Category: World

A Kenyan national working in Qatar, who was arrested in the capital Doha earlier this month, has been charged with receiving payment to spread disinformation in the country.

The 28-year-old Malcolm Bidali, who works as a security guard, was arrested from his accommodation on May 5 and “placed under investigation for violating Qatar’s security laws and regulations”, Qatar’s Government Communication Office (GCO) said earlier this month.

On Saturday, the GCO confirmed that Bidali was “formally charged with offences related to payments received by a foreign agent for the creation and distribution of disinformation within the State of Qatar”.

“Following a thorough investigation by the authorities, the case of Mr Malcolm Bidali has been transferred to Qatar Public Prosecution,” the statement added. “Mr Badali is receiving legal advice and representation ahead of the court date, which has not yet been set.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has married Carrie Symonds in a secret ceremony on Saturday, according to local media reports.

The pair tied the knot in Westminster Cathedral with a limited number of guests, including close family members and friends.

The Sun reported that the ceremony was planned for six months under strict secrecy.

Thirty guests were invited to the ceremony as the current COVID-19 regulations do not allow a higher number, The Mail on Sunday reported.

The couple had announced their engagement in February 2020 and they have had a son, Wilfred, in April.

The couple would celebrate again with family and friends next summer, according to a Downing Street spokesman.

The marriage is Johnson’s third. Johnson married Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1987 but the marriage came to an end over claims that he had an affair with childhood friend Marina Wheeler. Johnson later married Wheeler in 1993, but the couple divorced in 2020. Johnson has four children from this marriage.

Qatari authorities should immediately disclose any charges against blogger Malcolm Bidali or release him, and not try to silence critical reporting on the country’s labor rights record ahead of the 2022 World Cup, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

In the night of May 4 to 5, Qatari state security officers arrested Bidali, a Kenyan national who blogs about labor issues in Qatar for the advocacy group Migrant Rights, from his home in a dorm for migrant workers and took him to an undisclosed location for questioning, according to news reports and a joint statement by Migrant Rights and several human rights groups.

Qatari authorities officials told The Guardian and the independent Qatari publication Doha News that a Kenyan national had been taken into custody and was under investigation for unspecified violations of security laws.

CPJ could not immediately determine where Bidali is being held, or whether any charges had been filed in his case. CPJ emailed Qatar’s Government Communications Office for comment, but did not receive any response.

“We are alarmed by the detention of blogger Malcolm Bidali without any reason disclosed, especially given Qatari authorities’ record of trying to shut down reporting on labor rights ahead of the country’s hosting of the World Cup next year,” said CPJ Senior Middle East and North Africa Researcher Justin Shilad. “Authorities should explain why they are holding Bidali or release him immediately and unconditionally, and ensure that respect for press freedom is an ironclad commitment, not an empty promise.”

Bidali has lived in Qatar for three years and works as a security guard, and contributes to Migrant Rights under a pen name, according to the group’s statement. In his recent writing under the name “Noah,” Bidali covered alleged labor rights violations, wages, and migrant workers’ living conditions. He also posts on similar topics on his Twitter and Instagram accounts, which were both last updated on May 4.

According to the Migrant Rights statement, Bidali gave a presentation about his experience as a migrant worker in Qatar to a group of civil society and labor organizations one week before his arrest. The Associated Press reported that Bidali clicked on a suspicious internet link around the time of that presentation, potentially exposing him to hacking software.

Qatari authorities have repeatedly arrested journalists covering labor issues, particularly those covering alleged abuses in connection with construction for the 2022 World Cup, as CPJ has documented.

SEATTLE (AP) — Bill and Melinda Gates said Monday that they are divorcing but would keep working together at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest charitable foundations in the world.

In identical tweets, the Microsoft co-founder and his wife said they had made the decision to end their marriage of 27 years.

“We have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives,” they said in a statement. “We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”

Bill Gates was formerly the world’s richest person and his fortune is estimated at well over $100 billion. How the couple end up settling their estate and any impact on the foundation will be closely watched, especially after another high-profile Seattle-area billionaire couple recently ended their marriage.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos finalized their divorce in 2019. MacKenzie Scott has since remarried and now focuses on her own philanthropy after receiving a 4% stake in Amazon, worth more than $36 billion.

The Gateses were married in 1994 in Hawaii. They met after she began working at Microsoft as a product manager in 1987.

In her 2019 memoir, “The Moment of Lift,” Melinda Gates wrote about her childhood, life and private struggles as the wife of a public icon and stay-at-home mom with three kids. She won Bill Gates’ heart after meeting at a work dinner, sharing a mutual love of puzzles and beating him at a math game.

She also detailed the ways they navigated imbalances in their marriage and parenting journey and noted how working together at the foundation made their relationship better.

“Bill and I are equal partners,” Melinda Gates said in a 2019 interview with The Associated Press. “Men and women should be equal at work.”

The Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most influential private foundation in the world, with an endowment worth nearly $50 billion. It has focused on global health and development and U.S. education issues since incorporating in 2000.

While both are global figures, Melinda Gates has increasingly built her profile as a champion of women and girls. The former tech business executive launched her private Pivotal Ventures investment and incubation company in 2015 and recently partnered with Scott for a newly announced equity challenge.

David Callahan, founder of the Insider Philanthropy website and author of “The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age” says it’s too early to know how the divorce will affect the Gates foundation and the wider philanthropic community.

Although the couple say they will continue to work together at their foundation, Callahan suggests Melinda Gates could still pursue her own philanthropic work.

“You can imagine two separate tracks where they’re both working together at the foundation, and each is pursuing their own independent philanthropy outside the foundation,” Callahan said.

He said the possibility of Melinda Gates opening another philanthropic foundation would have a dramatic impact.

“Nobody knows what the terms are of their divorce agreement. But if Melinda Gates ends up with just some portion of that wealth and turns to creating her own foundation, it would be among one of the biggest foundations probably in America,” Callahan said.

As the public face of the foundation’s COVID-19 grants and advocacy work, Bill Gates has come under fire for being a staunch supporter of intellectual property rights for vaccine makers. While the tech icon says protecting the shots’ recipes will ensure incentives for research and development, critics claim that mentality hampers supply in favor of drug company profits.

Last year, Bill Gates said he was stepping down from Microsoft’s board to focus on philanthropy.

He was Microsoft’s CEO until 2000 and since then has gradually scaled back his involvement in the company he started with Paul Allen in 1975. He transitioned out of a day-to-day role in Microsoft in 2008 and served as chairman of the board until 2014.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden declared Wednesday night that “America is rising anew” as he called for an expansion of federal programs to drive the economy past the pandemic and broadly extend the social safety net on a scale not seen in decades.

In his first address to Congress, he pointed optimistically to the nation’s emergence from the coronavirus scourge as a moment for America to prove that its democracy can still work and maintain primacy in the world.

Speaking in highly personal terms while demanding massive structural changes, the president marked his first 100 days in office by proposing a $1.8 trillion investment in children, families and education to help rebuild an economy devastated by the virus and compete with rising global competitors.

His speech represented both an audacious vision and a considerable gamble. He is governing with the most slender of majorities in Congress, and even some in his own party have blanched at the price tag of his proposals.

At the same time, the speech highlighted Biden’s fundamental belief in the power of government as a force for good, even at a time when it is so often the object of scorn.

“I can report to the nation: America is on the move again,” he said. “Turning peril into possibility. Crisis into opportunity. Setback into strength.”

While the ceremonial setting of the Capitol was the same as usual, the visual images were unlike any previous presidential address. Members of Congress wore masks and were seated apart because of pandemic restrictions. Outside the grounds were still surrounded by fencing after insurrectionists in January protesting Biden’s election stormed to the doors of the House chamber where he gave his address.

The nationally televised ritual raised the stakes for his ability to sell his plans to voters of both parties, even if Republican lawmakers prove resistant. The president is following the speech by hitting the road to push his plans, beginning in Georgia on Thursday and then on to Pennsylvania and Virginia in the days ahead.

“America is ready for takeoff. We are working again. Dreaming again. Discovering again. Leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world: There is no quit in America,” Biden said.

This year’s scene at the front of the House chamber also had a historic look: For the first time, a female vice president, Kamala Harris, was seated behind the chief executive. And she was next to another woman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The first ovation came as Biden greeted “Madam Vice President.” He added, “No president has ever said those words from this podium, and it’s about time.”

The chamber was so sparsely populated that individual claps could be heard echoing off the walls.

Yet Biden said, “I have never been more confident or more optimistic about America. We have stared into an abyss of insurrection and autocracy — of pandemic and pain — and ‘We the People’ did not flinch.”

At times, the president plainly made his case for democracy itself.

Biden demanded that the government take care of its own as a powerful symbol to the world of an America willing to forcefully follow its ideals and people. He confronted an issue rarely faced by an American president, namely that in order to compete with autocracies like China, the nation needs “to prove that democracy still works” after his predecessor’s baseless claims of election fraud and the ensuing attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate and fears that have pulled us apart?” he asked. “America’s adversaries – the autocrats of the world – are betting it can’t. They believe we are too full of anger and division and rage. They look at the images of the mob that assaulted this Capitol as proof that the sun is setting on American democracy. They are wrong. And we have to prove them wrong.”

Biden repeatedly hammered home that his plans would put Americans back to work, restoring the millions of jobs lost to the virus. He laid out an extensive proposal for universal preschool, two years of free community college, $225 billion for child care and monthly payments of at least $250 to parents. His ideas target frailties that were uncovered by the pandemic, and he argues that economic growth will best come from taxing the rich to help the middle class and the poor.

Biden’s speech also provided an update on combating the COVID-19 crisis he was elected to tame, showcasing hundreds of millions of vaccinations and relief checks delivered to help offset the devastation wrought by a virus that has killed more than 573,000 people in the United States. He also championed his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, a staggering figure to be financed by higher taxes on corporations.

His appeals were often emotive and personal, talking about Americans needing food and rental assistance. He also spoke to members of Congress as a peer as much as a president, singling out Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republicans’ leader, to praise him and speaking as one at a professional homecoming.

The GOP members in the chamber largely stayed silent, even refusing to clap for seemingly universal goals like reducing childhood poverty. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said, in the Republicans’ designated response, that Biden was more rhetoric than action.

“Our president seems like a good man,” Scott said. “But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes.”

The president spoke against a backdrop of the weakening but still lethal pandemic, staggering unemployment and a roiling debate about police violence against Blacks. He also used his address to touch on the broader national reckoning over race in America, urging legislation be passed by the anniversary of George Floyd’s death next month, and to call on Congress to act on the thorny issues of prescription drug pricing, gun control and modernizing the nation’s immigration system.

In his first three months in office, Biden has signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill — passed without a single GOP vote — and has shepherded direct payments of $1,400 per person to more than 160 million households. Hundreds of billions of dollars in aid will soon arrive for state and local governments, enough money that overall U.S. growth this year could eclipse 6% — a level not seen since 1984. Administration officials are betting that it will be enough to bring back all 8.4 million jobs lost to the pandemic by next year.

A significant amount proposed just Wednesday would ensure that eligible families receive at least $250 monthly per child through 2025, extending the enhanced tax credit that was part of Biden’s COVID-19 aid. There would be more than $400 billion for subsidized child care and free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds.

Another combined $425 billion would go to permanently reduce health insurance premiums for people who receive coverage through the Affordable Care Act, as well a national paid family and medical leave program. Further spending would be directed toward Pell Grants, historically Black and tribal institutions and to allow people to attend community college tuition-free for two years.

Funding all of this would be a series of tax increases on the wealthy that would raise about $1.5 trillion over a decade. Republican lawmakers in Congress so far have balked at the price tags of Biden’s plans, complicating the chances of passage in a deeply divided Washington.

MOSCOW

Those who organize provocations against Russia will come to regret it as they have regretted little else, warned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

Addressing the Federal Assembly, Putin said “the meaning and content” of Russia’s policy in the international arena is “to ensure peace and security for the well-being of our citizens, for the stable development of the country.”

But he added pointedly: “Russia has its own interests, which we defend and will stand for within the framework of international law, as do other states of the world. And if someone refuses to understand this obvious thing, does not want to conduct dialogue, chooses a selfish and arrogant tone, Russia will always find a way to defend its position.”

Putin’s remarks came as Western powers raised alarms over some 150,000 Russian troops amassing at Ukraine’s eastern borders, some six years after annexing the country’s Crimean peninsula, a move Russia is still sanctioned for.

In the modern world, Putin argued, everyone “got used to the practice of politically motivated, illegal sanctions, rough attempts to force will on others.”

And now such practices are “being reborn into something more dangerous,” he said – the practice of organizing state coups and political assassinations.

“However, even such blatant actions are not met with disapproval in the so-called collective West. No one notices it, everyone pretends that nothing is happening at all.”

‘They are picking on Russia’

“You can treat Presidents [Viktor] Yanukovich, [Nicolas] Maduro, and [Alexander] Lukashenko as you like, but the practice of political assassinations goes beyond all boundaries,” Putin said, citing former Ukrainian leader Yanukovich – ousted in 2014 – as well as the current leaders of Venezuela and Belarus, both of whose legitimacy has been questioned.

Attacks on Russia continue, with some countries having adopted a habit of picking on Russia “for any reason, and most often without any reason at all,” said Putin.

Putin stressed that in the face of this, Russia’s actions remain “restrained, even modest,” responding not only to unfriendly moves but even to “outright rudeness.”

“We want to have good relations with all participants of international communication. But we see what is happening in real life – they are picking on Russia,” said Putin.

He said Russia wants to have good relations “including with those (countries) with whom relations have not been developing recently, to put it mildly.”

“But if someone sees our good intentions as indifference or weakness and intends to finally burn or even blow up bridges, he should know that Russia’s response will be asymmetric, fast, and tough,” he warned.

“The organizers of any provocation that threatens the fundamental interests of our security will regret their actions as they have not regretted anything for a long time.”

At the same time, Russia and its leadership have “enough patience, responsibility, professionalism, self-confidence and common sense” to make any decision, he argued.

“But I hope that no one will think of crossing the so-called red line in relation to Russia. And where it will take place – we will determine in each specific case ourselves,” said Putin.

Amnesty International has a culture of white privilege with incidents of overt racism including senior staff using the N-word and micro-aggressive behaviour such as the touching of black colleagues’ hair, according to an internal review into its secretariat.

It came as eight current and former employees of Amnesty International UK (AIUK) described their own experiences of racial discrimination and issued a statement calling on senior figures to stand down.

One of the whistleblowers, Katherine Odukoya, said: “We joined Amnesty hoping to campaign against human rights abuses but were instead let down through realising that the organisation actually helped perpetuate them.”

Representatives of both arms of the UK-based human rights organisation apologised and pledged to make changes, with the director of AIUK citing “the uncomfortable fact that we have not been good enough”.

The internal review at Amnesty’s international secretariat, commissioned following the Black Lives Matter movement, recorded multiple examples of workers reporting alleged racism including:

• Senior staff using the N-word and P-word, with colleagues labelled over-sensitive if they complained.

• Systemic bias including the capability of black staff being questioned consistently and without justification, and minority ethnic staff feeling disempowered and sidelined on projects.

• A lack of awareness or sensitivity to religious practices resulting in problematic comments and behaviour.

• Aggressive and dismissive behaviour, particularly over email and often directed towards staff in offices in the global south.

In June last year the international board of Amnesty International sent an email to staff addressing the Black Lives Matter movement and racism. Citing the killing of George Floyd, it said racism was encoded into the “very organisational model” of the human rights body, which had been shaped by the “colonial power dynamics and borders” that were “fresh” at the time of its founding in 1961.

It continued: “Despite some notable and hard-won changes in recent years, control and influence over our resources, decision-making … has remained overwhelmingly in the hands of … people from the white majority Global North.”

It said there had been bias and insensitivity in the way some people were treated at the international secretariat – the arm of the organisation which sets policy and hires researchers from hubs across the world, with headquarters in London.

The board went on to inform staff that an independent review would take place. Over the next few months, workplace experts from the consultancy Howlett Brown conducted a “temperature check”. They were given access to staff surveys and carried out six focus groups made up of 51 staff including two exclusively attended by black staff.

Published in October 2020 but not press released, the 46-page internal report by Howlett Brown, focused on Amnesty’s international secretariat, summarised: “Remarks (in the focus groups) were consistently shared that the external face of Amnesty (International Secretariat) is very different to its internal face.” The experts recommended that to resolve issues there would need to be a recognition of the “systemic privileges that exist”.

A statement released alongside the report by the Amnesty International coalition leadership team said it was “sobered” by the findings, adding: “It is a timely reminder that discrimination, racism and anti-Black racism exist in our organisation. It has highlighted both the extent and systematic nature of racism and indicates we must address white privilege wherever it exists.”

Separately, staff at AIUK, which is also based in London but has a separate employment structure from the international secretariat, made claims of racial discrimination, telling the Guardian there were similarities between their experiences and the culture at the international secretariat.

They described feeling “dehumanised” over their race and ethnicity over a number of years, with some reporting official grievances.

In a joint statement, two current and six former employees of AIUK called for the director, senior management team and board to resign, claiming the leadership “knowingly upheld racism and actively harmed staff from ethnic minority backgrounds”.

Odukoya, who worked within the campaigns and community organising teams at AIUK, said that as a black woman she was constantly mentally exhausted navigating an environment that was “hostile to blackness”. “There’s a hegemonic white middle-class culture that seemed to be protected and reproduced. White privilege was pervasive,” she said.

Odukoya described colleagues at AIUK commenting on her hair and requesting to touch it, making negative references to her “urban” accent and referring to her as the “black girl”.

In 2019 she raised a grievance concerning racial and gender discrimination, alleging that she had been manipulated into working above her pay grade without the correct remuneration. AIUK did not uphold the claim but reached a settlement with Odukoya in May last year.

Kieran Aldred, who worked for AIUK as an advocacy officer for three years until 2018 and is now head of policy at the gay rights charity Stonewall, alleged along with the other current and former employees that AIUK’s leadership was actively harmful to staff from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Aldred, 31, claimed that minority ethnic staff were overlooked for promotions, with pay reviews consistently favouring high-earning white senior leaders. He said the leadership had exonerated themselves of wrongdoing.

“Working for AIUK destroyed my self-confidence, my belief in my capabilities. I didn’t think I was skilled enough to do my job, that any organisation would ever hire me, let alone promote me, and I suffered from ongoing depression and anxiety,” said Aldred.

Kate Allen, the director of AIUK, apologised, saying these were serious and challenging concerns and, although she could not discuss individual cases, the allegations of discrimination would be taken seriously and investigated. “We know that institutional racism exists in the UK and, like any other organisation, we aren’t immune to this very real problem,” she said.

“We recognise that we have not done enough to ensure that our organisation is a truly inclusive one where everyone receives the same level of respect and opportunity, is valued equally and is able to be heard. We are reckoning with the uncomfortable fact that we have not been good enough and from this, we understand that we must change to become better.”

In response to the Howlett Brown report, Allen said the international secretariat had also taken significant measures to act on its findings. While the report did not look at AIUK, Allen recognised that it must also adapt, and had undertaken a review of its structure and governance in relation to racism.

Amnesty International said it wholeheartedly apologised to any staff who experienced discrimination. It said the accounts detailed in the Howlett Brown report were “unacceptable” and it acknowledged that across many levels there was not full equality. It said that allegations of racist language had been dealt with in line with its human resources policies and following the report it had committed to actively tackling the root causes of the issues identified.

In February 2019, it was revealed that Amnesty International had a “toxic” working environment. A review into workplace culture, commissioned after two staff members killed themselves in 2018, found widespread bullying.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted Tuesday of murder and manslaughter for pinning George Floyd to the pavement with his knee on the Black man’s neck in a case that triggered worldwide protests, violence and a furious reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S.

Chauvin, 45, was immediately led away with his hands cuffed behind his back and could be sent to prison for decades.

The verdict — guilty as charged on all counts, in a relatively swift, across-the-board victory for Floyd’s supporters — set off jubilation mixed with sorrow across the city and around the nation. Hundreds of people poured into the streets of Minneapolis, some running through traffic with banners. Drivers blared their horns in celebration.

“Today, we are able to breathe again,” Floyd’s younger brother Philonise said at a joyous family news conference where tears streamed down his face as he likened Floyd to the 1955 Mississippi lynching victim Emmett Till, except that this time there were cameras around to show the world what happened.

The jury of six whites and six Black or multiracial people came back with its verdict after about 10 hours of deliberations over two days. The now-fired white officer was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Chauvin’s face was obscured by a COVID-19 mask, and little reaction could be seen beyond his eyes darting around the courtroom. His bail was immediately revoked. Sentencing will be in two months; the most serious charge carries up to 40 years in prison.

Defense attorney Eric Nelson followed Chauvin out of the courtroom without comment.

President Joe Biden welcomed the verdict, saying Floyd’s death was “a murder in full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world” to see systemic racism.

But he warned: “It’s not enough. We can’t stop here. We’re going to deliver real change and reform. We can and we must do more to reduce the likelihood that tragedies like this will ever happen again.”

The jury’s decision was hailed around the country as justice by other political and civic leaders and celebrities, including former President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a white man, who said on Twitter that Floyd “would still be alive if he looked like me. That must change.”

At a park next to the Minneapolis courthouse, a hush fell over a crowd of about 300 as they listened to the verdict on their cellphones. Then a great roar went up, with many people hugging, some shedding tears.

At the intersection where Floyd was pinned down, a crowd chanted, “One down, three to go!” — a reference to the three other fired Minneapolis officers facing trial in August on charges of aiding and abetting murder in Floyd’s death.

Janay Henry, who lives nearby, said she felt grateful and relieved.

“I feel grounded. I can feel my feet on the concrete,” she said, adding that she was looking forward to the “next case with joy and optimism and strength.”

Jamee Haggard, who brought her biracial 4-year-old daughter to the intersection, said: “There’s some form of justice that’s coming.”

The verdict was read in a courthouse ringed with concrete barriers and razor wire and patrolled by National Guard troops, in a city on edge against another round of unrest — not just because of the Chauvin case but because of the deadly police shooting of a young Black man, Daunte Wright, in a Minneapolis suburb April 11.

The jurors’ identities were kept secret and will not be released until the judge decides it is safe to do so.

It is unusual for police officers to be prosecuted for killing someone on the job. And convictions are extraordinarily rare.

Out of the thousands of deadly police shootings in the U.S. since 2005, fewer than 140 officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter, according to data maintained by Phil Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University. Before Tuesday, only seven were convicted of murder.

Juries often give police officers the benefit of the doubt when they claim they had to make split-second, life-or-death decisions. But that was not an argument Chauvin could easily make.

Floyd, 46, died May 25 after being arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes at a corner market. He panicked, pleaded that he was claustrophobic and struggled with police when they tried to put him in a squad car. They put him on the ground instead.

The centerpiece of the case was the excruciating bystander video of Floyd gasping repeatedly, “I can’t breathe” and onlookers yelling at Chauvin to stop as the officer pressed his knee on or close to Floyd’s neck for what authorities say was 9 1/2 minutes,including several minutes after Floyd’s breathing had stopped and he had no pulse.

Prosecutors played the footage at the earliest opportunity, during opening statements, and told the jury: “Believe your eyes.” From there it was shown over and over, analyzed one frame at a time by witnesses on both sides.

In the wake of Floyd’s death, demonstrations and scattered violence broke out in Minneapolis, around the country and beyond. The furor also led to the removal of Confederate statues and other offensive symbols such as Aunt Jemima.

In the months that followed, numerous states and cities restricted the use of force by police, revamped disciplinary systems or subjected police departments to closer oversight.

The “Blue Wall of Silence” that often protects police accused of wrongdoing crumbled after Floyd’s death. The Minneapolis police chief quickly called it “murder” and fired all four officers, and the city reached a staggering $27 million settlement with Floyd’s family as jury selection was underway.

Police-procedure experts and law enforcement veterans inside and outside the Minneapolis department, including the chief, testified for the prosecution that Chauvin used excessive force and went against his training.

Medical experts for the prosecution said Floyd died of asphyxia, or lack of oxygen, because his breathing was constricted by the way he was held down on his stomach, his hands cuffed behind him, a knee on his neck and his face jammed against the ground.

Chauvin’s attorney called a police use-of-force expert and a forensic pathologist to try to make the case that Chauvin acted reasonably against a struggling suspect and that Floyd died because of a heart condition and his illegal drug use. Floyd had high blood pressure and narrowed arteries, and fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in his system.

Under the law, police have certain leeway to use force and are judged according to whether their actions were “reasonable” under the circumstances.

The defense also tried to make the case that Chauvin and the other officers were hindered in their duties by what they perceived as a growing, hostile crowd.

Chauvin did not testify, and all that the jury or the public ever heard by way of an explanation from him came from a police body-camera video after an ambulance had taken the 6-foot-4, 223-pound Floyd away. Chauvin told a bystander: “We gotta control this guy ’cause he’s a sizable guy … and it looks like he’s probably on something.”

The prosecution’s case also included tearful testimony from onlookers who said the police kept them back when they protested what was happening.

Eighteen-year-old Darnella Frazier, who shot the crucial video, said Chauvin gave the bystanders a “cold” and “heartless” stare. She and others said they felt a sense of helplessness and lingering guilt from witnessing Floyd’s slow-motion death.

“It’s been nights I stayed up, apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more, and not physically interacting and not saving his life,” she testified.

INTERPOL and the United States’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have joined forces to warn the public against purchasing alleged COVID-19 vaccines and treatments online.

With criminal groups producing, distributing and selling fake vaccines, the risks to the public are clear: these can include buying a product which not only does not protect against COVID-19, but poses a serious health hazard if ingested or injected. Such products are not tested, regulated or safety-checked.

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Legitimate vaccines are not for sale. They are strictly administered and distributed by national healthcare regulators.

Anyone buying these products online also runs the risk of potentially giving their money to organized criminals.

Crime wave

“From the very beginning of the pandemic, criminals have preyed on people’s fears in order to make fast cash. Fake vaccines are the latest in these scams, which is why INTERPOL and HSI are warning the public to be extra vigilant,” said INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock.

“The networks behind these crimes have global ambitions. No country or region can fight this type of crime alone. INTERPOL is assisting law enforcement around the world to both identify criminal networks and to dismantle them,” added Secretary General Stock.

Following a global alert issued by INTERPOL in late 2020 the world police body recently announced the first internationally linked arrests and seizures in connection with fake vaccines after criminal networks were disrupted in China and South Africa.

INTERPOL has also been receiving additional information on fake vaccine distribution and scam attempts targeting health bodies, including nursing homes.

“Counterfeit vaccines threaten the health of consumers who are duped by nefarious actors seeking to exploit the pandemic situation for financial gain. HSI and its law enforcement partners will vigorously investigate and seek prosecution for criminals taking advantage of the public’s quest for COVID-19 vaccinations and those who endanger the lives of the very people the vaccines are intended to protect,” said HSI Assistant Director, and Director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, Steve Francis.

“HSI will continue to work with INTERPOL to coordinate investigations targeting every level of the transnational criminal organizations trafficking in counterfeit COVID-19 vaccines,” added Mr Francis.

Online scams

An emerging trend has seen cybercriminals set up illicit websites claiming to be legitimate national and/or world organizations offering pre-orders for vaccines against the COVID-19 virus. These websites offer payments in Bitcoins and other payment processing methods.

Using trademark logos of major pharmaceutical companies producing approved COVID-19 vaccines, the fake websites are suspected of being used to conduct phishing attacks and/or dupe victims into giving charitable donations.

In addition to opening up their computer to cyberattacks when attempting to purchase alleged COVID-19 vaccines online, people also run the risk of having their identity stolen.

In December 2020, HSI seized two websites purporting to be those of biotechnology companies developing treatments for the COVID-19 virus. Instead they appeared to have been used to collect the personal information of individuals visiting the sites, in order to use the information for criminal purposes, including fraud, phishing attacks, and/or deployment of malware.

Ransomware attacks have also been conducted against hospitals, laboratories, local governments and other targets, remotely blocking computer systems and demanding a payment to release them.

Given the need for a global response against these types of cyber-enabled fraud and financial crime, INTERPOL created the Global Financial Crime Task Force (IGFCTF) in 2020 with member countries in order to enhance international cooperation and innovation with public and private sector partners.

US President Joe Biden implored Congress on Tuesday to enact new gun control laws, including an assault rifle ban, after the US suffered its second mass shooting in as many weeks.

A shooting at a supermarket in Colorado on Monday left 10 victims dead, including a police officer who was the first to respond to a call of shots fired.

Biden made particular mention of two bills that have cleared the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives earlier this month that seek to close loopholes in the US’s background check system for firearms purchases.

One bill seeks to end longstanding loopholes that allow people to buy firearms at gun shows and on the internet without first being subject to a background check, while another seeks to halt what is known as the “Charleston loophole.”

It currently allows a gun sale to proceed if the check has not been completed within three business days. The time-frame envisioned by the bill increases the number to 10 days.

The loophole’s name comes after Dylann Roof was able to buy a gun after the current time frame expired, ultimately using it to carry out a massacre at a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 in which nine parishioners were killed.

Biden said the bills are “common sense steps that will save lives in the future,” urging lawmakers in the Senate to quickly pass the legislation and send them to his desk to be signed into law.

“This is not, and should not be, a partisan issue. This is an American issue. It will save lives, American lives, and we have to act,” said Biden.

He urged lawmakers to again ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines after a 10-year ban expired in 2004.

“It was law for the longest time, and it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again,” the president said.

Biden’s plea comes after authorities in Colorado identified the suspect in Monday’s grocery store shooting as 21-year-old Ahmad Alissa. He has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder.

Authorities have not established a motive in the shootings, and Biden said he would not opine on the matter as “a great deal remains unknown.”

“Ten lives have been lost, and more families have been shattered by gun violence in the state of Colorado,” Biden said. “Less than a week after the horrific murders of eight people, and the assault on the AAPI community in Georgia, while the flag was still flying half-staff for the tragedy another American city has been scarred by gun violence, and resulting trauma.”

Biden was referring to last week’s shooting in the Atlanta, Georgia area that left eight dead, most of whom were from the Asian-American Pacific Islander community.

US President Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a “killer” in a pre-taped interview, saying his Russian counterpart will pay a price for interference in US affairs.

Biden’s comments aired Wednesday, on the heels of a US intelligence report bolstering longstanding allegations that Putin was behind Moscow’s 2020 election interference, an accusation already rejected by Russia.

Asked by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos whether he believes Putin is a “killer,” Biden replied: “I do.”

“The price he’s going to pay, you’ll see shortly,” he said, referring to the alleged election interference.

Biden also said that when he told Putin he believes the Russian leader has no soul, Putin replied: “We understand each other.”

The assessment marks a sharp break in former President Donald Trump’s warm relationship with Putin, as well as the view of the previous Republican president.

After a 2011 summit with Putin, then-President George W. Bush famously said: “I looked the man in the eye. I found him very straightforward and trustworthy – I was able to get a sense of his soul.”

The Vatican has asserted that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions as the God “does not and cannot bless sin.”

“The blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered licit,” the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) said in a statement on Monday, responding to question from pastors and the faithful.

“It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage, as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex,” the Vatican’s top doctrinal office added.

Pope Francis also approved the publication of the statement.

The Vatican said that the decision does not constitute discrimination and does not specify a judgment on individuals.

Last October, in comments for a documentary, Francis endorsed legal same-sex unions under the law, but not within the church.

Catholic teaching disapproves of homosexual acts but stresses dignity and respect for gay people.