George Floyd murder: Joe Biden says Derek Chauvin guilty verdict can be 'moment of significant change' - Sky News

US President Joe Biden has welcomed the conviction of Derek Chauvin and said it can be a "moment of significant change" after the white former police officer was found guilty of murdering 46-year-old black man George Floyd.

A jury unanimously convicted 45-year-old Chauvin of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after 10-and-a-half hours of deliberations over two days.

Mr Biden said Mr 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.

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Systemic racism a ‘stain on our nation’s soul’

But he added: "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."

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Sky's Greg Milam said Chauvin - whose face was obscured by a COVID face mask - showed little emotion as the guilty verdicts were read out and faces 12 and a half years in prison as a first-time offender, but prosecutors could seek a maximum of 40 years if the judge determines there are aggravating factors.

He put his knee on Mr Floyd's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds while arresting him last year for allegedly trying to use a fake $20 note to pay for a pack of cigarettes.

More from Derek Chauvin

Crowds erupted into cheers and applause outside the court building in Minneapolis following the conviction.

Mr Biden and vice president Kamala Harris spoke with Mr Floyd's family moments after Chauvin was remanded in custody, handcuffed and led out of the courtroom.

Image: George Floyd was killed while under arrest in Minneapolis in May last year

The president said: "Nothing is going to make it all better, but at least now God there is some justice."

But he also admitted that "such a verdict is also much too rare".

Mr Floyd's brother Philonise told reporters after the verdicts: "We are able to breathe again."

But he added the fight for justice was not over: "We have to protest because it seems like this is a never-ending cycle."

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'I can get to sleep now'

Mr Floyd's nephew Brandon Williams told crowds: "We need police reform bad.

"We need each and every officer to be held accountable and until then it's still scary to be a black man and woman in America."

The jury's decision was hailed around the country - and the world - as justice by politicians, civic leaders and celebrities.

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'What a day to be a Floyd'

Former president Barack Obama tweeted: "Today, a jury did the right thing. But true justice requires much more.

"Michelle and I send our prayers to the Floyd family, and we stand with all those who are committed to guaranteeing every American the full measure of justice that George and so many others have been denied."

Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman posted: "A reminder that victory would be George Floyd being alive. Every day Black Americans worry if they will be next is another day without justice."

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a white man, wrote on Twitter that Mr Floyd "would still be alive if he looked like me. That must change".

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "appalled" by Mr Floyd's death and welcomed the verdict.

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Chauvin is led away in handcuffs

Video footage of Mr Floyd's death on 25 May 2020, in which he cried he could not breathe, sparked a wave of anti-racism protests across the world, including the UK, with many marching through towns and cities under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Among those gathered outside the court on Tuesday was Mr Floyd's girlfriend Courteney Ross.

She told Sky News: "I miss Floyd so much you know, it's hard to think about how I feel. But I do know that I'm really hopeful for change right now.

"I feel like this has just opened up a door for so many people to have their cases reopened, to have people get justice for their lost loved one."

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2021-04-21 07:08:03Z
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‘Big battle lies ahead’: India being overrun by huge COVID surge - Aljazeera.com

India has been overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases daily, bringing pain, fear and agony to many lives as lockdowns have been placed in capital New Delhi and other cities.

India’s health ministry reported 295,041 new cases on Wednesday with 2,023 deaths, taking total fatalities to 182,553. India has since the start of the pandemic recorded 15.6 million cases, the second-highest behind the United States.

Newly reported cases have exceeded 200,000 each day for a week – with people being infected faster than they can be tested.

“This time, infection is spreading so fast that people are not getting time to get medicines. Many people are dying before we can get a test report,” said Dr SK Pandey of Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow, capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Many have blamed politicians for allowing superspreader events such as mass religious gatherings and election rallies to take place.

Religious leaders and hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus descended on the banks of the Ganges River in the northern Indian city of Haridwar last month for the Kumbh Mela (pitcher festival). They believe that a dip in holy water will wash away their sins and prevent rebirth.

One prominent Hindu religious leader died of COVID-19 shortly after.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah as well as opposition politicians took part in mass election rallies in five populous states, with tens of thousands of their supporters not wearing masks or social distancing.

Tens of thousands of farmers demanding repeal of new agricultural laws have been camping on the outskirts of the Indian capital in crowded tents and makeshift townships since November.

Modi tried to boost spirits in a nationwide address on Tuesday night by saying the government and the pharmaceutical industry were stepping up efforts to meet the shortages of hospital beds, oxygen, tests and vaccines.

But, he admitted, the “surge in infections has come like a storm, and a big battle lies ahead”.

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2021-04-21 07:53:30Z
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Idriss Deby: Chad ruler who held on power, died battling rebels - Al Jazeera English

Idriss Deby was known for visiting the battlefield. After Boko Haram fighters launched a deadly attack on a Chadian army base in the village of Bohoma in March last year, the longtime president was seen walking on the shores of Lake Chad, next to his troops.

And it was on the battlefield, it seems, where the former soldier met his end.

On Tuesday, Chad’s armed forces stunned the nation by announcing that Deby had died from wounds suffered while leading soldiers on the front line against rebels advancing from the north towards the capital, N’Djamena. He was 68.

“The president of the republic, head of state, supreme chief of the army, Idriss Deby Itno, just drew his last breath while defending the nation’s integrity on the battlefield,” army spokesman Azem Bermandoa Agouna said in a televised statement while surrounded by men in army fatigues.

The exact circumstances of Deby’s death, however, remain unclear.

One of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, Deby governed Chad for more than 30 years.

Hailing from the Zaghawa ethnic group, he grew up in the northeastern region of Ennedi. He joined the army in the early 1970s, at a time when Chad was gripped by a long-running civil war, and received additional military training in France.

Deby rose to the rank of commander-in-chief of the armed forces and eventually came to power by spearheading a 1990 rebellion that overthrew authoritarian leader Hissene Habre, after the two men’s relations soured.

He officially took office in February the following year, and went on to win elections in 1996 and again in 2001 before pushing through a constitutional change in 2018 that could have allowed him to stay in power until 2033.

“Have you ever seen a head of state take up arms and go into battle?” Deby said during an annual news conference in 2018. “You think I do this because I’m brave? Because I’m courageous? No, I do it because I love this country and I prefer to die on the battlefield than for disorder and misery to descend on the country.”

Idriss Deby’s death cut his 30-year political career short. He carved out a reputation as the West’s stalwart ally in the Sahel – despite accusations of authoritarianism https://t.co/iJd3wHshuV pic.twitter.com/e1H85ReCPK

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 20, 2021

Deby was considered a linchpin in the international fight against armed groups in West and Central Africa and a key ally of Western powers. Under him, Chadian troops became the key regional force in the battle against ISIL- and al-Qaeda-linked groups in the Western portion of the Sahel and Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin.

Last year, Deby added “Marshal” to his official title.

“Chad has lost a great soldier and a president who worked tirelessly for the security of the country and the stability of the region for three decades,” the French presidency said in a statement, adding that France had lost a “brave friend”.

For its part, the White House offered “sincere condolences” to Chadians and said the United States supported “a peaceful transition of power in accordance with the Chadian constitution”.

At home, Deby faced the threat of rebel groups trying to overthrow him. Rebels reached the capital in 2006 and 2008 and came close again in 2019. The president’s forces fought them off, sometimes with the help of France, as in 2019.

The most recent uprising began on election day on April 11, when Deby sought a controversial sixth term in a vote boycotted by main opposition parties. As election results began pouring in, members of the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), a Libya-based rebel group made up largely of army dissidents, crossed the northern border from Libya and into Chad.

Tensions were on the rise in the weeks and months before the election as Deby was seen as silencing opponents through violent crackdowns and even a deadly attack on an opposition politician’s home. In early April, Human Rights Watch said Chad’s security forces had  “ruthlessly” cracked down on protesters and the political opposition in the lead-up to the polls. On Tuesday, the rights group said Deby left a “legacy of abuse”.

On the campaign trail, Deby had promised to restore peace and security in a country wrapped in violence after years of attacks by armed groups and rebellion encroaching on its borders.

“There are those who say a sixth term is too much; I say they’re wrong,” Deby had told supporters at a rally in N’Djamena. “I’m confident we’re going to win.”

Indeed, as it was widely expected, the electoral commission announced on Monday that Deby had been re-elected with 79 percent of the vote.

But Deby had been wounded during the weekend while visiting Chadian troops on the front-line battling FACT a few hundred kilometers from N’Djamena, Agouna, the army spokesman, said.

His 37-year-old son, four-star General Mahamat Idriss Deby, will now lead a transitional military council for 18 months before fresh elections are held, the army said.

Deby leaves behind his wife Hinda Deby Itno, who he married in 2005, and their children, as well as children from previous marriages.

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2021-04-20 19:53:25Z
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GUILTY of George Floyd murder: jury convicts Derek Chauvin on all charges - BBC News - BBC News

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2021-04-20 21:36:43Z
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Chad's President Idriss Déby dies after 'clashes with rebels' - BBC News

Reuters

Chad's President Idriss Déby has died of his injuries following clashes with rebels in the north of the country at the weekend, the army has said.

The announcement came a day after provisional election results projected he would win a sixth term in office.

The government and parliament have been dissolved. A curfew has also been imposed and the borders have been shut.

Mr Déby, 68, spent three decades in power and was one of Africa's longest-serving leaders.

A military council led by Mr Déby's son, a 37-year-old four star general, will govern for the next 18 months.

Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno will lead the council but "free and democratic" elections will be held once the transition period is over, the army said on Tuesday.

• Africa Live: Updates on President Déby's death
• Read more about Chad

An army officer by training, Mr Déby came to power in 1990 through an armed uprising. He was a long-time ally of France and other Western powers in the battle against jihadist groups in the Sahel region of Africa.

Ahead of the election on 11 April, Mr Déby campaigned on a platform of bringing peace and security to the region.

But there has been growing unhappiness over his government's management of Chad's oil resources.

Mr Déby "breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield", an army general said in a statement read out on state TV.

He had gone to the front line, several hundred kilometres north of the capital N'Djamena, at the weekend to visit troops battling rebels belonging to a group calling itself Fact (the Front for Change and Concord in Chad).

Founded in 2016 by disillusioned former army officers, the group accuses President Déby of repression in the run-up to the election.

They built up their base in Libya in the Tibesti mountains, which straddle northern Chad and part of southern Libya.

On election day the group mounted an attack on a border post and gradually advanced on N'Djamena.

The latest clashes began on Saturday. An army general told Reuters news agency that 300 insurgents were killed and 150 were captured. Five government soldiers were killed and 36 were injured, he said. The figures could not immediately be verified.

Some foreign embassies in the capital have urged their staff to leave.

N'Djamena has come under rebel attack before and there was panic in the city on Monday, with parents taking their children home from school, when tanks were deployed along the main roads.

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2021-04-20 12:47:23Z
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EU warns ‘spark’ could set of escalation at Ukraine borders - Al Jazeera English

Russia’s troop deployment has sparked fears of an imminent escalation in hostilities in eastern Ukraine.

The European Union’s top diplomat has said that in the face of the big military build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine’s borders, it would only take “a spark” to set off a confrontation.

Josep Borrell said after a virtual meeting of the EU foreign ministers that the massing of Russian troops, including military field hospitals, was a “matter of concern”.

“It is the highest military deployment of the Russian army on the Ukrainian borders ever. It’s clear that it’s a matter of concern when you deploy a lot of troops,” Borrell said. “Well, a spark can jump here or there.”

Initially, the EU’s foreign policy chief told reporters that “there’s more than 150,000 Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian borders and in Crimea,” and doubled down on the figure later before his services had to correct it in the transcript, saying the real figure was more than 100,000.

Nevertheless, Borrell said that it was “evident” there was risk of further escalation.

Borrell declined to say where he got the initial 150,000 Russian troop number from, but called it “my reference figure”. It was higher than the 110,000 estimate provided by Ukrainian Defence Minister Andriy Taran on Wednesday.

The military build-up has sparked fears of an imminent escalation in the years-long conflict that has racked eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where government forces have battled Russian-backed separatists since the rebels seized a swath of territory there in April 2014.

EU opts against further sanctions

Borrell’s comments came after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba addressed EU diplomats during Monday’s meeting and called on the bloc to impose new sanctions on Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and has been accused by Kyiv and Western countries of arming, funding and leading the separatist forces in the country’s east.

Despite Kuleba’s appeal, Borrell said no new economic sanctions or expulsions of Russian diplomats were planned for the time being.

He also said there was no request for a synchronised EU diplomatic move of expulsions in the standoff between the Czech Republic, an EU member state, and Russia following Prague’s accusation that Moscow was involved in a 2014 ammunition depot explosion.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied playing any role in the conflict in the Donbas region, of which Donetsk and Luhansk are a part, and has described its troop movements in the region as defensive.

It has also stated the military units moved to border positions would remain in position as long as Moscow saw fit.

But Russia’s recent moves have provoked alarm in Kyiv and among Ukraine’s allies, prompting calls from NATO and several of the alliance’s member states – including the United States, Germany and France – for Russian President Vladimir Putin to order a pullback of the troops amassed in border areas.

Ukraine is currently an ally of NATO, but not a member.

Kyiv’s renewed tensions with Moscow have meanwhile further worsened relations between Russia and the West, which had already plunged to post-Cold War lows following the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny earlier this year.

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2021-04-19 20:44:15Z
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George Floyd: US city on edge as jury deliberates Chauvin verdict - BBC News

Reuters

The jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the ex-police officer accused of killing George Floyd last year, has retired to weigh up its verdict.

Security has been ramped up around the court building in the US city of Minneapolis, which is protected by barbed wire, high barriers and armed soldiers from the National Guard.

"This was murder," the prosecutor said in closing arguments on Monday.

The defence argued that Mr Chauvin had correctly followed police training.

He behaved as any "reasonable police officer" would, lead lawyer Eric Nelson said, adding the circumstances surrounding Mr Floyd's death gave rise to reasonable doubt.

• Five key moments from the Derek Chauvin trial
• Key questions answered about Derek Chauvin trial
• The last 30 minutes of George Floyd's life

But prosecutor Steve Schleicher urged jurors to "use your common sense. Believe your eyes. What you saw, you saw," referring to the video showing Mr Chauvin kneeling on Mr Floyd for more than nine minutes last May.

"This wasn't policing; this was murder," he added.

A BBC correspondent in Minneapolis says the city is braced to deal with the fallout of whatever the jury decides.

What will happen when there is a verdict?

By Tara McKelvey, BBC News, Minneapolis

The streets around the court were quiet on Monday morning, but local residents are waiting to see what will happen once the verdict is reached.

One activist tells me they are planning to hit the streets, regardless of what kind of verdict is rendered.

If the jurors decide that Derek Chauvin is not guilty on all counts, or guilty only of manslaughter - a lesser charge - the activists will march.

But even if he is found guilty on all counts, the activists will still march - "a celebratory protest", as one of them put it.

In that case, the campaigners will take to the streets to show their satisfaction with the verdict, and to demand justice for the others who have died while in police custody.

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2021-04-19 21:17:00Z
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