US gun violence: Biden takes action on 'international embarrassment' - BBC News

US President Joe Biden has issued an order targeting homemade guns, known as "ghost guns" because they are unregistered and untraceable.

"Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it's an international embarrassment," he said on Thursday.

The president is enacting new measures through an executive order, meaning he does not need approval from Congress.

It includes efforts to set rules for certain guns, bolster background checks and support local violence prevention.

• America's gun culture in charts
• US shooting suspect identified as ex-NFL player

However, the president will have an uphill task. The right to bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution and many people see gun control laws as infringing on this constitutional right.

On Wednesday, another mass shooting made the headlines, with five people, including two young children, killed in South Carolina. The suspect has been named a former NFL player Phillip Adams.

This followed two mass shootings in March, which left a total of 18 people dead - one in Boulder, Colorado and the other in Atlanta, Georgia.

What did Mr Biden say?

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday, Mr Biden said 106 people are killed every day by guns in the country.

"This is an epidemic for God's sake. And it has to stop," he continued.

He also offered condolences to the family killed in South Carolina.

Mr Biden's executive order gives the Justice Department 30 days to propose a rule that will help reduce the number of so-called "ghost guns".

These guns are self-assembled, which means they do not contain a serial number and cannot be traced. Background checks are also not required to purchase the assembly kits.

"Anyone from a criminal to a terrorist can buy this kit and, in as little as 30 minutes, put together a weapon," Mr Biden said.

Experts say that these homemade guns are increasingly being used in crimes. Over 40% of guns being seized in Los Angeles are ghost guns, according to federal firearms officials.

Mr Biden is also giving the Justice Department two months to come up with a rule on stabilising braces for pistols. Under the rule, a pistol used with a stabilising brace would be classified as a short-barrelled rifle, which requires much more stringent background checks under the National Firearms Act.

The Justice Department has also been asked to draft a "red flag law" which states can then use to create their own legislation. These laws authorise the courts and law enforcement to remove guns from people thought to be a risk to the community.

• Should US police be able to seize guns
• US gun sales have hit record high - why?

Getting further gun measures through Congress would be difficult. The US Senate is currently split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Vice-President Harris holding the deciding vote.

However, current Senate rules mean that in practice, 60 votes are needed to pass legislation, meaning some Republican support is required. Republicans have blocked significant gun control laws in the past.

A hard reality for Biden

After recent mass shootings, gun-control activists called on Joe Biden to impose new regulations on firearms. And like past presidents who have sought to address US gun violence, Biden confronts a hard reality.

There are not enough votes in Congress to enact even modest new gun laws. And the steps a president can take unilaterally are limited in scope.

Biden promised that he would do something about gun control, however, so on Thursday he gathered a sympathetic audience in the Rose Garden and unveiled a grab-bag of new actions.

He nominated a head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - a vacancy Donald Trump never bothered to fill. He instructed his Justice Department to come up with new rules for homemade guns and more heavily regulate an attachment that makes handguns more accurate. He called for new gun-violence studies and draft legislation that states could pass.

In a tacit acknowledgement that the scope of these actions are limited, Biden assured his audience that "this is just a start".

To go much farther, however, the political dynamic in Congress will have to change - and Biden, currently more focused on passing his infrastructure package, will have to expend more political capital.

What has the reaction been?

Mr Biden's proposed measures have been praised by gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.

"Each of these executive actions will start to address the epidemic of gun violence that has raged throughout the pandemic and begin to make good on President Biden's promise to be the strongest gun safety president in history," group president John Feinblatt said.

He added that the Biden administration's decision to treat ghost guns "like the deadly weapons they are will undoubtedly save countless lives".

The National Rifle Association (NRA), the biggest gun rights lobby group in the US, described the measures as "extreme" and said it was ready to fight.

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2021-04-08 21:42:53Z
52781494195812

Biden gun control: Another mass shooting as White House signs gun orders - BBC News

US President Joe Biden has issued an order targeting homemade guns, known as "ghost guns" because they are unregistered and untraceable.

"Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it's an international embarrassment," he said on Thursday.

The president is enacting new measures through an executive order, meaning he does not need approval from Congress.

It includes efforts to set rules for certain guns, bolster background checks and support local violence prevention.

• America's gun culture in charts
• US shooting suspect identified as ex-NFL player

However, the president will have an uphill task. The right to bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution and many people see gun control laws as infringing on this constitutional right.

On Wednesday, another mass shooting made the headlines, with five people, including two young children, killed in South Carolina. The suspect has been named a former NFL player Phillip Adams.

This followed two mass shootings in March, which left a total of 18 people dead - one in Boulder, Colorado and the other in Atlanta, Georgia.

What did Mr Biden say?

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday, Mr Biden said 106 people are killed every day by guns in the country.

"This is an epidemic for God's sake. And it has to stop," he continued.

He also offered condolences to the family killed in South Carolina.

Mr Biden's executive order gives the Justice Department 30 days to propose a rule that will help reduce the number of so-called "ghost guns".

These guns are self-assembled, which means they do not contain a serial number and cannot be traced. Background checks are also not required to purchase the assembly kits.

"Anyone from a criminal to a terrorist can buy this kit and, in as little as 30 minutes, put together a weapon," Mr Biden said.

Experts say that these homemade guns are increasingly being used in crimes. Over 40% of guns being seized in Los Angeles are ghost guns, according to federal firearms officials.

Mr Biden is also giving the Justice Department two months to come up with a rule on stabilising braces for pistols. Under the rule, a pistol used with a stabilising brace would be classified as a short-barrelled rifle, which requires much more stringent background checks under the National Firearms Act.

The Justice Department has also been asked to draft a "red flag law" which states can then use to create their own legislation. These laws authorise the courts and law enforcement to remove guns from people thought to be a risk to the community.

• Should US police be able to seize guns
• US gun sales have hit record high - why?

Getting further gun measures through Congress would be difficult. The US Senate is currently split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Vice-President Harris holding the deciding vote.

However, current Senate rules mean that in practice, 60 votes are needed to pass legislation, meaning some Republican support is required. Republicans have blocked significant gun control laws in the past.

A hard reality for Biden

After recent mass shootings, gun-control activists called on Joe Biden to impose new regulations on firearms. And like past presidents who have sought to address US gun violence, Biden confronts a hard reality.

There are not enough votes in Congress to enact even modest new gun laws. And the steps a president can take unilaterally are limited in scope.

Biden promised that he would do something about gun control, however, so on Thursday he gathered a sympathetic audience in the Rose Garden and unveiled a grab-bag of new actions.

He nominated a head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - a vacancy Donald Trump never bothered to fill. He instructed his Justice Department to come up with new rules for homemade guns and more heavily regulate an attachment that makes handguns more accurate. He called for new gun-violence studies and draft legislation that states could pass.

In a tacit acknowledgement that the scope of these actions are limited, Biden assured his audience that "this is just a start".

To go much farther, however, the political dynamic in Congress will have to change - and Biden, currently more focused on passing his infrastructure package, will have to expend more political capital.

What has the reaction been?

Mr Biden's proposed measures have been praised by gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.

"Each of these executive actions will start to address the epidemic of gun violence that has raged throughout the pandemic and begin to make good on President Biden's promise to be the strongest gun safety president in history," group president John Feinblatt said.

He added that the Biden administration's decision to treat ghost guns "like the deadly weapons they are will undoubtedly save countless lives".

The National Rifle Association (NRA), the biggest gun rights lobby group in the US, described the measures as "extreme" and said it was ready to fight.

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2021-04-08 17:46:26Z
52781494195812

Ukraine conflict: Moscow could 'defend' Russia-backed rebels - BBC News

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A top Russian official has warned that Moscow could intervene to help its citizens in eastern Ukraine as tensions rise in the region.

Sporadic fighting has increased in the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine, with clashes between Russian-backed separatist rebels and Ukrainian troops.

Russia has been building up troops on the border with Ukraine.

The official, Dmitry Kozak, told a Moscow conference, that Russian forces could intervene to "defend" the rebels.

"Everything depends on the scale of the conflagration," he said.

Ukraine's Donbas has been a flashpoint since the separatists seized swathes of territory in 2014.

Low-level clashes between the rebels and Ukrainian forces have broken out in recent weeks.

Each side accuses the other of violating a ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the region on Thursday to see "the locations of the escalation" and "be with our soldiers in the tough times in Donbas".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on Russia to reduce its military presence on the border with Ukraine.

'Battle-hardened'

In Moscow, Mr Kozak likened the current situation of the separatists to Srebrenica, the town in Bosnia-Hercegovina where 8,000 Muslim men were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995.

"If, as our president says, there is a Srebrenica there, we shall probably have to come to their defence," Mr Kozak said. He is the deputy head of Russia's presidential administration.

Russian President Vladimir Putin first suggested in 2019 that Russian-speaking residents might suffer a Srebrenica-like massacre if Ukraine regained full control of Donbas without guarantees.

But there have been no reports of any such atrocity being planned.

Mr Kozak suggested the rebels could hold their own for now against Ukrainian forces as they consisted of "battle-hardened units".

• Peace deal explained

He also warned Ukraine not to increase hostilities against the rebels, saying it would be the "beginning of the end" for the country. At the same time, he urged calm and stability.

Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014 and support for the separatists in Donbas have been a long-running sore in relations between the two countries.

Western countries condemned Moscow over its actions at the time and imposed sanctions.

Russia denies sending troops to the Donbas region and characterises Russian fighters there as "volunteers".

The US put its forces in Europe on a higher level of alert last week and President Joe Biden re-affirmed his support for Ukraine's "sovereignty and territorial integrity".

In the latest sign of tension, the rebels said one of their fighters was killed on Thursday when Ukrainian troops fired 14 mortar bombs at a village on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk.

Getty Images

Ukraine says 25 of its soldiers have been killed in the conflict so far this year.

Chancellor Merkel spoke to Mr Putin on the phone on Thursday and called on Russia to "de-escalate tensions" by reducing its troop reinforcements.

In the same call, Mr Putin accused Ukraine of inflaming the situation in the east.

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2021-04-08 17:37:57Z
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George Floyd 'died from lack of oxygen', leading breathing expert tells trial - Sky News

A world-renowned breathing expert has told the George Floyd murder trial that the 46-year-old died from "lack of oxygen".

Dr Martin Tobin, a lung and critical care specialist from Chicago, said in his testimony at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin that Mr Floyd's breathing was too shallow to take in enough oxygen while he was pinned facedown with his hands cuffed behind his back for around nine-and-a-half minutes.

Watch and follow live coverage as Derek Chauvin stands trial for murder

Image: Dr Tobin said George Floyd died from 'lack of oxygen'

He said he had watched footage of the arrest "hundreds of times" to help make a diagram of where the officers were positioned in relation to Mr Floyd when he was on the ground.

The diagram (seen at the top of this article) was presented to the jury and shows Chauvin's left knee on Mr Floyd's neck and his right on his arm and chest.

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The evidence came just a day after a use-of-force expert also said Chauvin had his knee on Mr Floyd's neck area - and for the entire time he was being pinned down.

And on Thursday the jury was shown an image of the move.

More from Black Lives Matter

In the photo, the toe of Chauvin's boot is off the ground.

Image: Diagram depicting the position of Chauvin's boot and knee during Mr Floyd's arrest

Dr Tobin said that meant all of the ex-officer's body weight was "being directed down onto Mr Floyd's neck", at this point in the arrest.

This was calculated at 91.5 lbs.

Chauvin, 45, is charged with the second and third-degree murder and manslaughter of Mr Floyd, following his death on 25 May last year.

Mr Floyd had been arrested after being accused of trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes in a neighbourhood shop in Minneapolis.

Dr Tobin told the court on Thursday that the positioning of handcuffs at Mr Floyd's back as he was arrested, and the fact that he was face down on the street, was key evidence.

Image: George Floyd cried out 'I can't breathe' while he was being pinned down by Derek Chauvin. Pic: AP

The handcuffs were pushed high into Mr Floyd's back through the actions of the officers, and he was effectively sandwiched between the street and the officers, putting his left side "in a vice", the court heard.

Dr Tobin said the effect on his left lung was deadly.

"Because of the knee that was rammed in against the left side of his chest... basically on the left side of his lung... it was almost... to the effect as if a surgeon had gone in and removed the [left] lung," he said.

"Not quite, but along those lines."

Image: Mr Floyd pleaded with officers not to shoot him

There was "very little opportunity" for Mr Floyd to get oxygen into his lungs, Dr Tobin added.

The trial continues.

George Floyd Killing: The Trial - Follow live continuous coverage of court proceedings in the trial of Derek Chauvin on our website, app, YouTube and Sky Pop Up Channel on 524

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2021-04-08 15:49:53Z
52781481776585

US offers new plan in global corporate tax talks - Financial Times

The Biden administration has proposed a new model for taxing multinational corporations, calling for the world’s biggest businesses to pay levies to national governments based on their sales in each country as part of a deal on a global minimum tax.

In documents sent to the 135 countries negotiating international taxation at the OECD in Paris and obtained by the Financial Times on Wednesday, the US Treasury laid out a plan that would apply to the global profits of the very largest companies, including big US technology groups, regardless of their physical presence in a given country.

The goal of the plan is to catalyse negotiations at the OECD, the international organisation of wealthy countries, with the promise of a more stable international tax system that would stop the proliferation of national digital taxes and break the mould of tax avoidance and profit-shifting by many multinationals. 

The US concession during the week of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings comes as the White House has called for raising US corporate taxes by about $2.5tn over the next 15 years to pay for more than $2tn in investments in infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing.

After nearly a decade, the OECD tax negotiations have been broken up in two parts. The first pillar is designed to set a new regime for taxation of the largest multinationals, while the second pillar is designed to address the global minimum tax rate, which the US aims to see at 21 per cent. 

An agreement at the OECD would allow Joe Biden’s administration to increase corporate taxes on US companies without fear of being undercut by other countries because it would include a widely applied global minimum tax rate.

Washington has threatened to apply tariffs to countries including France, the UK, Italy and Spain — among others — over digital taxes which US tech companies are being asked to pay.

If the US plan is accepted, other countries would be able to increase revenues from big US tech groups and other multinationals that operated in their jurisdictions but paid little corporate tax.

The proposals received strong support on Thursday morning from Mario Draghi, the Italian prime minister, who also chairs the G20 this year. Supporting the US proposals to unblock the negotiations, Draghi said he was “fully behind [the US] call for a global minimum corporate tax”. 

As one of the countries that has introduced a digital tax, Italy's support for the US proposals will be important in securing a wider consensus. 

Ireland, which has a headline corporate tax rate of 12.5 per cent and has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of multinationals’ profit-shifting techniques, declined to comment on the US proposals.

But the finance ministry said it was “constructively engaging in these discussions, and will consider any proposals, carefully noting that political-level discussions on these issues have not yet taken place with the 139 countries involved in this process”.

“Ireland has seen the benefits of international cooperation and is committed to the ongoing global discussions to address the tax challenges arising from digitalisation,” the ministry said.

Hans Vijlbrief, the Netherlands state secretary for finance, said the US proposal was a “huge step towards finding global solutions and developing effective rules” which was “fully in line with the efforts made by the Netherlands to modernize the international tax system and guarantee a fair minimum level of taxation for large multinational enterprises”.

“This will certainly contribute to our government’s efforts to counter international tax avoidance by companies and harmful tax competition between states,” he said.

The offer from Washington reflects Biden’s broader goal of ending what officials have described as a race to the bottom on global taxation that has deprived governments of revenue needed to fund basic services and investments. 

The Trump administration had insisted on a “safe harbour” provision that would make compliance by US technology groups voluntary. Biden dropped that demand, but this week’s proposal offers a new solution. 

The US Treasury is now offering a formula in which only the very largest and most profitable companies in the world would be subject to the new rules, regardless of their sector, based on their level of revenue and profit margins. These would probably include about 100 companies, comprising the big US tech groups as well as other extremely large multinationals. 

The proposals have already been shared with the OECD, which is convening the negotiations and is trying to bring countries together to generate the outlines of a global deal by the summer. 

Pascal Saint-Amans, head of tax administration at the OECD, welcomed the US proposals. “This reboots the negotiations and is very positive,” he said. “It is a serious proposal with a chance to succeed in both the [international negotiations] and US Congress. Peace is more important than anything else and this would stabilise the [international corporate tax] system in the post-coronavirus environment.”

Saint-Amans added that the proposal was likely to raise as much revenue for other countries as the OECD’s own suggestion while also allowing the US to raise the money it wanted from its largest companies.

Additional reporting by Guy Chazan, Ben Hall and Mehreen Khan

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2021-04-08 14:19:27Z
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Turkey blames EU in 'sofagate' diplomatic spat - BBC News

What began as an attempt to repair tense EU-Turkey relations has turned into a diplomatic spat that has been dubbed "sofagate".

When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was left standing because of a lack of chairs in Ankara, she reacted with an audible "Ahem".

Neither Turkey's president nor Mrs von der Leyen's EU colleague Charles Michel came out of it looking all that good.

But Turkey has now laid the blame on the EU for "unjust accusations".

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was adamant on Thursday: "The protocol at the presidency met the demands of the EU side. In other words, the seating arrangement was designed to meet their demands and suggestions."

That is not quite how Mr Michel saw it, the former Belgian prime minister, who represents the EU's 27 member states as Council president.

He pointed in a Facebook post to Turkey's "strict interpretation of the protocol rules... [that] gave rise to a distressing situation: the differentiated - even inferior - treatment accorded to the president of the European Commission".

What went wrong?

The meeting at Recep Tayyip Erdogan's presidential palace followed months of "meticulous preparation and diplomatic effort", as Mr Michel made clear.

EPA/Turkish presidency

But when the three leaders came to sit down, there were just two chairs, one with a Turkish flag behind it, the other with an EU flag. The two men take their seats in two gilded Ottoman-style chairs, while the Commission president is left standing, making her displeasure absolutely clear with an "Ahem" ("Ähm" in her native German).

Mrs von der Leyen eventually sits down on a sofa, well away from the Turkish leader and opposite the Turkish foreign minister.

There is precedent here. When the Turkish leader visited Brussels in 2017, the two men heading the European Commission and Council sat beside him in comfy armchairs.

European Council

How it turned into a spat

Video of the Commission president's discomfort went viral, with criticism of both the Turkish hosts and Mr Michel's decision to sit down while his colleague remained standing.

Dutch Euro MP Sophie in 't Veld complained it was a deliberate slight by the Turks that "puts into question the equal treatment" of Mrs von der Leyen, and that it was not a coincidence she was the only woman in the room.

It did not go unnoticed that Turkey's recent decision to pull out of the Istanbul convention on violence against women was on the agenda for Tuesday's talks.

Iratxe García Pérez, leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, said it was "shameful", with Turkey first leaving the Istanbul convention, then leaving the Commission president without a seat. She condemned the "micromachismo and rudeness" of both Mr Erdogan and Charles Michel.

• Women rise up as Turkey quits violence treaty

The European Commission made its feelings known too, but more diplomatically. Mrs von der Leyen expected the institution she represented to be treated with appropriate protocol, it said, and she had asked her team to ensure it never happened again.

Mr Michel said he was "saddened by any suggestion that I may have been indifferent to the protocol misstep with respect to Ursula". While photographs of the meeting had given the impression that he was "indifferent" to the situation, nothing could have been further from the truth, he said.

The Council president also regretted that the issue had overshadowed the meeting itself.

Ties between Turkey and the EU have been strained for years, over the influx of migrants and recently over Turkey's drive for gas in the Eastern Mediterranean. After the meeting, Mrs von der Leyen held out hope of revising a 2016 deal under which the EU pays Turkey to prevent large-scale arrivals in Greece.

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2021-04-08 12:35:05Z
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US offers new plan in global corporate tax talks - Financial Times

The Biden administration has proposed a new model for taxing multinational corporations, calling for the world’s biggest businesses to pay levies to national governments based on their sales in each country as part of a deal on a global minimum tax.

In documents sent to the 135 countries negotiating international taxation at the OECD in Paris and obtained by the Financial Times on Wednesday, the US Treasury laid out a plan that would apply to the global profits of the very largest companies, including big US technology groups, regardless of their physical presence in a given country.

The goal of the plan is to catalyse negotiations at the OECD, the international organisation of wealthy countries, with the promise of a more stable international tax system that would stop the proliferation of national digital taxes and break the mould of tax avoidance and profit-shifting by many multinationals. 

The US concession during the week of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings comes as the White House has called for raising US corporate taxes by about $2.5tn over the next 15 years to pay for more than $2tn in investments in infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing.

After nearly a decade, the OECD tax negotiations have been broken up in two parts. The first pillar is designed to set a new regime for taxation of the largest multinationals, while the second pillar is designed to address the global minimum tax rate, which the US aims to see at 21 per cent. 

An agreement at the OECD would allow Joe Biden’s administration to increase corporate taxes on US companies without fear of being undercut by other countries because it would include a widely applied global minimum tax rate.

Washington has threatened to apply tariffs to countries including France, the UK, Italy and Spain — among others — over the digital taxes, which US tech companies are being asked to pay, on grounds that the taxes unfairly discriminate against US companies.

If the US plan is accepted, other countries would be able to increase revenues from big US tech groups and other multinationals that operated in their jurisdictions but paid little corporate tax.

The proposals received strong support on Thursday morning from Mario Draghi, the Italian prime minister, who also chairs the G20 this year. Supporting the US proposals to unblock the negotiations, Draghi said he was “fully behind [the US] call for a global minimum corporate tax”. 

As one of the countries that has introduced a digital tax, Italy's support for the US proposals will be important in securing a wider consensus. 

Ireland, which has a headline corporate tax rate of 12.5 per cent and has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of multinationals’ profit-shifting techniques, declined to comment on the US proposals.

But the finance ministry said it was “constructively engaging in these discussions, and will consider any proposals, carefully noting that political-level discussions on these issues have not yet taken place with the 139 countries involved in this process”.

“Ireland has seen the benefits of international cooperation and is committed to the ongoing global discussions to address the tax challenges arising from digitalisation,” the ministry said.

The offer from Washington reflects Biden’s broader goal of ending what officials have described as a race to the bottom on global taxation that has deprived governments of revenue needed to fund basic services and investments. 

Negotiations on international taxation have been bogged down at the OECD for years because the US has objected to what it has seen as attempts by other countries to put in place agreements that discriminated against US multinationals, particularly big US tech companies.

The Trump administration had insisted on a “safe harbour” provision that would make compliance by US technology groups voluntary. Soon after taking office this year, Biden dropped that demand, but this week’s proposal offers a new solution. 

The US Treasury is now offering a different formula in which only the very largest and most profitable companies in the world would be subject to the new rules, regardless of their sector, based on their level of revenue and profit margins. These would probably include about 100 companies, comprising the big US tech groups as well as other extremely large multinationals. 

The proposals have already been shared with the OECD, which is convening the negotiations and is trying to bring countries together to generate the outlines of a global deal by the summer. 

Pascal Saint-Amans, head of tax administration at the OECD, welcomed the US proposals. “This reboots the negotiations and is very positive,” he said. “It is a serious proposal with a chance to succeed in both the [international negotiations] and US Congress. Peace is more important than anything else and this would stabilise the [international corporate tax] system in the post-coronavirus environment.”

Saint-Amans added that the proposal was likely to raise as much revenue for other countries as the OECD’s own suggestion while also allowing the US to raise the money it wanted from its largest companies.

Many international tax campaigners have said the OECD proposals did not go far enough or give sufficient tax-raising powers to emerging economies. The US proposals do not significantly alter this feature although the US documents suggest the US is willing to be flexible on some details. 

An agreement would help resolve the transatlantic trade dispute between the US and several countries that have implemented digital services taxes in lieu of a broader multilateral agreement. 

Additional reporting by Guy Chazan and Ben Hall

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2021-04-08 12:20:42Z
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