Cincunri Sakia

Kamis, 01 April 2021

George Floyd trial: Footage shows him pleading 'I'm not a bad guy' - Metro.co.uk

New footage shows George Floyd begging police not to shoot him after he was stopped for allegedly trying to use a fake $20 note.

The footage – shown to the jury at the murder trial of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin – shows one officer aiming a gun at Mr Floyd, who insists ‘I’m not a bad guy’.

Appearing to cry he says: ‘Please don’t shoot me, please, man.

‘Please, man, I didn’t know.’

An officer is also heard telling him to ‘stop resisting’, to which Mr Floyd replies: ‘I’m not.’

As the officers try to put Mr Floyd into the police car, he tells them he is claustrophobic, adding: ‘I’m a (going to) die, man…I’m not a bad guy.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Pool Video Via Court Tv/Ny Times/ZUMA Wire/REX (11840092p) On the third day of the trial of former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, the prosecution enters into evidence police body cam footage of George Floyd's life and death struggle with police. George Floyd Murder Trial, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA - 31 Mar 2021 Chauvin was captured on tape on May 25, 2020 pressing his knee onto Mr. Floyd's neck for some nine minutes during an arrest. Chauvin was later charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Floyd's death sparked outrage all around the world and resulted in massive protests against police brutality and racism. — **Jurors saw the new bodycam footage on Wednesday**, the third day of Derek Chauvin’s murder trial (Picture: Rex)

The footage goes on to show Mr Floyd being knelt on as he says a number of times: ‘I love you mama’ and ‘I can’t breathe’.

Jurors watched it for the first time as the murder trial continued on its third day on Wednesday.

chauvin, 45, faces three charges of second and third degree murder and second degree manslaughter.

He is accused of killing an unarmed Mr Floyd, 46, by pinning him to the pavement for what prosecutors say was nine minutes and 29 seconds as he lay face down and handcuffed.

At Hennepin County courthouse in Minneapolis, the jury heard that Chauvin had defended himself to a bystander as Mr Floyd was taken away by an ambulance.

Charles McMillian, 61, who recognized Chauvin from the neighborhood, told the officer he didn’t respect what Chauvin had done.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Pool Video Via Court Tv/Ny Times/ZUMA Wire/REX (11840092x) New police bodycam footage of the arrest of George Floyd is shown to the court on the third day of the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Chauvin. George Floyd Murder Trial, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA - 31 Mar 2021 Chauvin was captured on tape on May 25, 2020 pressing his knee onto Mr. Floyd's neck for nine minutes during an arrest. Chauvin was later charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Floyd's death sparked outrage all around the world and resulted in massive protests against police brutality and racism. — The previously unseen trial footage shows Mr Floyd telling officers ‘I’m not a bad guy’ (Picture: Wire/REX)

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Pool Video Via Court Tv/Ny Times/ZUMA Wire/REX (11840092m) On the third day of the trial of former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, the prosecution enters into evidence police body cam footage of George Floyd's life and death struggle with police. George Floyd Murder Trial, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA - 31 Mar 2021 Chauvin was captured on tape on May 25, 2020 pressing his knee onto Mr. Floyd's neck for some nine minutes during an arrest. Chauvin was later charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Floyd's death sparked outrage all around the world and resulted in massive protests against police brutality and racism. — Geroge Floyd’s death sparked outrage all around the world (Picture: Rex)

‘That’s one person’s opinion,’ is heard responding. ‘We gotta control this guy ’cause he’s a sizable guy… and it looks like he’s probably on something.’

Mr Floyd was 6’4 and 223 pounds, according to the autopsy, which also found fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system. Chauvin’s lawyer said the officer is 5’9 and 140 pounds.

The jury also heard from Christopher Martin, 19, who worked at Cup Foods, where Mr Floyd allegedly tried to use the fake $20 note to buy cigarettes.

Mr Martin testified on Wednesday that he watched Mr Floyd’s arrest outside with ‘disbelief and guilt’.

‘If I would’ve just not taken the bill, this could’ve been avoided,’ he said.

He told jurors he immediately believed the $20 bill was fake but he accepted it, despite believing the amount would be taken out of his paycheck,, because he didn’t think Floyd knew it was counterfeit and ‘I thought I’d be doing him a favour’.

In this image from video, witness Christopher Martin answers questions as Hennepin County Judge Peter??Cahill presides Wednesday, March 31, 2021, in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd. (Court TV via AP, Pool) — Christopher Martin testified that he watched Mr Floyd’s death with ‘disbelief and guilt’ (AP)

Mr Martin then second-guessed his decision and told a manager, who sent him outside to ask Floyd to return to the store. But Floyd and a passenger in his SUV twice refused to go back into the store to resolve the issue, and the manager had a co-worker call police.

Mr Martin said that when Floyd was inside the store buying cigarettes, he spoke so slowly “it would appear that he was high.” But he described Floyd as friendly and talkative.

Floyd’s death, along with the harrowing bystander video of him gasping for breath as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to get off him, triggered protests around the world and a reckoning over racism and police brutality across the US.

Chauvin’s defense has argued that Floyd’s death was not caused by the officer’s knee, as prosecutors contend, but by his drug use, heart disease, high blood pressure and the adrenaline flowing through his body.

They also insist that Chauvin did what he was trained to do in the situation.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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2021-04-01 09:35:00Z
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China manoeuvres near Taiwan fuel concerns of potential attack - Financial Times

China has stepped up its military posturing around Taiwan over the past week, a trend that is set to fuel growing concerns that Beijing might move closer to attacking the island.

Taiwan and Japan on Monday both reported incursions into their respective air defence identification zones, the first simultaneous announcement from Taipei and Tokyo.

Taiwan said that ten Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and an anti-submarine warfare aircraft, had flown into its ADIZ, while Japan recorded an ASW plane inside its zone just east of Taiwan.

The parallel manoeuvres followed the largest-ever incursion into Taiwan’s air defence zone last Friday, when 20 Chinese aircraft, including bombers and fighters, entered the area.

The forays came as Washington has begun to ready for the growing risk of a war over Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of its sovereign territory. Senior US officials fear that China is flirting with the idea of seizing control of Taiwan, a scenario that would almost certainly drag in Washington and some of its allies.

Monday’s incursions also followed the arrival in Taiwan of the US ambassador to Palau, alongside the Pacific island nation’s president. Palau is one of 15 countries that have diplomatic relations with Taipei rather than Beijing, and the visit was an unusually bold move compared with the restraint Washington has long practised with regard to sending its diplomats to Taiwan.

Surangel Whipps, president of Pulau which is one of just 15 countries to have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, travelled to Taipei last week with the US ambassador to his country. The joint visit was considered a bold move by the US © AFP via Getty Images

Friday’s manoeuvres came after the US and Taiwan announced an agreement under which their coast guards would co-operate.

Some experts interpreted the Chinese military’s moves as a gradual step-up but agreed that the manoeuvres also featured new patterns of behaviour.

The People’s Liberation Army has flown more regular sorties into the south-western corner of Taiwan’s air defence zone, where the Taiwan Strait meets the Bashi Channel, since last summer. This is a crucial corridor for the Chinese military into the open waters and airspace of the western Pacific.

The territory would be essential for submarine warfare in any conflict over Taiwan, which explains why anti-submarine warfare aircraft have been involved in most of the almost-daily incursions. But while the forays usually consisted of short, straight flights in and out of the ADIZ, ASW aircraft flew all the way past the southern tip of Taiwan into the western Pacific and back over the past week.

“These latest [incursions] are more about political messaging than about military operational significance,” said Admiral Lee Hsi-ming, former chief of the general staff of Taiwan’s armed forces. “Flying around Taiwan is not a breakthrough for them. They operated circular flights with H6 bombers when I was in office.”

“I believe that this time, they did not have enough time to prepare,” Lee added. “So in order to express their determination towards the US, they flew out into the western Pacific but did not do a full circle.”

Map of East China Sea air defence identification zones

Some analysts, however, saw the latest moves as an escalation.

“Y-8 and Y-9 aircraft have not done this before,” said Su Tzu-yun, an analyst at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research, a think-tank backed by Taiwan’s defence ministry, referring to the ASW flights. “We are going to see more of that as they start to expand the scope of their regular operations from the south-west of Taiwan to the south-east.”

The incursion reported by Japan also followed an unprecedented approach. A patrol aircraft and a surveillance plane flew in a northern direction off Taiwan’s east coast before turning back and leaving Japan’s ADIZ through the Miyako Strait, Tokyo said.

The Miyako Islands, a tiny archipelago between Okinawa and Taiwan, have been a hotspot for Chinese air force manoeuvres in recent years because the Strait — as with the Bashi Channel — is one of the PLA’s main air and sea corridors to the open Pacific. Four of the five Chinese air incursions reported by Japan over the past year have occurred in this area.

In previous manoeuvres, Chinese aircraft flew only relatively short sorties to the south-east of the Miyako Islands before turning back. Monday’s flights marked the first time they had flown so close to Taiwan’s east coast, where the largest hardened shelters for protecting military aircraft against missile and air attacks are located in a mountainside in the town of Hualien.

“With its regular operations in the south-western corner of Taiwan ADIZ, the PLA has already changed the status quo and asserted that ‘This is my backyard’. They have even included this area in their annual training plan,” said Lee.

People familiar with Taipei’s military strategy said if the PLA expanded a regular presence to the airspace east of Taiwan, it would undermine the island’s security in a much more drastic manner.

Video: Will China and the US go to war over Taiwan?

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2021-04-01 06:25:37Z
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Rabu, 31 Maret 2021

France tightens Covid restrictions as cases surge - BBC News - BBC News

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2021-03-31 21:22:02Z
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George Floyd: What witnesses have said in the Chauvin trial - BBC News

Officer Thao's police body camera showed witness bystanders

Witnesses to the arrest of George Floyd have given emotional testimony about being at the scene of Mr Floyd's arrest.

The teenager who filmed the viral video from the scene, a city fire-fighter who begged police to check Mr Floyd's pulse, and a nine-year-old girl on a walk to get snacks have all testified that they watched Mr Floyd under the knee of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin.

Mr Chauvin's defence will have an opportunity to call its own witnesses after the prosecution rests their case later this month. The former officer denies charges of murder and manslaughter.

Here's what we've heard so far.

Jena Scurry

'My instincts were telling me something is wrong'

The first witness called to testify was a 911 dispatcher who had sent police to Cup Foods, where Mr Floyd had allegedly bought cigarettes with a counterfeit bill.

Ms Scurry watched the arrest unfold on a live CCTV feed on a camera across the street from the shop, and thought that the video had "frozen" due to how long the three officers remained on top of Mr Floyd.

"They were still on the ground. That whole situation was still the same," she said, noting that she was also being distracted by other work matters at the time.

"My instincts were telling me something is wrong, something is not right. I don't know what, but something was not right," she said. "It was an extended period of time."

She called a sergeant supervisor to report what she saw. "Call me a snitch if you want to," she said according to audio of the call, adding "all of them sat on this man".

Christopher Martin

'If I would have just not taken the bill, this could have been avoided'

The teenage store clerk who says he believes that Mr Floyd unknowingly paid for cigarettes with a fake $20 bill told the court carried guilt around Mr Floyd's death.

Mr Martin, 19, said he had been living in the building above Cup Foods, but moved after the incident.

"I didn't feel safe," the teen said.

He said Mr Floyd "appeared to be high" that day because he struggled to respond to a simple question, but that he was lucid enough to able to hold a conversation. He described Mr Floyd as "friendly and approachable".

Mr Martin, who witnessed the arrest, said he felt "disbelief and guilt" because "if I'd have just not taken the bill, this could have been avoided".

Donald Williams

'I did call the police on the police'

Among those to testify was a pro-MMA fighter and security guard who was heard in the viral video of Mr Floyd's arrest calling officers "punks" and "murderers".

Mr Williams, 33, had gone fishing with his son earlier that day, and had gone to Cup Foods to get a drink.

"I did call the police on the police. I believe I witnessed a murder. I felt the need to call the police on the police," he testified.

"That was bogus, what they just did," he told the 911 dispatcher, according to a recording of the call played in court.

The trained wrestler said he witnessed Mr Chauvin use a "blood choke" to cut off the airway, and a "shimmy" hold to keep up the pressure on Mr Floyd.

He said he watched Mr Floyd's life "fade away, like a fish in a bag".

Under cross-examination, he took issue with the notion that he and the crowd were growing "angrier and angrier".

He says his words "grew more and more pleading for life", as Mr Floyd fell unconscious.

When defence lawyer Eric Nelson repeated the question, Mr Williams again objected.

"I grew professional and professional," he said. "I stayed in my body. You can't paint me out to be angry."

Genevieve Hansen

'He was not moving; he was being restrained but he was not moving"

The off-duty Minneapolis city fire-fighter was hoping to have "a peaceful day" and went for a walk, she testified.

She noticed the lights of the police car, and wondered if her co-workers were responding to a fire.

"As I got closer there was a woman across the street screaming that they were killing him," said Ms Hansen, 27, who has also trained an emergency medical technician (EMT).

"I was concerned to see a handcuffed man who was not moving with officers with their whole body weight on his back and a crowd who was stressed out," she said.

Ms Hansen described pleading with the officer to check Mr Floyd's pulse and to begin CPR. One officer, she said, told her that "if you really are a Minneapolis fire-fighter you would know better than to get involved".

After the defence attorney asked if the crowd had been "upset or angry", she hit back: "I don't know if you've seen anybody be killed, but it's upsetting."

Darnella

'I stay up apologising and apologising to George Floyd'

"When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad. I look at my brothers, I look at my cousins, my uncles. Because they are all black," said the 18-year-old that filmed the viral video of the arrest.

"I look at that and I look at how that could have been one of them," said Darnella, the first of four witnesses who the judge permitted to speak off-camera because they were minors at the time of the incident.

"It's been nights I stay up apologising and apologising to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life," she continued.

"But it's not what I should have done. It's what he should have done," she said in a reference to Mr Chauvin.

Alyssa

'I was failing to do anything'

Another teenager present that day said she felt powerless to help as she saw Mr Chauvin work to maintain pressure on Mr Floyd.

"I kind of saw him move his knee down more," said the 18-year-old, "down onto Mr Floyd's neck."

"I felt like there wasn't really anything I could do," Alyssa continued. "As a bystander I was powerless there, and I was failing to do anything."

Asked why she shouted to Mr Chauvin to release Mr Floyd, she said: "I knew time was running out or it had already... That he was going to die."

Kaylynn

'I was scared of Chauvin'

"He was like digging his knee into George Floyd's neck," testified the 17-year-old.

She added that Mr Chauvin "did grab his Mace and started shaking it at us... I didn't know what was going to happen."

"I was scared of Chauvin," she added.

Darnella's cousin

'I was sad and kinda mad'

Darnella's nine-year-old cousin testified that Mr Chauvin did not remove his knee from Mr Floyd, even after ambulance workers had told him to.

"I was sad and kind of mad, and it felt like it was stopping his breathing and it was hurting him," she replied when asked how the event made her feel.

"It sounded like he was hurting," she added.

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2021-03-31 20:49:02Z
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COVID-19: Strict national lockdown imposed on France as Emmanuel Macron warns 'the numbers are charging away from us' - Sky News

France will widen strict lockdown restrictions - which have already been in place in several areas including Paris - to the whole country to combat a third wave of coronavirus sweeping Europe.

In a televised address to the nation, President Emmanuel Macron said the measures will come into effect on Saturday and be in place for at least a month.

He warned the country would "lose control if we do not move now", introducing restrictions including closing non-essential shops and shutting schools for three weeks.

He said timetables will be adapted to allow for one week of online lessons, followed by a two-week holiday.

There will be a month-long domestic travel ban, and a nationwide 7pm-6am curfew will remain in place.

Mr Macron said "the numbers are charging away from us" and France is now faced with "a race against the clock".

The extended measures mark a departure from the government's policy in recent months, which has focused on regionalised restrictions.

School closures in particular had been seen as a very last resort, with the president appearing reluctant to bring in the measure and saying children's education was "non-negotiable".

His announcement comes after doctors warned that hospitals are on the brink of being overwhelmed by the number of sick people needing treatment.

Daily new infections hit 59,038 on Wednesday, up from around 20,000 in February.

And yesterday, the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care breached 5,000, exceeding the peak hit during a six-week long lockdown in the autumn.

Mr Macron revealed worrying new data had been seen in recent days, including figures showing 44% of patients in French ICUs are now under the age of 65.

Sky's Europe correspondent Adam Parsons said of the president's address: "This really was a classic bit of Emmanuel Macron rhetoric. It was a speech laced with care, with politics and also with a little grain of self-aggrandisement."

He said that the measures announced are "pretty much the pillars of the lockdown of last year".

Mr Macron had been holding off another national lockdown since the start of the year, hoping to steer France out of the pandemic while giving the economy a chance to recover from a deep slump.

However, in recent weeks, options have narrowed as the highly contagious and virulent coronavirus variant first detected in Britain has swept across France and much of Europe.

Ten days ago, the government shut non-essential stores and limited people's movements in Paris and other regions ravaged by the virus.

The president defended his choice not to introduce stricter measures earlier, saying he believes the government "acted rightly" to trust the public.

But he did admit to having "made mistakes" in his handling of the pandemic which he had "learned" from.

"At every stage of this epidemic, we could tell ourselves that we could have done better, that we made mistakes. All of this is true," he said.

"But I do know one thing: we held on, we learned, and we got better every time."

Following the news, Labour's shadow home secretary said it is now "even more urgent" stricter border controls are imposed on France.

"It's reckless and unacceptable for only 1% of international arrivals to quarantine in a hotel," said Nick Thomas-Symonds.

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2021-03-31 19:20:03Z
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Biden to unveil spending plan worth trillions - BBC News

US President Joe Biden is set to unveil the details of a spending plan aimed at re-igniting America's economic growth.

The plan aims to upgrade its crumbling infrastructure and tackle climate change.

The $2.3tn (£1.7tn) proposal, which he will outline in a speech on Wednesday, was central to the vision he laid out on the presidential campaign last year.

Mr Biden plans to offset the spending by raising taxes on businesses, including the corporate tax rate.

That would rise from 21% to 28%, a proposal which has already roused fierce opposition.

Republicans have called the rises "a recipe for stagnation and decline", while the Business Roundtable, a powerful lobby group that represents firms such as Walmart, said it supported investments but would oppose tax increases.

The pushback is a sign of the tough fight ahead for the plan, which needs approval from Congress.

Acrimony looms

Analysis box by Anthony Zurcher, North America reporter

Joe Biden could have gone in a number of different policy directions after narrowly getting his covid pandemic aid package through Congress. That he opted to push for an infrastructure bill, rather upping the pressure for gun control, voting rights, immigration, the environment or healthcare reform, suggest he's looking for a popular, non-controversial legislative second act.

Of course, like that coronavirus package, the Biden administration is likely to use a massive piece of legislation to quietly advance some of those other policy priorities. The proposal contains hundreds of millions of dollars in green energy spending, expanded care for the elderly and disabled and job training, for instance.

Also like the coronavirus aid bill, even non-controversial infrastructure provisions that have high public support will be swamped in partisan acrimony. In particular, Republicans are going to vehemently object to the tax increases for corporations and businesses contained in the proposed legislation.

Chances are, Democrats will again have to go it alone when it comes to passing Biden's legislative agenda.

The challenge, then, will be keeping the Democratic coalition together at a time when a wide number of constituencies, many of whom held their tongue during the Covid negotiations, line up to ensure their priorities are funded.

The White House has promoted its proposal as the most ambitious public spending in decades, saying the investments are necessary to keep the US economy growing and competitive with other countries such as China.

The package ranges widely, touching on everything from creating charging stations for electric vehicles to eliminating lead pipes.

It calls for investing more than $600bn in infrastructure, including modernising roads, replacing rail cars and buses and repairing crumbling bridges.

Billions more would be devoted to initiatives like improving veterans hospitals, affordable housing, high-speed broadband, manufacturing, and technology research.

The spending, which would have to be approved by Congress, would roll out over eight years.

The tax increases, including raising the minimum tax on profits earned overseas, would offset the spending over 15 years.

For carmakers, who in recent weeks have been increasing green investments, the plan is expected to unleash new demand for electric vehicles.

Investors in the sector have been "awaiting this day since Biden was elected" analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said.

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2021-03-31 19:44:08Z
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