Crowds gathered outside a courtroom in Minneapolis reacted in jubilation when jurors returned a verdict of guilty on all three charges against the former police officer Derek Chauvin, on trial for the klling of 46-year-old George Floyd
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Chauvin guilty verdict a landmark moment in US criminal justice history
Analysis: The testimony against the ex-officer was damning – it was clear this case was different from so many that had come before
The trial saw 44 witnesses and 15 days of testimony. And, in the end, less than a day to decide that Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis police officer, was guilty of murdering George Floyd.
It is a landmark moment not just in the history of US policing and criminal justice, but around the world. George Floyd’s death came to embody the struggle for racial justice and equality in so many ways they are impossible to condense: from forceful calls for police reform in Minneapolis and new legislation in Washington, to a reckoning on the history of British imperialism in the UK and a resurgence in activism over Indigenous deaths in custody in Australia.
Continue reading...Will the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict change policing in America?
George Floyd’s death at the hands of a white police officer touched off a new civil rights uprising that rippled across the world
The jury’s guilty verdict on the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd signaled the conclusion of a historic police brutality trial and a key moment for policing and for the battle for racial equality in America.
Observers have talked about this case being so significant that it will stand as a watershed between the way law enforcement was held to account in the US before George Floyd was pinned by the neck under Chauvin’s knee, and after.
Continue reading...Jim Steinman, hitmaker for Meat Loaf and Celine Dion, dies at 73
The Grammy-winning composer was behind Bat Out of Hell and It’s All Coming Back to Me
Jim Steinman, the Grammy-winning composer who wrote Meat Loaf’s bestselling Bat Out Of Hell debut album as well as hits for Celine Dion, Air Supply and Bonnie Tyler, has died, his brother said. He was 73.
Bill Steinman told the Associated Press that his brother died on Monday from kidney failure and was ill for some time. He said Jim Steinman died in Connecticut near his home in Ridgefield.
Continue reading...George W Bush on Trump’s Republicans: ‘isolationist, protectionist, nativist’
- Ex-president laments ‘when we scare people about immigration’
- Bush signals he is out of step with modern Republican party
- US politics – live coverage
George W Bush has called the Republican party under Donald Trump “isolationist, protectionist and … nativist” – a judgment unlikely to make the former US president new friends on the American right.
Related: George W Bush is back – but not all appreciate his new progressive image
Continue reading...Biden says of Chauvin trial: ‘I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict’ – live
- Biden says of Chauvin case: ‘I think it’s overwhelming, in my view’
- Sequestered jury in Minneapolis began deliberations on Monday
- National guard to assist Washington police in event of protests
Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, said earlier today that he spoke to Joe Biden about the trial.
“He knows how it is to lose a family member,” Floyd told the “Today” show. “He was just letting us know that he was praying for us and hoping that everything would come out to be okay.”
“He was just letting us know that he was praying for us and hoping that everything would come out to be OK.” -Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, on his phone conversation with President Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/OUEp6Lvbhw
Joe Biden addressed the Derek Chauvin murder trial moments ago in the Oval Office, as he prepared to meet with leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
The president confirmed he spoke to George Floyd’s family yesterday, as the jury began its deliberations. Biden noted he wanted to wait to contact them until after the jury was sequestered.
After phone call with George Floyd's family, President Biden says he is "praying the verdict is the right verdict," adding that he is only speaking out because the jury is sequestered. https://t.co/zstpyxCqRk pic.twitter.com/RcrACo79DU
Continue reading...Richard Dawkins loses ‘humanist of the year’ title over trans comments
American Humanist Association criticises academic for comments about identity using ‘the guise of scientific discourse’, and withdraws its 1996 honour
The American Humanist Association has withdrawn its humanist of the year award from Richard Dawkins, 25 years after he received the honour, criticising the academic and author for “demean[ing] marginalised groups” using “the guise of scientific discourse”.
The AHA honoured Dawkins, whose books include The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, in 1996 for his “significant contributions” in communicating scientific concepts to the public. On Monday, it announced that it was withdrawing the award, referring to a tweet sent by Dawkins earlier this month, in which he compared trans people to Rachel Dolezal, the civil rights activist who posed as a black woman for years.
Continue reading...‘Children are dying’: George Floyd’s killing fuels calls for ban on restraints in schools
Educators use physical restraint thousands of time a year and critics say the practice is used as a routine discipline tool, especially against Black children
America is waiting on a verdict in the closely watched murder trial of Derek Chauvin in Minnesota, which has focused on the former Minneapolis police officer’s use of “prone restraint” that prosecutors say contributed to the death of George Floyd.
The manner of Floyd’s death led to a national reckoning on police brutality and racism, but it has also highlighted how the practice of restraining children remains commonplace in Minnesota schools, and in other districts across the country.
Continue reading...US ambassador to leave Moscow as tensions rise
John Sullivan’s departure will leave both countries’ embassies without their top diplomats at key moment
Washington’s ambassador to Moscow has announced that he will return to the US for consultations, days after the Russian government recommended he leave the country during what it said was an “extremely tense situation”.
John Sullivan’s departure will leave both countries’ embassies without their top diplomats at a crucial moment, with Washington and Moscow recently announcing new sanctions, a Russian military buildup near Ukraine, and concerns about the opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s health while in detention.
Continue reading...‘Water warriors’: the US women banding together to fight for water justice
Women have been deeply embedded in the movement for clean water and sanitation for decades, which has become even more pressing amid the pandemic
Deanna Miller Berry first learned of the scores of complaints about Denmark, South Carolina’s water supply, during her 2017 mayoral campaign.
For at least a decade, residents of the rural, predominantly Black and lower-income town “knew something was happening” and tried to sound the alarm, said Berry. “A lot of folks [were] complaining that they were starting to get sick, hair loss and skin issues.”
Continue reading...Walter Mondale, former US vice-president and celebrated liberal, dies aged 93
Former senator and ambassador lost one of the most lopsided US elections in history to Ronald Reagan
Walter F Mondale, the former vice-president and liberal leader who lost to Ronald Reagan in one of the most lopsided presidential elections, has died at the age of 93.
A towering figure in the Democratic party who resolutely put humility and honesty before the glitz of mass communication, Mondale’s death marked something of an end of an era in US politics. He was described by a biographer as the last major American politician to resist the allure of television.
Continue reading...Montana guide mauled to death in grizzly bear attack outside Yellowstone
Charles Mock, 40, died of scalp and facial wounds after managing to call 911 for help
A Montana backcountry guide has died after he was mauled by a large grizzly bear that was probably defending a nearby moose carcass just outside Yellowstone national park, officials said Monday.
Charles “Carl” Mock, 40, who lived in the park gateway community of West Yellowstone, died Saturday, two days after he was attacked while fishing alone in a forested area along the Madison River several miles north of West Yellowstone, said a Gallatin county sheriff’s office spokesperson, Christine Koosman.
Continue reading...Tyrannosaurs may have hunted in packs like wolves, new research has found
Paleontologists say a mass grave in Utah shows the dinosaurs may not have always been solitary predators as previously thought
Tyrannosaur dinosaurs may not have been solitary predators as long envisioned but more like social carnivores such as wolves, new research announced on Monday has found.
Paleontologists developed the theory while studying a mass tyrannosaur death site found seven years ago in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, one of two monuments that the Biden administration is considering restoring to their full size after former president Donald Trump shrank them.
Continue reading...Apple and Parler agreement could restore rightwing platform to App Store
App was barred over ties to US Capitol attack but companies have discussed content moderation, Apple says
Apple said it had reached an agreement with Parler, the rightwing social media app, that could lead to its reinstatement in the company’s app store. Apple kicked out Parler in January over ties to the deadly 6 January siege on the US Capitol.
In a letter to two Republican lawmakers in Congress, Apple said it has been in “substantial conversations” with Parler over how the company plans to moderate content on its network. Before its removal from the App Store, Parler was a hotbed of hate speech, Nazi imagery, calls for violence (including violence against specific people) and conspiracy theories.
Continue reading...Derek Chauvin jury begins deliberations as America braces for verdict
- Former officer charged with murder of George Floyd
- Derek Chauvin trial – live coverage
The Derek Chauvin murder trial heard closing arguments on Monday before the jury began considering a verdict over the death of George Floyd that is anxiously awaited by millions of Americans.
Related: Daunte Wright and George Floyd: another chapter in America’s recurring tragedy
Continue reading...Morrissey hits back at The Simpsons over ‘hurtful and racist’ parody episode
Manager posts critical statement on singer’s behalf after Panic on the Streets of Springfield airs
The Simpsons has earned the wrath of Morrissey after it parodied the former Smiths frontman in an episode of the show.
The singer was satirised during the episode Panic on the Streets of Springfield, which aired in the US on Sunday night. In the episode, Lisa Simpson becomes obsessed with a fictional band called the Snuffs and befriends its frontman, Quilloughby.
Continue reading...Judge orders two Proud Boys leaders held in custody over Capitol attack
Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs charged with conspiring to stop 2020 election certification and leading Proud Boys to Capitol
A federal judge has ordered two leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group to be detained in jail pending trial for their involvement in the 6 January attack on the Capitol in Washington DC.
Both were indicted in one of many Proud Boys conspiracy cases to stem from the investigation into the assault on the building that followed a pro-Donald Trump rally.
Continue reading...Derek Chauvin trial: prosecution and defence make closing arguments – video
The Derek Chauvin murder trial heard closing arguments on Monday before the jury was expected to begin considering a verdict over the death of George Floyd that is anxiously awaited by millions of Americans. The prosecutor Steve Schleicher told jurors the key to the case lay in video footage of Chauvin pressing his knee on to Floyd’s neck, even as he pleaded for his life, right to his last words of 'I can’t breathe'. The former Minneapolis police officer’s attorney, Eric Nelson, told the jury that his client's actions followed the 'reasonable force' guidelines for police officers when considering all the factors that Chauvin had to take into account on the day of Floyd's death
Continue reading...Derek Chauvin trial: defense and prosecution to make closing arguments – live
- Former police officer charged with murder over death of George Floyd
- Jury to begin deliberations once closing arguments have concluded
- Protests flare as America awaits verdict in Derek Chauvin trial
Court has just reconvened this morning in the case against Derek Chauvin. Closing arguments are expected to begin soon.
Jurors will begin deliberating when closings end. The judge in Chauvin’s case, Peter Cahill, is now giving jurors instructions on the law for when they start deliberating, such as how they are to weigh evidence.
Welcome back to our live coverage of the Derek Chauvin trial. Closing arguments in the murder case against the former Minneapolis police officer are scheduled to begin at 9am local time in Minneapolis.
Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police department officer, faces charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the 25 May 2020 death of George Floyd. During an arrest, Chauvin pressed his knee against the neck of Floyd, who was Black, for nine minutes and 29 seconds.
Tesla car crashes in Texas with ‘no one in driver’s seat’ – video report
Two men died after a Tesla vehicle believed to have been operating without anyone in the driver’s seat crashed into a tree north of Houston. The victims were reportedly found in the front passenger seat and the back seat of the 2019 Tesla Model S
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