The president is due to attend the rescheduled launch of a manned SpaceX rocket – a welcome diversion from the coronavirus crisis
Making America great again just wasn’t enough. “President Trump is making space great again,” the Republican National Committee declared this week.
Donald Trump returns to Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday to witness the rescheduled launch of a SpaceX rocket carrying Nasa astronauts that was delayed by weather three days earlier.
Continue reading...Demonstrators in cities across the country took to the streets on Friday following police killings in Minneapolis and Louisville
Continue reading...Experts condemn Trump’s actions; India records worst daily rise in infections; surges in Russia and Brazil; Australia tests sewage water
Scientists claim to have found more clues about how the new coronavirus could have spread from bats through pangolins and into humans, as India reported its worst single-day rise in new cases, and the number of Covid-19 infections worldwide neared 6 million.
Writing in the journal Covid-19 Science Advances, researchers said an examination of the closest relative of the virus found that it was circulating in bats but lacked the protein needed to bind to human cells. They said this ability could have been acquired from a virus found in pangolins – a scaly mammal that is one of the most illegally trafficked animals in the world.
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In Los Angeles, protesters marched through the downtown area before shutting the 110 freeway.
From @KTLA: protestors have shut down the 110 freeway pic.twitter.com/1WI75tIMOl
LAPD seen trying to detain protesters after squad car windows smashed, officer attacked downtown https://t.co/uHrpaRp3xm pic.twitter.com/gmxNAdO1uM
Demonstrator in DTLA made a cordon blocking the road out of Bird scooters pic.twitter.com/aV8c63SG4k
Kellie Chauvin, the wife of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd, is divorcing her husband because of his role in Floyd’s death.
Kellie Chauvin,
Through her attorney wife of former Officer Derek Chauvin the former Minneapolis Police Officer charged with murdering #GeorgeFloyd released a statement saying she is devastated by Floyd’s death, sends condolences to his family and is divorcing her husband @wcco pic.twitter.com/A5n7bYgdbK
Twitter responded to the president’s post, which suggested violence against protesters, by hiding it behind a warning label
As Twitter for the second time in a single week took unprecedented action against a tweet by Donald Trump, Facebook declined to take any enforcement action against the president’s statements.
Trump’s threatening statement on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on Thursday night, “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” echoed a racist 1960s police chief known for ordering patrols of black neighborhoods with shotguns and dogs. It was widely interpreted as a threat and potential incitement to violence against residents of the Twin Cities who have erupted in protest against the alleged police killing of George Floyd, a black man who begged for his life as a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.
Continue reading...Activist Van Jones has said that the killing of George Floyd was a 'lynching'. Floyd, 46, a black man, was killed in police custody on Monday night after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck.
In the aftermath, protests have flared up across the US with people demanding justice and systemic change to end police brutality. The CNN political commentator added that everyone should: 'Look in the mirror at how you choke off black opportunity'
Cities across the US have been convulsed by protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after being arrested and handcuffed by a white officer who then kneeled on his neck for several minutes. Floyd pleaded that he 'could not breathe' and among his last words were 'don't kill me'.
The incident has sparkd a reckoning over race and police killings of black Americans - and demonstrations have spread from Minnesota to other parts of the US including New York, Denver, Chicago and Oakland
A prototype of SpaceX’s upcoming heavy-lift rocket, Starship, exploded on Friday during ground tests in south Texas as Elon Musk’s space company pursued an aggressive development schedule to fly the launch vehicle for the first time.
The testing explosion was unrelated to SpaceX’s upcoming launch of two Nasa astronauts from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center using a different rocket system, the Falcon 9 with the Crew Dragon capsule fixed on top.
Continue reading...Trump has announced that the US will terminate its relationship with the World Health Organization and will redirect the funds to 'other bodies'.
The US president criticised the WHO, claiming it was 'controlled' by China. Trump also announced the US would begin a process to eliminate policy exemptions that give Hong Kong 'special treatment' due to new security laws imposed on the region by China
Prime minister condemned racism and called on Canada to ‘stand together in solidarity’ against racial hate as protests continue in US
Canadians are watching unrest and police violence in the United States in “shock and horror”, Justin Trudeau said on Friday – but the prime minister cautioned that his country also has entrenched problems with racism.
The city of Minneapolis has been rocked by a third night of violent protests over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, after a white police officer knelt on his neck as he lay on the ground following arrest.
Continue reading...Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, pledges 'swift' justice for George Floyd, adding that 'normal was not working for many communities' after huge protests across the state following Floyd's death in which a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck
Protests over killing of George Floyd highlight reality of tensions in the Twin Cities
It has been called the “Minnesota paradox”. The Twin Cities, comprising the conjoined urban areas of Minneapolis and St Paul, regularly tops the list of places in the US with the best quality of living.
Largely low rise and sprawling, set around the cities’ lakes and the Mississippi, the area is marked by affordable and largely good quality housing with lawns, parks, museums and tree-lined streets.
Continue reading...Samantha Power also tells online Hay festival that former US administration underestimated how ‘ripped off’ Americans felt, and discounts possibility of Michelle Obama as vice-president
The US has shown “gross incompetence … at the highest levels” in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Samantha Power, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under Barack Obama.
Speaking to Philippe Sands for the online version of the Hay festival, Power said that Donald Trump’s administration had failed to learn from the countries hit by the coronavirus before the US.
Continue reading...In a recent survey, 24% of Americans said they will refuse a coronavirus vaccine. Adam Gabbatt investigates the anti-vaxxer movement in the United States – and how the pandemic is helping to fuel its resurgence
Continue reading...Minneapolis was rocked by a third night of protests on Thursday over the death of George Floyd, as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets and fires erupted around the city, including at a police precinct
Continue reading...Up to six people can gather in UK parks from Monday; Donald Trump says he would take hydroxychloroquine again; drug combination triples death risk in cancer patients
I’m signing off now (it’s Friday afternoon here in Sydney). I leave you in the hands of my wonderful colleague Alexandra Topping, who assures me it’s a glorious morning in London.
Thanks all for your comments and correspondence. Be well all of you.
Renault SA plans to eliminate about 14,600 jobs worldwide and lower production capacity by almost a fifth as part of cost reductions aimed at outlasting the downturn that has rocked the global auto industry.
Continue reading...The 1992 accusation that the film-maker sexually assaulted his young daughter has made him a pariah, yet he was never charged. In this exclusive interview, he explains why he is done with treading carefully
When Woody Allen was 20, the writer Danny Simon taught him a few rules about comedy, the most important of which was this: always trust your own judgment, because external opinion is meaningless.
Allen recounts this tale in his recently published memoir, Apropos of Nothing. That this book exists at all is proof that he still adheres to that rule. These days, Allen’s name is mud, a fact made clear by the critics, who wrote their reviews with one hand while holding their noses with the other.The New York Times’ critic wrote: “Volunteering to review [this book], in our moral climate, is akin to volunteering for the 2021 Olympic javelin-catching team.” Another publication’s headline was: “I Read Woody Allen’s Memoir So You Don’t Have To.”
Continue reading...Beijing describes US efforts to raise controversial security law with UN as ‘pointless’
Beijing has responded with defiance to international criticism of its Hong Kong national security law, threatening countermeasures against the UK and the US and describing Washington’s efforts to raise the issue at the UN security council as “pointless”.
One day after Beijing’s legislature approved plans to move ahead with sweeping anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian warned countries that Hong Kong is “purely an internal Chinese matter” and that “no other country has the right to interfere”.
Continue reading...Move comes amid president’s feud with Twitter after it fact-checked him for the first time
Donald Trump has fired a shot across the bows of “big tech” companies by signing an executive order that aims to narrow their protections from liability over the content posted on their services.
The move came as the US president stepped up his attacks against social media giants after Twitter fact-checked him for the first time over a false assertion that mail-in voting leads to widespread voter fraud.
Continue reading...Minneapolis city council vice-president Andrea Jenkins sang a portion of the song Amazing Grace and offered her sympathies to the family of George Floyd at a news conference on Thursday morning. Jenkins also called on her council colleagues to call a state of emergency in Minneapolis, declaring racism a public health issue. George Floyd died on Monday after a Minneapolis police officer arrested him and placed his knee on his neck for several minutes. Video of the encounter has been shown worldwide.
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