President Biden speaks during his first press briefing in the East Room of the White House on Thursday.
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President Biden speaks during his first press briefing in the East Room of the White House on Thursday.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
When President Biden was asked about actions he would take on gun violence prevention and said “it’s a matter of timing,” and pivoted to talk about infrastructure, it wasn’t what Kris Brown had been expecting.
“I am disappointed, I will say, at what I heard from him,” said Brown, who is president of Brady United Against Gun Violence.
That disappointment comes, in part, because of Biden’s long history of working alongside gun safety advocates, going back to the 1990s when he helped shepherd through the Brady Bill requiring background checks on most gun purchases as well as a temporary ban on sales of some military-style semi-automatic guns.
Just two days before Thursday’s press conference, the morning after the King Soopers mass shooting in Boulder, Colo., Biden said he didn’t need to “wait another minute, let alone an hour to take common-sense steps that will save lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act.”
He urged them to bring back an “assault weapons” ban and limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines.
But Biden knows better than almost anyone just how difficult that would be.
Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee nearly 30 years ago, the last time Congress passed significant gun control legislation. And it wasn’t easy.
“I’m not even angry anymore. I’m just as frustrated as hell,” Biden said in 1994 in the middle of a lengthy fight with congressional Republicans and the National Rifle Association over the crime bill. It was a huge bill he’d been working on for a long time that included hiring more police officers, promoting community policing and crime-reduction strategies and drug courts, but also included sentencing changes blamed for a precipitous rise in mass incarceration in the U.S.
It also had a ban on a variety of semi-automatic guns; in a particularly heated speech, Biden said that was what was holding up the whole bill.
“Six years ago it was guns, five years ago it was guns, four years ago it was guns, last night it was guns,” said Biden, nearly shouting.
The ban on military-style rifles and other high-capacity weapons was something many Democrats (though certainly not all of them) and gun safety advocates had spent years trying to pass. And then, at the last minute, to get it through, a sunset provision was added.
“It had not been in any prior draft. I mean, it’s a very unusual feature of a law,” said Brown, who was a congressional staffer working on the issue at the time.
After 10 years, the sunset kicked in and the ban lifted. Ever since, Democrats, including Biden, have unsuccessfully tried to get it back and make it stronger. Meanwhile, AR-15’s and other similar weapons have become very popular, making Biden’s new call for a so-called assault weapons ban even more politically challenging.
Then-President Bill Clinton hugs then-Sen. Joe Biden on Sept. 13, 1994, during a signing ceremony for the crime bill on the South Lawn of the White House.
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Then-President Bill Clinton hugs then-Sen. Joe Biden on Sept. 13, 1994, during a signing ceremony for the crime bill on the South Lawn of the White House.
Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images
Biden was also involved in passing the Brady Bill, a 1993 law requiring background checks for most gun purchases, which is still in place today. It was named for James Brady, President Reagan’s press secretary who was gravely injured in the assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981. Brady and his wife, Sarah, threw themselves into getting gun control legislation passed.
“It took six years and seven votes actually, and they had the NRA opposing them every step of the way,” said Brown.
But there are loopholes and exceptions, and buying guns over the Internet wasn’t even a thing in 1993. A generation and many mass shootings later, that legislation from the ’90s still remains, because nothing else has been able to pass since.
Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in 1994, and some who lost blamed the backlash to their vote on the semi-automatic weapons ban. The NRA actively campaigned against members of Congress who had supported the ban. There have only been brief moments when lawmakers prioritized gun control measures, usually after mass shootings, only to see the efforts fizzle as the nation’s attention faded.
After the Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown, Conn., then-President Barack Obama tasked his vice president with finding a way to bolster outdated gun laws. Biden held listening sessions with law enforcement, the gun lobby and met at length with the families of those 20 children shot down at their elementary school.
“There is nothing that has gone to the heart of the matter more than the visual image of little 6-year-old kids riddled — not shot with a stray bullet — riddled, riddled with bullet holes,” Biden said at one event. This time, he argued, would be different because the crime was so unthinkable.
But as days stretched to weeks, what looked like a bipartisan compromise to expand background checks began falling apart in the Senate. A few days before the vote, Biden saw the writing on the wall.
“People say, ‘Well what am I going to say to the NRA?’ Well, I’ve got a question for you: What are you going to say to those parents?” Biden asked, emotion in his voice. “Look them in the eye and tell them you concluded there’s nothing you can do.”
The families were in the gallery overlooking the chamber, when Biden, in his ceremonial role as president of the Senate, presided over the vote where the legislation failed. It didn’t have enough support to overcome a filibuster, though would have passed if it had gotten an up-or-down vote.
At his press conference Thursday, Biden said, “Politics is the art of the possible.” It is not clear whether his experience over the decades led him to believe at this moment that the federal gun legislation he said he wanted earlier in the week just isn’t possible. But White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended his decision to focus next on infrastructure.
She said he understands the frustration of the gun safety advocates “and he understands it as one of the few people in government who ever beat the NRA twice by leading the fight to pass the Brady Bill and the assault-weapons ban.”
She pointed to 23 executive actions taken by Obama when the legislative efforts failed and said there is a review underway now of actions Biden could take. She said, in the absence of federal laws, states have taken up their own gun control legislation, including “red flag laws” meant to keep guns from people who are an imminent danger to themselves or others.
“But you know, we would say that the frustration should be vented at the members of the House and Senate that voted against the measures the president supports,” Psaki said. “And we would certainly support their advocacy in that regard.”
This is unlikely to satisfy advocates, whom Biden has worked with for years, who want him to make gun safety a priority and take bold action.
SUEZ, Egypt (AP) — Two additional tugboats sped Sunday to Egypt’s Suez Canal to aid efforts to free a skyscraper-sized container ship wedged for days across the crucial waterway, even as major shippers increasingly divert their boats out of fear the vessel may take even longer to free.
The massive Ever Given, a Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, got stuck Tuesday in a single-lane stretch of the canal. In the time since, authorities have been unable to remove the vessel and traffic through the canal — valued at over $9 billion a day — has been halted, further disrupting a global shipping network already strained by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Dutch-flagged Alp Guard and the Italian-flagged Carlo Magno, called in to help tugboats already there, reached the Red Sea near the city of Suez early Sunday, satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed. The tugboats will nudge the 400-meter-long (quarter-mile-long) Ever Given as dredgers continue to vacuum up sand from underneath the vessel and mud caked to its port side, said Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which manages the Ever Given.
Workers planned to make two attempts Sunday to free the vessel coinciding with high tides, a top pilot with the canal authority said.
“Sunday is very critical,” the pilot said. “It will determine the next step, which highly likely involves at least the partial offloading of the vessel.”
Taking containers off the ship likely would add even more days to the canal’s closure, something authorities have been desperately trying to avoid. It also would require a crane and other equipment that have yet to arrive.
The pilot spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to brief journalists.
On Saturday, the head of the Suez Canal Authority told journalists that strong winds were “not the only cause” for the Ever Given running aground, appearing to push back against conflicting assessments offered by others. Lt. Gen. Osama Rabei said an investigation was ongoing but did not rule out human or technical error.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement maintains that their “initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding.” However, at least one initial report suggested a “blackout” struck the hulking vessel carrying some 20,000 containers at the time of the incident.
Rabei said he remained hopeful that dredging could free the ship without having to resort to removing its cargo, but added that “we are in a difficult situation, it’s a bad incident.”
Asked about when they expected to free the vessel and reopen the canal, he said: “I can’t say because I do not know.”
Speaking on Sunday to the pro-government Egyptian television channel Extra News, Rabei said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi had ordered the canal authority to prepare for all options, including taking containers off of the vessel. He said officials had been in talks with the U.S. about that possibility, without elaborating.
Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the company that owns the vessel, said it was considering removing containers if other refloating efforts failed.
The Ever Given is wedged about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the canal’s Red Sea entrance near the city of Suez.
A prolonged closure of the crucial waterway would cause delays in the global shipment chain. Some 19,000 vessels passed through the canal last year, according to official figures. About 10% of world trade flows through the canal. The closure could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East. Already, Syria has begun rationing the distribution of fuel in the war-torn country amid concerns of delays of shipments arriving amid the blockage.
As of early Sunday, over 320 ships waited to travel through the Suez, either to the Mediterranean or the Red Sea, according to canal services firm Leth Agencies. Dozens of others still listed their destination as the canal, though shippers increasingly appear to be avoiding the passage.
The world’s biggest shipping company, Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk, warned its customers that it would take anywhere from three to six days to clear the backlog of vessels at the canal. Already, the firm and its partners have 22 ships waiting there.
“The current number (of) redirected Maersk and partner vessels is 14 and expected to rise as we assess the salvage efforts along with network capacity and fuel on our vessels currently en route to Suez,” the shipper said.
Mediterranean Shipping Co., the world’s second-largest, said it already had rerouted at least 11 ships around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to avoid the canal. It turned back two other ships and said it expected “some missed sailings as a result of this incident.”
“MSC expects this incident to have a very significant impact on the movement of containerized goods, disrupting supply chains beyond the existing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” it said.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre and Malak Harb in Dubai contributed to this report.
We may not know the names of the jurors for the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t know anything about them.
Over about two weeks, lawyers for the prosecution and defense quizzed potential jurors about their knowledge of Floyd’s death, their opinions of Chauvin, and their attitudes about police, racial injustice, and the protests and rioting that followed Floyd’s death.
Some questioned how much force was used against Floyd, who lay on the ground for more than nine minutes as Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck. Several believe the criminal justice system needs to be reformed. More than one questioned the movement to defund police departments.
Discussing her opinion about Black Lives Matter, one woman responded, “I am Black, and my life matters.”
The jurors pledged to set their opinions aside. But their answers provide a glimpse into how they might respond to the evidence in the coming weeks.
Opening arguments are to start Monday.
Twelve people will sit on the jury and two will serve as alternates. For Chauvin’s trial, a 15th person was selected, too. He is set to be dismissed Monday morning if the others arrive as scheduled.
Chemist, white man in his 20s
Citing his science training, the first juror selected said he is “pretty logical” and passionate about his work. He said that background would make him a good juror.
He plays Ultimate Frisbee and frequently hikes and backpacks during the warmer months. He and his fiancee recently visited the area where George Floyd died, in part because they have considered moving to that area of Minneapolis, he said.
He said he had not seen the now-famous bystander video of the confrontation that ended with Floyd’s death, only still images. But he said he’d be willing to watch the video during the trial: “For the sake of the jury process, I would be willing to be uncomfortable.”
Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lead defense lawyer, asked the juror what he meant when he wrote on his juror questionnaire that Floyd had been “killed” by Chauvin. “I wouldn’t say it’s demonstrative of my opinion,” the juror replied.
He said his personal impression of the Minneapolis Police Department “is fine.”
Questioned about his opinions on Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, he said, “I support the message that every life should matter equally.”
In this image taken from video, defense attorney Eric Nelson, left, and defendant former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, right, and Nelson’s assistant Amy Voss,… In this image taken from video, defense attorney Eric Nelson, left, and defendant former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, right, and Nelson’s assistant Amy Voss, back, introduce themselves to potential jurors as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides, prior to continuing jury selection, Monday, March 15, 2021, in the trial of Chauvin, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd.AP
Mixed-race woman in her 20s
Getting a chance to serve on the Chauvin jury was the reason this young woman registered to vote, she told the court. “I was super-excited” to be called for the jury, she said. “That’s actually why I voted.”
The young woman, whose occupation didn’t come up during jury questioning, has an uncle who works as a police officer in northern Minnesota. One of her only concerns about jury duty was whether she would have time to check her blood sugar because she has Type 1 diabetes.
Like some other jurors, she said she could face personal risk by serving. “But I’m not as concerned about it as I probably should be,” she said.
Friends “kind of consider me to a type of mediator,” she said, which could be helpful during jury deliberations.
She said she believes her community improved because of the massive protests that took place after Floyd’s death. Asked about her opinion on Black Lives Matter, she said, “I like the idea of what it’s supposed to be about. But it’s been turned into a marketing scheme by companies.”
She noted that she’d heard some people mention that Floyd had drugs in his system. “I don’t necessarily agree” that drugs could have caused his death, she said. “It could have everything to do with it. It could have nothing to do with it.”
Business auditor, white man in his 30s
This juror said one concern about serving on the jury would be whether he could block out enough time from work for what’s estimated to be a four-week trial.
A friend of a friend is a police officer, but the acquaintance wouldn’t sway his views, the juror said. Besides, the officer is on the K-9 unit and mostly “talks about his dog” with him, the man said.
The juror has seen parts of the bystander video two or three times, he said, but not the whole thing.
Questioned by prosecutor Steve Schleicher, he said he’d read that Floyd might have had “hard drugs in his system,” meaning anything stronger than marijuana. “Frankly, I don’t think that should have much influence on the case. Whether you’re involved in drugs or not shouldn’t affect whether you end up alive or dead,” he said.
He dismissed reports that Floyd had what he described as a “checkered past,” saying, “What happened in the past shouldn’t be on trial here.”
Regarding Black Lives Matter, he said: “I think some of the ways that groups have gone about it hasn’t been the best. But I believe Black lives matter.”
Protesters gather calling for justice for George Floyd on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, in Minneapolis. Four Minneapolis officers involved in the arrest of Floyd, a… Protesters gather calling for justice for George Floyd on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, in Minneapolis. Four Minneapolis officers involved in the arrest of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody, were fired Tuesday, hours after a bystander’s video showed an officer kneeling on the handcuffed man’s neck, even after he pleaded that he could not breathe and stopped moving.Carlos Gonzalez, Star Tribune via AP
Information technology manager, Black man in his 30s
The West Africa-born man who emigrated to the U.S. 14 years ago said he and his wife discussed “how it could have been me, or anyone else,” who died. He appeared to say that not because of his skin color, but because the couple once lived in the area where Floyd died.
Since coming to the U.S., he’s become a big fan of American football, rooting for the Minnesota Vikings and the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota. He said he withdrew from social media about a decade ago for security and privacy reasons. He manages several people at work and helps resolve conflicts, he said.
He saw clips of the video on TV. Based on what he saw and conversations with family and friends, he wrote on his jury questionnaire that he had a “somewhat negative” opinion of Chauvin.
However, he said he didn’t know what had happened before the video started. Referring to Floyd, he said: “I think it was important for me to know the facts that led to his arrest and how he ended up dying.”
People in his community understood the protests that followed Floyd’s death, he said. However, they “were not okay with the looting” that occurred.
He opposes the movement to defund police departments. “For the police to make my community safe,” he said, “they have to have the money.”
Health care advocacy group executive, white woman in her 50s
This single mother has two sons in high school and said she loves the outdoors.
Although she watched only some of the bystander video, what she saw was troubling. “It was emotional,” she said. “I decided I didn’t want to watch it.”
In her juror questionnaire, she wrote that she didn’t know police procedures. “But a man died, and that’s not procedure,” she wrote. Floyd was “not a model citizen,” but he “didn’t deserve to die,” she wrote.
She “had sympathy for Mr. Floyd, as well as the officers,” she wrote, because “everyone’s life changed.”
During jury questioning, the woman said she is concerned about personal safety and privacy, even though the judge said jurors’ names would not be made public until sometime after the trial when he deems it safe.
She said the protests after Floyd’s death produced something good – “the raising of voices around the world for change – and something bad. “The businesses suffered,” she said.
Although she said she “wouldn’t want a community without” police, she supports criminal justice reform. “It’s years and years of laws made for a society that no longer exists. And it’s got to change,” she said.
She said a Black friend at work had taught her about inherent bias by describing the detailed instructions she felt she needed to give her son on what to do if he were ever pulled over by police.
“I never thought about that for my son,” the juror said.
Banking professional, Black man in his 30s
He said he enjoys his job because he works one-on-one with customers and helps them set and meet financial goals. A basketball fan, he coaches youth sports, which he said often entails mediating disputes among parents over their kids’ playing time.
He wrote on his questionnaire that he wanted to be picked for the jury because “from all the protests … this is the most historic case of my lifetime and I’d like to be a part of it.”
He said he’s seen parts of the bystander video two or three times, but never in its entirety.
He voiced strong opinions in his juror questionnaire, but in court he said he could assess the trial evidence impartially.
He did not think Chauvin “set out to murder anyone,” he wrote. However, “Why didn’t the other officers stop Chauvin?”
Apparently referring to Chauvin, he wrote: “I don’t know if he was doing something wrong or not. But somebody did die.”
The juror recounted interactions with police that painted them in different ways. Once he saw cops slam a kid to the ground, which he characterized as overkill. However, some police officers go to the gym where he works out, and “they’re great guys,” he said.
Answering a question from Schleicher, a prosecutor, he said he would be able to explain a not-guilty verdict to the children he coaches.
Executive assistant, white woman in her 50s
The mother of two older children, an assistant to a healthcare industry executive, said some of the rioting that erupted after Floyd’s death happened near her home.
She’s a motorcycle enthusiast who began riding with her husband before he died. She said she still rides her 2018 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail “with him, now, in spirit.”
She said she had heard about the bystander video in news reports, but she “could never watch the whole thing” because it would be “too disturbing for me.”
On her questionnaire, she wrote about the police officers: “I think they could have handled it differently.”
She offered mixed views about police in general. Last summer, she saw cops question a young Black man who had been yelled at by a woman. She described the police response as “harassment.”
However, she said had “placed trust” in police officers. “I believe in that, unless they show me something different,” she said.
Referring to the protestors who lashed out after Floyd’s death, she said, “maybe they felt they were never heard. … I don’t believe that to be true, but I’m not them.”
Management professional, Black man in his 40s
An immigrant who came to Minnesota roughly 18 years ago, this man was among the potential jurors who knew about the $27 million civil settlement the city of Minneapolis reached with Floyd’s family over his death. The settlement was announced during jury selection.
“I don’t know what it was about,” he said. “I will put it aside.”
After saying he had seen the bystander video, the man said “it would be helpful” if Chauvin testified in his own defense. However, he said he would not hold it against the former officer if he exercised his constitutional right not to testify.
The man said he had not formed an opinion about who or what killed Floyd.
He said he was satisfied with how police responded after his home was burglarized, even though they were unable to solve the crime. The “defund the police” movement is misguided, he said. “If they were defunded, how could they come and help me?”
Questioned about Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, the man said, “every life matters, and should not be disrespected.”
The man said he’s teaching a young relative how to drive, which prompted an exchange about police stops. If his young relative were pulled over by police officers, he said he would advise him to stop and answer their questions.
“Cooperation is good,” he said. “That is my opinion, yes.”
Company reorganization employee, mixed-race woman in her 40s
The working mother was among several jurors who’d heard about the civil settlement Minneapolis reached with Floyd’s family. Familiar with such agreements from work, she said she doesn’t believe they “declare guilt.”
She said she saw parts of the bystander video several times. “I only know that George (Floyd) died due to this encounter,” she wrote in her juror questionnaire, adding that the police officers appeared to take “little to no action” about Floyd’s condition.
However, she wrote, “I do not know what happened before.”
Like some other jurors, she had some safety concerns about being involved with the high-profile trial, saying jurors could be targeted.
The protests after Floyd’s death brought positives and negatives to her community, she said. They gave a voice to people who “really didn’t feel heard,” she said. But there was “a lot of damage done to businesses and probably homes.”
She said she has never had personal experiences with inequality. Schleicher asked what she thought would happen if she inadvertently left a store without paying for something.
She replied that she would expect to be questioned and treated “respectfully,” and she would cooperate with police, as she’d been taught. She said someone who doesn’t cooperate with police is like a speeding driver who won’t pull over when the lights and siren come on.
“That’s not me,” she said.
Nurse, white woman in her 50s
The single woman who lives alone and likes visiting her nieces and nephews said she cares for patients on ventilators, including many battling COVID-19.
She knew about the civil settlement with the Floyd family and said she didn’t think it would affect her decision-making one way or another. She said she saw parts of the bystander video four or five times.
Before deciding what happened, she said she’d like to know more, including what training Chauvin had received and whether Floyd had been armed or resisted police. “I’d have to weigh what the experts would say and what the judge directs,” she said.
She said she hadn’t formed an opinion about what caused Floyd’s death or who was responsible. But she said this about how long Chauvin knelt on his neck: “I suppose knowing that Mr. Floyd died, I would say, yes, it was too long.”
In her jury questionnaire, she strongly agreed that minorities receive unequal treatment in the criminal justice system. Under questioning, she said she did not automatically trust police officers. “They’re human,” she said.
Challenged on why she should be chosen as a juror, she said, “I think I can be impartial and listen to instructions I’m given and ignore the outside stuff.”
She said she would avoid using her training to act like an expert in medical issues for other jurors. However, she said, “We all use our life experiences to make judgments.”
Marketing retiree, Black woman in her 60s
The grandmother who loves to visit her two grandchildren and volunteer at a youth organization was prepared for jury questioning. She was one of the few people who brought a copy of her pretrial questionnaire.
She’d heard about Minneapolis’ civil settlement with the Floyd family and said it had not affected her thoughts on the case.
She said the bystander video has popped up on social media. She probably watched it “for four or five minutes” before turning it off. “It just wasn’t something I needed to see,” she said.
In answering the questionnaire, she said she was neutral on both Floyd and Chauvin. About the protests that followed, she said, there have been “so many stores that have been looted or destroyed.” However, “I think some people may have come together or helped businesses get back on their feet.”
Police officers don’t make her feel unsafe, she said. “I do know they are there to protect the community, and I appreciate that,” she explained.
And she offered a personal view of Black Lives Matter: “I am Black, and my life matters.”
Insurance company client advocate, white woman in her 40s
She was shocked to receive the jury duty summons and questionnaire for the Chauvin trial. “I didn’t expect to be part of something of this magnitude,” she said.
The spotlight on the trial makes her concerned about personal safety after the proceedings conclude, she said.
She said she saw snippets of the bystander video four to five times. She wrote on her juror questionnaire that she had formed a somewhat negative view toward Chauvin and Floyd.
“I don’t believe he deserved to die, but the police used excessive force, and he wasn’t perfectly innocent,” she wrote.
She offered a similarly mixed view about the movement for police reform. “I would be terrified if our police departments were dismantled, but it’s obvious that change has to happen,” she said.
Answering questions from the prosecution, she said she had heard Floyd had been involved with drugs. She has known people with addiction problems, specifically with alcohol, she said.
“There’s reasons they struggle with addiction,” she explained. “That doesn’t make them bad people.”
Former customer service rep, white woman in her 50s
The self-described animal lover with a fondness for dogs said she had seen clips of the bystander video on television two or three times.
On her questionnaire, she wrote, “This restraint ultimately was responsible for Mr. Floyd’s demise.” However, she added a caveat: “The video may not show the entirety of the situation that happened.”
When questioned about the confrontation between Chauvin and Floyd, she said, “It could have been handled differently.”
She is the only member of the jury who said her workplace had been damaged after Floyd’s death. “It was not due to protests, it was due to rioting,” she said. Some people “took an opportunity to break in.”
The damage wouldn’t affect her impartiality, she said.
She wrote on her questionnaire that she strongly agreed that police in her community make her feel safe. “I have had no issues with law enforcement,” she said in court.
Under questioning by the prosecution, she agreed that people who cooperate with police officers have nothing to fear. “If you’re not listening to what the commands are, obviously, something needs to happen,” she said.
Social worker, white woman in her 20s
The married woman who recently got a Goldendoodle puppy said she was indifferent when she received the jury duty summons and questionnaire for the Chauvin trial. “I’m a registered voter. I knew it was coming” eventually, she said.
She said she had heard about the $27 million settlement with the Floyd family but didn’t think it would affect her judgment in the criminal trial. “I don’t know anything about it; I just saw the number and that was it.”
She said she’d seen parts of the bystander video four or five times on TV. On her questionnaire, she wrote that she had a somewhat negative to neutral view of Chauvin. The negative impression likely resulted from constant news stories after Floyd’s death, she said.
“But the neutral side of it was, I’m always thinking about the person, and again where they came from, what they’ve been through,” she said. Referring to Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck, she said, “My neutral side of that was, was that his training to do that?”
She said her decision-making would be aided if she heard both sides of the story at trial. However, reminded that Chauvin has no duty to testify, she said she would accept that.
Her professional background came out when she was asked her opinion of Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter. “As a social worker, I was trained to respect everyone, no matter what,” she said.
Accountant, white man in his 20s
The accountant and his wife recently got a Bernese Mountain puppy. He described himself as an avid sports fan who plays tennis.
He saw about 30 seconds of the bystander video. He said he’d heard about Minneapolis’ civil settlement with Floyd’s family, but didn’t believe it would influence him.
Although he doesn’t like the prospect of jurors’ names eventually being made public, he said, “I understand it’s part of the process.”
On his questionnaire, he cited a somewhat negative view of Chauvin. He wrote that it shouldn’t take four or five police officers to respond to a complaint about a counterfeit bill, and the force seemed excessive.
“I think the duration was a bit unnecessary,” he said in court.
He recounted in court a discussion with coworkers about how they would strive to end racism, and he said he read a book on the subject. Asked what it said, he replied, “It’s been a while. … Nothing’s jumping out at me.”
He said he endorsed Black Lives Matter’s advocacy for equality, but not the group’s tactics. The organization might bear a small measure of responsibility for the rioting after Floyd’s death, he said.
While voicing support for Blue Lives Matter, he said he doesn’t believe the group has done enough “to advance the conversation” on equality and gun control.
Responding to a question from the prosecution, he offered a personal view on the controversy over athletes who take a knee during the national anthem to protest racial inequality. “I would prefer if someone would express their beliefs in a different manner,” he said.
(CNN)Human rights officials are calling on the international community to do more to stop the bloodshed in Myanmar after more than 100 civilians were reportedly killed by the Myanmar military junta that overthrew the country’s elected government.
The defense chiefs from Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the US issued a joint statement condemning “the use of lethal force against unarmed people.”
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on FoxNews.com.
A group of protesters gathered outside the Oklahoma County Detention Center in Oklahoma City on Saturday night, after the jail was placed on lockdown following a hostage situation that resulted in officers killing an inmate.
Video posted on social media showed a law enforcement officer pointing a rifle at demonstrators. A reporter with KFOR-TV of Oklahoma City described the weapon as appearing to be a “non-lethal firearm,” but the type of gun was not confirmed.
The incident inside the jail happened on the 10th floor, where the most difficult-to-manage inmates are sent, Jail Administrator Greg Williams told The Oklahoman newspaper of Oklahoma City.
After being rescued, a corrections officer who was held hostage inside the jail earlier in the day was hospitalized for unspecified reasons. The guard, who was not identified, was able to leave the building under his own power, Williams told The Oklahoman.
Outside the lockup, the leader of the city’s Black Lives Matter chapter said the Oklahoma County jail was known for adverse conditions for inmates.
“This is nothing new,” the Rev. T. Sheri Dickerson told The Oklahoman. “The inhumane conditions of the Oklahoma County jail are horrendous.”
Inmates have complained of moldy food, lack of water and lack of showers, Dickerson told the newspaper.
Earlier in the day, before news emerged that an inmate had been killed, Dickerson called for changes in the way the jail’s inmates are treated.
“They don’t respect the simple dignity of human beings when they stand up and say, ‘I am a person. I don’t deserve to be treated like this,’” Dickerson said.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Koreatown on Saturday for a unity rally and march down Olympic Boulevard to demand an end to the surge in anti-Asian racism and violence, including the Atlanta-area killings earlier this month, that have stoked fear and outrage in the community.
Drums and chants filled the air as demonstrators marched and lifted signs saying, “#Stop Asian Hate” and “Enough is enough.”
At the rally, community leaders, local politicians and activists shared emotional stories about being bullied, scapegoated, discriminated against and treated as if they are outsiders or something less than American. Many spoke out against the alarming increase in hate crimes against members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities during the pandemic and demanded government action to stop the racist attacks.
Friends Christina Huynh, 39, and Carolyn Dao, 32, drove to the rally together from Orange County after learning about the event on social media from celebrities Kelly Hu and Olivia Munn. “I’m sick of all the hate — the entire mentality of blaming the new group,” said Dao, a psychology student at Cal State Long Beach who is from Garden Grove. “It’s sickening to see people go after our most vulnerable.”
Dao said her breaking point was the killing of eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, in the Atlanta area this month. Cherokee County Sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker told reporters that the man arrested in connection with the killings was having “a really bad day” and had blamed “sex addiction,” not racism, for the massacre.
Dao felt helpless, and enraged by the comments that seemed to sympathize with the suspect rather than the victims.
“It being written off as a ‘bad day,’ that’s what did it for me,” Dao said.
Baker was later removed as spokesman for the case after it emerged that a Facebook page appearing to belong to him promoted sales of an anti-Asian T-shirt that blamed China for the coronavirus crisis.
“I’ve experienced racism my whole life, but I’ve just kept it to myself,” said Dao, whose parents came to the U.S. as refugees from Vietnam. “I was taught to keep my head down, to not make waves.”
Another rally was staged in downtown Los Angeles and in West Hollywood. Several hundred protesters gathered at La Cienega and Santa Monica boulevards, chanting and cheering across the busy intersection as lines of cars drove by honking their support.
Ann Le of Los Angeles held a sign bearing the face and name of Vincent Chin, the Chinese American man whose 1982 fatal beating near Detroit remains a flash point in anti-Asian racism in America. His killers, two white men, served no jail time and were fined $3,000.
“During the Atlanta shootings, I was so upset,” said Le, 39. “I didn’t know how to channel my anger, and I was really depressed about it.” A collage artist whose work is largely inspired by the Vietnamese American experience, Le created a sign from her original piece foregrounding Chin’s image against the faces of his killers.
Le participated in the march because “we need everybody,” she said. “I think about the model minority myth, where we are kind of silent and we’re scared and we might not show up. I felt like I needed to show up.”
The events were part of a national day of action promoted by the ANSWER Coalition, with similar rallies taking place in other cities in California and across the U.S., including Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Detroit; Honolulu; Philadelphia; Portland, Ore.; Queens in New York City; and Seattle.
Since coronavirus shutdowns began last March, thousands of Asian Americans have faced racist verbal and physical attacks or have been shunned by others, according to a recent report by Stop AAPI Hate. Anti-Asian hate crimes have soared in Los Angeles and other major cities. Official statistics capture only a fraction of the incidents, because many go unreported.
Experts say the hatred has been stoked by misplaced blame over the pandemic and the inflammatory rhetoric of former President Trump.
Dao said the attacks have brought intergenerational divisions within families over how to respond, “and my family’s not exempt from that.” But she hopes that just seeing people like her in the streets raising their voices will inspire others to speak out.
Huynh, who is also Vietnamese American, said she attended the Koreatown rally to give voice to the often unspoken “fear, anger and sadness, especially for our older generation.”
She said her grandmother and father have been assaulted in the past, “but they didn’t report it to the cops because they don’t want to be an inconvenience. We’re always told, ‘Don’t cause trouble.’”
“Well, I can’t be silent anymore,” Huynh said. “I felt like I needed to speak out for those who either can’t or won’t.”
The march ended at Olympic Boulevard and Normandie Avenue, where elected officials, community leaders and other speakers took to the microphone.
They told of Asian Americans being attacked in their homes and businesses, of being screamed at and spit on. They emphasized that the recent wave of attacks is only the latest in a history of anti-Asian discrimination going back more than a century in this country.
“Asian hate crime was out there long before COVID-19, but really was exacerbated by the former occupant of the White House, when he used language like ‘China virus’ and ‘kung flu,’ and we’ve been seeing an alarming rise,” said Steve Kang, vice president of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles and one of the lead organizers of the rally.
“We’re seeing our elders being attacked. They’re being pushed, they’re being kicked. Brutal killings are happening,” Kang said. “So we felt that we can no longer stay silent and we have to rise. And I think Atlanta was the final straw for many of us.”
Kang estimated that more than 1,000 people attended the rally. Many participants said they are simply fed up.
“My mother, when she brought me here, told me, ‘This is the land of the free and you can live the American dream,’” said Kathy Wu of Los Angeles. “But now, our mothers, our parents, they’re being attacked. And I’m scared for my community.”
Bruce Lie, vice president of an Indonesian diaspora group, said he marched to support the entire Asian American and Pacific Islander community, especially Korean Americans who were among the victims in the Atlanta killings.
Lie has lived in Alhambra for two decades and said he has never seen as much hate directed toward his predominantly Chinese neighbors as over the last year.
“I’m here to say enough is enough,” Lie said.
Community groups are planning additional rallies and vigils. At the same time, they are pushing for tangible legislative changes to support the victims.
That includes proposed legislation to establish a unified statewide hotline for Asian Americans to report hate incidents in the languages they speak, Kang said.
“The Asian American community for a long time has been viewed as an invisible group within the larger United States, and we wanted to really show, in big numbers, that we are no longer invisible,” Kang said. “We have to lift up our voices and say, ‘Stop Asian hate.’”
Video from the site, taken soon after the explosion, showed smoldering wreckage and palm fronds scattered on the ground.
Body parts recovered from the blast site were of a man and a woman who were presumed to be the bombers, said Kombes E. Zulfan, the spokesman for the regional police.
Father Wilhelmus Tulak, a priest at the cathedral, told Metro TV, an Indonesian network, that a parking attendant had been burned as he tried to stop the two people on the motorcycle, who he said looked suspicious.
Mohammad Ramadhan Pomanto, the mayor of Makassar, a multifaith port city of about 1.5 million people on the island of Sulawesi, told Metro TV that body parts were found as far as 200 meters away.
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, has a significant Christian minority. Mr. Joko, the president, condemned what he called the “terrorism” at the cathedral and said that “the state guarantees the safety of religious people to worship without fear.”
The killing by Myanmar’s military of more than 100 pro-democracy protesters in the single deadliest day since February’s coup has drawn outrage from across the world, and calls for a stronger global response.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, strongly condemned the junta, saying Washington was “horrified” by the deaths on Saturday, and that the violence shows “that the junta will sacrifice the lives of the people to serve the few”.
“I send my deepest condolences to the victims’ families. The courageous people of Burma reject the military’s reign of terror,” he said.
The killings on Saturday – Myanmar’s annual Armed Forces Day, which commemorates the start of resistance to Japanese occupation in 1945 – would take the number of civilians reported killed since the coup to more than 440.
UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said it was time for the world to take action – if not through the UN security council then through an international emergency summit. He said the junta should be cut off from funding, such as oil and gas revenues, and from access to weapons.
“Words of condemnation or concern are frankly ringing hollow to the people of Myanmar while the military junta commits mass murder against them,” he said in a statement. “The people of Myanmar need the world’s support. Words are not enough. It is past time for robust, coordinated action.”
The criticism came as top military officials from the US and its allies issued a statement condemning Myanmar’s security forces, saying the country’s military has lost credibility with its people.
“As chiefs of defense, we condemn the use of lethal force against unarmed people by the Myanmar armed forces and associated security services,” the statement read.
It was signed by 12 chiefs of defence from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, UK and the US.
The EU delegation to Myanmar described Saturday as a “day of terror and dishonour”. Dominic Raab, the UK foreign secretary, said the country had marked a “new low”. “We will work with our international partners to end this senseless violence, hold those responsible to account, and secure a path back to democracy,” he said.
The US ambassador, Thomas Vajda, strongly condemned Saturday’s violence. “On Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day, security forces are murdering unarmed civilians, including children, the very people they swore to protect,” he said. “This bloodshed is horrifying. These are not the actions of a professional military or police force.”
The joint statement by military chiefs is a rare declaration by the most senior military commanders from countries around the world, including in Asia and Europe.
Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, said on Sunday: “Australia condemns in the strongest terms the continued and horrific use of lethal force against civilians in Myanmar, including young people and children … We call urgently on the Myanmar security forces to exercise restraint, uphold the rule of law and allow the Myanmar people to exercise their rights to peaceful protest.”
News reports and witnesses said Myanmar security forces killed 114 people, including some children, on Armed Forces Day – the bloodiest day of its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters since last month’s military coup.
Myanmar’s military has so far ignored criticism of its violent crackdown on dissent.
Myanmar’s military has said it took power because November elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party were fraudulent, an assertion dismissed by the country’s election commission and international observers. Aung San Suu Kyi remains in detention at an undisclosed location and many other figures in her National League for Democracy party are also in custody.
While the statement by foreign military chiefs did not explicitly condemn the 1 February coup, which ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, it said that a professional military must follow international standards for conduct “and is responsible for protecting – not harming – the people it serves”.
A demonstrator in front of a barricade during protests against the military coup in Yangon on Saturday. Photograph: EPA
It said the country’s military must “cease violence and work to restore respect and credibility with the people of Myanmar that it has lost through its actions”.
The London-based Burma Human Rights Network reacted to Saturday’s violence by calling on the international community to tighten economic sanctions on Myanmar’s business interests and impose a global arms embargo and a no-fly zone in the country’s ethnic conflict zones.
“Every day the horror committed of the Burmese army gets worse as they become more desperate to cling to the power they stole from the people,” the network’s executive director, Kyaw Win, said. “The international community must respond immediately to end this nightmare for the Burmese people.”
New US and European sanctions this week increased external pressure on the junta, but Myanmar’s generals have enjoyed some support from Russia and China, both veto-holding members of the UN security council that could block any potential UN action.
Russia’s deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin attended a parade in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw on Saturday, having met senior junta leaders a day earlier.
Diplomats said eight countries – Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand – sent representatives to the Armed Forces Day parade, but Russia was the only one to send a minister.
Amnesty International called for a stronger international response, including a UN arms embargo and sanctions on the top generals, although Russia and China’s veto power in the Security Council makes it unlikely any such measures could be passed.
“This is just the latest example of the military authorities’ determination to kill their way out of nationwide resistance to the coup,” said Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for campaigns.
“These abhorrent killings again show the generals’ brazen disregard for the inadequate pressure applied so far by the international community. The cost of international inaction is being counted in bodies.”
Additional reporting by Reuters and Emma Graham-Harrison
Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship wedged across the Suez Canal, is seen Saturday. Tugboats and a specialized suction dredger worked to dislodge the giant container ship that is blocking a crucial waterway for global shipping.
Mohamed Elshahed/AP
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Mohamed Elshahed/AP
Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship wedged across the Suez Canal, is seen Saturday. Tugboats and a specialized suction dredger worked to dislodge the giant container ship that is blocking a crucial waterway for global shipping.
Mohamed Elshahed/AP
The push to free the container ship stuck in the Suez Canal continued into a fifth day Saturday as more than 300 ships on either side wait to pass through the blockage.
Efforts to refloat the Ever Given made “significant progress” Friday night as the ship’s rudder was freed, according to Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical manager of the Ever Given. But low tides quashed authorities’ hopes of refloating the 1,300-foot vessel before the weekend.
For days, tugboats have been struggling to free the ship by towing and pushing the vessel since it ran aground Tuesday, closing off the main ocean route between Europe and Asia.
The Suez Canal Authority said in a statement Thursday that it had officially halted traffic while the refloating efforts continued, further stressing global supply chains already disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
While traffic remains closed, other vessels in the canal are weighing whether to continue to wait for the ship to be freed or to take a chance on costly alternate routes, like going around Africa.
Some experts estimate that the traffic jam — which is holding up cargo like food, oil and consumer goods — is costing close to $10 billion per day.
The high-stakes effort to refloat the Ever Given hinge on using tugboats to free the ship while dredging operations remove sand and mud from around the vessel’s bow.
On Saturday, 11 tugboats were at work in the refloating mission and were expected to continue until midnight local time, according to a spokesperson for BSM. The company said that two additional tugboats, registered in the Netherlands and Italy, were set to arrive by Monday.
A specialized suction dredger, which can shift 2,000 cubic meters of material per hour, also arrived Thursday to support the operations.
Meanwhile, the 25 crew members on board, all of them Indian nationals, were safe and accounted for Saturday and remained in “good health and spirits,” according to BSM.
“They are working closely with all parties involved to re-float the vessel,” a spokesperson from BSM said. “The hard work and tireless professionalism of the Master and crew is greatly appreciated.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a briefing Friday that the United States had offered assistance to Egyptian authorities to help reopen the canal.
“We are consulting with our Egyptian partners about how we can best support their efforts,” she said.
The Suez Canal Authority expressed gratitude for offers of international aid in a statement Friday.
“The SCA values the offer of the United States of America to contribute to these efforts, and looks forward to cooperating with the U.S. in this regard in appreciation of this good initiative which confirms the friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries,” the statement said.
The US Navy is prepared to do whatever it can to help float this boat.
The Navy could be called in to free the grounded container ship that has blocked the Suez Canal and interrupted global trade since Tuesday, while transportation companies are warning that disruptions in global commerce could be felt for months ahead.
“A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Navy was prepared to send a team of dredging experts to the canal, but was awaiting approval from local authorities,” Reuters reported Saturday.
The cargo ship Ever Given, registered in Panama and under German management, weighs about 224,000 tons and is 1,300 feet long, about the height of the Empire State Building. It is considered one of the world’s largest cargo vessels.
Transportation companies have begun to divert cargo around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa while global shipping giant Maersk reported on Saturday that it has begun to reject bookings, according to maritime intelligence outlet Lloyd’s List.
A work crew using excavating equipment tries to dig out the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship, that is wedged across the Suez Canal and blocking traffic in the vital waterway. Suez Canal Authority via AP
There were some signs of progress Saturday in the effort to free the ship, which was forced aground by strong winds
“The ship’s stern began to move toward Suez and that was a positive sign until 11 p.m. at night, but the tide fell significantly and we stopped,” Suez Canal Authority Chairman Osama Rabie said, according to Reuters.
Eygptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s advisor, Mohab Mamish, a former chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, told the on Thursday that he expects traffic in the canal to resume by Sunday.
Other experts disagree.
The Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, can be seen on March 26 after it ran aground in the Suez Canal.SCA via Reuters
Maritime executive Peter Berdowski of Royal Boskalis Westminster, which is helping to free the vessel and which helped a recent expansion of the canal, told Dutch television that the operation could take weeks, according to various reports.
Children, including a 5-year-old-boy, were among those killed on Saturday as the country’s security forces cracked down on nationwide protests against a coup. A New York Times photographer was there.
In one of the deadliest days in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 military coup, dozens of people, and perhaps more than 100, were killed on Saturday by security forces cracking down on nationwide protests.
Among those fatally shot on Saturday were a 5-year-old boy, two 13-year-old boys and a 14-year-old girl. A baby girl in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, was struck in the eye with a rubber bullet, although her parents said she was expected to survive.
“Today is a day of shame for the armed forces,” Dr. Sasa, a spokesman for a group of elected officials who say they represent Myanmar’s government, said in a statement. The killings also drew condemnation from countries around the word, including the United States, Britain and the European Union.
On Saturday, the U.S. ambassador to Myanmar, Thomas L. Vajda, said security forces were “murdering unarmed civilians, including children,” and he called the bloodshed “horrifying.”
President Biden claimed Thursday in his first press conference since taking office that “nothing has changed” compared to earlier influxes of migrants and unaccompanied children at the border.
“It happens every single, solitary year,” he said, pushing back on questions about whether his own policies contributed to the situation on the border.
“There is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter months of January, February, March,” he said. “That happens every year.”
The Biden administration has been grappling with surging numbers of migrants, especially children arriving at the border without their parents.
It is true, as Biden states, that numbers often rise during the early months of the year when temperatures begin to warm. But the number of children arriving today without their parents is considerably higher than at the same time in 2019 and 2020.
In fact, the number of unaccompanied children being apprehended by the Border Patrol were higher in February than they’ve been any previous February since 2014, according to data shared with NPR by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
Authorities encountered 9,297 children without a parent in February, a 30% increase from 2019 during the last major influx of unaccompanied children.
To be sure, it’s still below the peaks of 11,000 unaccompanied minors who arrived in May 2019 and above 10,000 in June 2014, but experts and administration officials expect those records to be broken this year.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that U.S. agents are on pace to intercept more migrants on the southwest border in 2021 than they have in the last two decades.
The reasons for the influx of migrants from Central America are vast and complex. They are also deeply personal for each family who chooses to leave their home.
Jessica Bolter, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, says they involve a mix of longstanding factors, such as poverty and corruption, as well as new factors such as two recent hurricanes and widespread unemployment due to the pandemic.
“And then we also, of course, do have a new administration coming into office in the U.S. that has promised to treat migrants more humanely,” Bolter said. “And that’s something that’s not lost on migrants. And it’s certainly not something that’s lost on smugglers who are likely to exaggerate kind of any change in U.S. policy to increase their business and get migrants to come with them to the US Mexico border.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents apprehended an average of 5,000 undocumented immigrants per day over the past 30 days, including about 500 unaccompanied children, according to a senior Border Patrol official who spoke to reporters on Friday.
The official said the influx was “much different” than previous years, citing the large number of unaccompanied children and families traveling.
As of Wednesday, more than 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children and teens were stuck in Border Patrol facilities waiting for beds in more appropriate shelters built for children, according to Department of Homeland Security data viewed by NPR.
The Border Patrol official told reporters Friday that agents are trying to discharge the children from warehouses and jail-like holding cells as quickly as possible, but there’s a bottleneck because the government can’t open child shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services fast enough to accommodate everyone who’s crossing.
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“Unfortunately, on any given day, we may have upwards of 9,000 people in custody, which certainly puts a strain on our resources,” the official said.
The Biden administration is working with other agencies trying find more bed space. They’re using places like the San Diego Convention Center to hold unaccompanied minors so they’re not sleeping in cells on the border.
The challenges in Central America – and at the border – have become cyclical.
Like under previous presidents, the Biden administration was not prepared to shelter this many arriving children.
But Bolter questions whether this is some kind of a new “crisis.” She says this part of the same flow of migrants that the United States has been experiencing over the last decade.
Up until 2012, the vast majority of apprehensions at the southwest border were of young Mexican males coming across to find work in the United States. Two years later, the majority of cases coming across the southwest border were from Central America and were a mix people, families and unaccompanied children.
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“It’s really all part of the same flow,” Bolter said. “This is something – these flows of Central American children and families – that administrations of both parties have struggled with, how to how to deal with them.”
The Biden administration also has long term plans to deal more directly with these issues in Central America. They include developing more legal avenues to seek asylum so that migrants don’t feel they have to choose illegal avenues. And Biden just sent three top officials to Mexico and Guatemala as part of efforts to tackle the root causes of migration, something he also just tasked Vice President Harris with leading.
Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, was part of that team.
He told NPR’s Steve Inskeep Friday that the administration wants to help countries in the region create the right environment for international investment that drives economic prosperity, but also has ways to encourage better behavior from money launderers and other corrupt officials.
“So that’s a carrot,” he said. “In terms of sticks, the president during the campaign, and we’re actually working to implement this now under the vice president’s leadership, is committed to developing a regional anti-corruption task force. There are a lot of things that the United States and its partners can do to impose sanctions, to pull visas, to freeze assets of individuals involved, involved in money laundering.”
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Police have identified the two people fatally shot as well as three people who were arrested in connection with the shootings at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront late Friday night.
Police said in a statement released Saturday that three separate shooting events took place the evening of March 26 at the Virginia Beach Resort Area.
Two people were killed, a man and woman, and eight were injured during the incidents.
The identity of the woman, police confirmed, was 29-year-old Deshayla E. Harris of Norfolk. Police said Harris was a bystander at the second shooting incident that occurred in the 300 block of 19th Street.
Police say the decedent of the third event, an officer-involved shooting incident in the 300 block of 20th Street, was 25-year-old Donovon W. Lynch of Virginia Beach. VBPD said overnight that officers were responding to gunfire, which led to an “individual being confronted by a uniformed Virginia Beach police officer, resulting in a police intervention shooting.”
Lynch’s father told WAVY News 10’s Andy Fox on Saturday that his son was “a father’s dream.”
Several individuals were injured at the first incident in the 2000 block of Atlantic Avenue, but there were no fatalities.
Police said 22-year-old Ahmon Jahree Adams, of Chesapeake, 18-year-old Nyquez Tyyon Baker, of Virginia Beach, and 20-year-old Devon Maurice Dorsey Jr., of Virginia Beach, have been arrested.
Each has been charged with seven counts of felonious assault, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and reckless handling of a firearm.
Police say that Adams, Baker, and Dorsey were involved with the first incident located in the 2000 block of Atlantic Avenue and are being held in custody at Virginia Beach City Jail.
Ahmon Jahree Adams
Nyquez Tyyon Baker
10 On Your Side spoke with club goers who were leaving the oceanfront moments after the first shots were fired.
“Everybody’s running, everybody’s falling. We’re like ‘what the hell’ and they’re like ‘they’re shooting, they’re shooting!’” said Akereia Drayton. “It looked like a movie.”
Police blocked off multiple scenes. Crime markers littered the ground of a nearby parking lot. A car in the lot was struck by several bullets. An ATF K9 also assisted in the investigation.
The night’s events have many here concerned.
“It makes you not want to do anything because it’s like when it gets warm, people just don’t know how to act,” said Iman Adams.
Community members said they’re planning to meet and take action.
“We can’t just pull out a gun to solve our problems because until we address that issue, it’s just not going to go away” Stevens said.
Virginia Beach Police also say there will be increased police presence through the remainder of the weekend.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP (1-888-562-5887) or submit a tip online.
(CNN)It has been more than two months since Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president of the United States, a historic moment for the country, as Harris is the first woman and the first woman of color to hold the second highest office in the land. Yet, Harris — along with her husband, Georgetown Law professor Douglas Emhoff — is still, ostensibly, living out of suitcases, unable to move into the private residence reserved for the vice president because it’s still undergoing renovations.
The sanctions are the latest escalation in a growing dispute between Western nations and Beijing over the treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in China, particularly the province of Xinjiang.
The Chinese sanctions target the chair and vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gayle Manchin and Tony Perkins. The USCIRF has condemned China’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang and endorsed recent U.S. sanctions against Chinese officials.
Beijing also targeted Canadian MP Michael Chong, who is vice chair of the House of Common’s foreign affairs committee. The foreign affairs subcommittee on international human rights was sanctioned as well.
The House of Common’s foreign affairs committee released a report earlier this month, based on meetings in the subcommittee, that concluded human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in China amount to crimes against humanity and genocide.
The Chinese sanctions prohibit the officials from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao and bans Chinese citizens and institutions from doing business the officials and conducting exchanges with the human rights subcommittee.
The sanctions come in response to punitive measures the U.S. placed on two Chinese officials earlier this week. The Biden administration said it imposed those sanctions in response to human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims.
The U.S. sanctions targeted China’s Wang Junzheng, secretary of the party committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau.
The two officials were targeted due to their connection to “arbitrary detention and severe physical abuse, among other serious human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs,” the Treasury said in a statement Monday.
Canada also imposed sanctions against Chinese officials over the treatment of Uyghurs.
A shooting in Philadelphia has left seven people wounded, police said.
The shooting broke out Friday around 8 p.m. on the 1000 block of North Delaware Avenue in Northern Liberties neighborhood, according to local ABC affiliate WPVI.
Seven people were shot and three of the victims were listed in critical condition at a nearby hospital Friday night.
The other four were listed in stable condition.
Police said one person of interest was in police custody Friday evening. A motive behind the shooting is not clear.
Police said the shooting took place outside Golf & Social club, a sports bar, and the violence stemmed from an altercation inside the venue, according to CBSN
The Ever Given’s owners say a gust of wind pushed it and its huge cargo of more than 20,000 shipping containers sideways in the canal on Tuesday, wedging it between the canal’s sandy banks. The massive vessel got stuck in a single-lane stretch of the canal a few miles from its southern entrance.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical manager of the Ever Given, said an attempt Friday to free it failed.
A general view of Ever Given, which is stuck in the Suez canal.
Samuel Mohsen/picture alliance via Getty Images
Plans were in the works to pump water from interior spaces of the vessel, and two more tugs should arrive by Sunday to join others already trying to move the massive ship, it said.
An official at the Suez Canal Authority said they planned to make at least two attempts Saturday to free the vessel when the high tide goes down.
A maritime traffic jam grew to around 280 vessels Saturday outside the Suez Canal, according to canal service provider Leth Agencies. Some vessels began changing course and dozens of ships were still en route to the waterway, according to the data firm Refinitiv.
A satellite image from Cnes2021, Distribution Airbus DS, shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt, March 25, 2021.
Cnes2021/Distribution Airbus DS/AP
Shoei Kisen President Yukito Higaki told a news conference at company headquarters in Imabari in western Japan that 10 tugboats were deployed and workers were dredging the banks and sea floor near the vessel’s bow to try to get it afloat again as the high tide starts to go out.
Shoei Kisen said in a statement Saturday the company was considering removing containers to lighten the vessel if refloating efforts fail, but that would be a difficult operation.
The White House said it has offered to help Egypt reopen the canal. “We have equipment and capacity that most countries don’t have and we’re seeing what we can do and what help we can be,” President Joe Biden told reporters Friday.
A prolonged closure of the crucial waterway would cause delays in the global shipment chain. Some 19,000 vessels passed through the canal last year, according to official figures. About 10% of world trade flows through the canal, which is particularly crucial for transporting oil. The closure could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East.
It remained unclear how long the blockage would last. Even after reopening the canal that links factories in Asia to consumers in Europe, the waiting containers are likely to arrive at busy ports, forcing them to face additional delays before offloading.
Apparently anticipating long delays, the owners of the stuck vessel diverted a sister ship, the Ever Greet, on a course around Africa instead, according to satellite data.
Others also are being diverted. The liquid natural gas carrier Pan Americas changed course in the mid-Atlantic, now aiming south to go around the southern tip of Africa, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com.
The Financial Times reported on Friday that a number of shipping groups had contacted the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet over maritime security concerns for vessels that do chose to sail south around Africa, which would put them in waters off the continent’s eastern coast that have a long history of piracy.
“Africa has the risk of piracy, especially in east Africa,” Zhao Qing-feng of the China Shipowners’ Association in Shanghai, told the FT, saying owners could need to hire extra security forces to board their vessels before making the extended journey.
It’s just one more factor that could cause a serious slowdown and a potential price-hike for goods moving to Europe and the U.S. from Asia, and one more headache for a global supply-chain system already strained by the coronavirus pandemic.
Egyptian authorities have prohibited media access to the site. The canal authority said its head, Lt. Gen. Osama Rabei, would hold a news conference Saturday in the city of Suez, a few kilometers (miles) from the site of the vessel.
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