the state found there was no fraud. Florida also tossed out thousands of mail-in ballots for supposedly having signatures that did not match original registration forms.Meanwhile, Democrats and some Republicans have called on states to ease vote-by-mail restrictions amid the pandemic. Tuesday's primary election showed people waiting in line for hours in cities such as Washington DC, some of whom had not received absentee ballots in time.If this happens in November, election officials fear the public could be at risk for contracting Covid-19, as some did in Florida and Wisconsin during elections earlier this year.
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| U.S Army Set to Conduct Iron Dome Tests Posted: 04 Jun 2020 06:00 AM PDT  While other older weapons were also designed without such joint capabilities, technology and warfare have advanced and so, too, has the need to develop solutions to provide commanders the flexibility and overmatch they may require and this has given rise to integration as the central principle of weapon system development.
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| Hong Kong criminalises insulting Chinese national anthem Posted: 04 Jun 2020 04:21 AM PDT  Hong Kong lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday that would criminalise insults to China's national anthem, as protesters defied a ban on a vigil for the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Offenders will face three years in jail and fines as high as HK$50,000 (£5,160). The proposal passed with 41 in favour and one opposed after pro-democracy lawmakers staged protests, dropping stink bombs in the chamber and shouting as votes were cast. The ruling came as Hong Kong ramped up police presence after a vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre was banned for the first time. Authorities cited social distancing measures, even though schools and bars have reopened. Metal barricades went up in Victoria Park to bar people from gathering to remember lives lost when the military gunned down peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, seen as a threat to the ruling Communist Party. After three decades, the Chinese government still has not acknowledged the event where hundreds, possibly thousands, died. Instead, Beijing has worked hard to erase it from history, a campaign that accelerates each year around the anniversary.
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| Amid Spreading George Floyd Protests in Europe, a Question: Do Black Lives Matter Less in France? Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:38 AM PDT  PARIS—The crowd that gathered in front of the city's main courthouse demanded justice for a black man who'd died at the hands of the police. They chanted, "We Can't Breathe" and brandished signs and scrawled graffiti slogans from the Black Lives Matter movement. The police used tear gas to disperse the largely peaceful protesters, and then small groups of troublemakers broke off to smash windows, bust up ATMs, and burn trash bins. Politicians and commentators took to the airwaves the next morning to trade accusations about who was at fault for the violence.It was a scene straight out of the United States right now, except that it happened in Paris, and the 20,000 people who gathered here Tuesday were commemorating not only George Floyd, but France's own victim of police violence: Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old construction worker, died in a police station after being arrested in 2016."My little brother's last words were 'I can't breathe,'" his sister Assa Traoré told the crowd through a megaphone. "They could have taken him to a hospital. They could have tried to save him. They didn't. They killed my little brother.''Crowds have gathered in London, Berlin and Amsterdam these past days to protest Floyd's death at the hands, or to be more precise, the knee, of a Minneapolis policeman on May 25. But while Tuesday night's turnout in Paris certainly was amplified by events across the Atlantic, it was also a stark reminder that France has its own issues of racism and police violence.What America Can Learn From Europe's Black BlocsWatching events unfold in the U.S. brings a certain sense of déja vu to anyone in France. The same dormant grievances. The same spark setting off nationwide protests. The same largely peaceful gatherings of people that turn violent. The same disagreement over whether agitators or police are to blame for the degeneration. The same vandals who take advantage to destroy property and go home with the latest flat screen TV.It happened in 2018, when protests by the so-called Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Vests, brought much of France to a standstill and led to historic monuments being trashed in central Paris amid accusations of police violence. It happened in 2005 when French ghettos burned for three weeks after two boys died trying to escape a police ID check. To a lesser degree, it's happened with labor protests in the years in between, including last year's against raising the retirement age.Police violence and racism have been the subject of many French films, including Les Miserables, last year's candidate for best foreign film at the Oscars.The French government has been quick to try to dispel any thought that France's situation is anything like that of the United States. Sibeth Ndiaye, the government's spokesperson, said Tuesday that events in France and America "aren't comparable" and insisted "there's no institutionalized state violence in France.'' Many French would disagree. Indeed, resentment of the police may well be much more widespread, and among more varied parts of the population, than in the United States.France doesn't break out statistics by race, and the police don't publish detailed statistics about their activities, making comparisons with the U.S. difficult. The lack of transparency is one reason journalist David Dufresne became known nationwide during the Gilets Jaunes protests for using his @davduf Twitter account to publish accusations of police violence. The numerous testimonies he received led to a book.The percentage of French who expressed confidence in the police dropped 8 points to 66 percent in this year's annual poll by an institute linked to the Sciences Po university in Paris. That's way below the level in Britain and Germany. Chloe Morin, a researcher with the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, said one result of the Gilets Jaunes protests is that dislike of the police, which used to be largely limited to visible minorities, is now shared by wide swaths of white France. "In the U.S., the bad relations are specific to certain places and certain populations,'' she told The Daily Beast. "In France, between the Gilets Jaunes, the ghettos, and now last year's pension protests, you have three groups who feel humiliated by the police.'' The Gilets Jaunes were largely white and rural. They initially blocked roundabouts across France to protest new taxes on gasoline, in their view imposed by an ecologically obsessed government that didn't understand that outside of Paris people actually have to drive. The protests spread across the country and turned violent when they were joined by groups unhappy with everything from purchasing power to President Emmanuel Macron's haughty style. Self-declared antifa and anarchist elements also joined in. The momentum of the movement only trailed off when Macron rolled back the gas tax and threw lots of money at various other grievances, and the pandemic lockdown seemed to put an definitive end to it. (The public health emergency was the reason police gave on Tuesday for breaking up the demonstration.)There was also an anti-immigrant element to some Gilets Jaunes, which explains why much of black and Arab France sat out the protests. France's so-called banlieues, immigrant-heavy suburbs and exurbs, have been largely calm since the 2005 riots, which led to then President Jacques Chirac declaring a state of emergency for the first time since the Algerian War.The cynical explanations about why the banlieues haven't exploded again, even though the job situation and relations with the police have not improved, is that the drug dealers and Islamist ideologues who often hold sway don't want any trouble. France's extensive social net has certainly helped as well. It hasn't been for lack of incidents. Traoré died in a police station after being tackled when he fled a police identity check. The police had come to arrest his brother, but Adama ran because he apparently didn't have his papers on him. Four years later, conflicting medical reports still haven't settled whether he died from the way he was treated by police or because of an underlying heart condition. "These images of Floyd horrified us, but what we denounce with such vehemence in the U.S. happens here in France, even worse,'' Adama's sister Assa said on BFMTV Tuesday. "In the U.S., the police were fired, here they received medals.'' Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| US Navy veteran Michael White released from Iran, will be transferred from Swiss to US custody Posted: 04 Jun 2020 08:44 AM PDT  Rich Edson reports from Zurich, Switzerland with an update.
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