Death of George Floyd

The city of Minneapolis will pay the estate of George Floyd $27 million. The city council on Friday unanimously voted to settle a lawsuit with his family. Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, said that he would return the settlement millions if it meant he could see his brother again.

"I thank the state of Minnesota for getting this settlement taken care of," he said. "But even though my brother is not here, he's here with me in my heart. Because if I could get him back, I would give all of this back.

The city of Detroit has filed a lawsuit against the Black Lives Matter movement. The lawsuit alleges that demonstrators were part of "civil conspiracy to disturb the peace, engage in disorderly conduct, incite riots, destroy public property," and resist police orders, among other "illegal acts."

On Saturday night, supporters of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer clashed with BLM protestors after a caravan of around 600 vehicles entered downtown Portland. Journalists have reported hearing three gunshots. As gunfire erupted a man wearing the insignia of the far-right Portland area group Patriot Prayer got shot and killed. According to the founder of Patriot Prayer the shot man was a supporter of the group and a “good friend.

"It is still early in this investigation, and I ask everyone to give the detectives time to do their important work before drawing conclusions about what took place," so Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell, who's asking people who have information to come forward.

Protests in Portland have been going on for three consecutive months.

According to a press release by Amnesty International, US law enforcement committed at least 125 incidents of police violence against "protestors, medics, journalists and legal observers in 40 states and D.C." during the Black Lives Matter protests in May and June.

The NGO further stated that US law enforcement "repeatedly used physical force, chemical irritants such as tear gas and pepper spray, and kinetic impact projectiles as a first resort tactic against peaceful protestors rather than as a response to any sort of actual threat or violence." Amnesty recorded 89 cases of use of tear gas, six incidents of the use of batons, 13 instances of the use of rubber bullets and 31 cases of unlawful pepper spray.

Fifteen US mayors have addressed a letter to Attorney General William Barr and Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf opposing the use of federal federal law enforcement with "no oversight" against protesters. The letter is calling the act of deploying federal forces against protesters an "abuse of power" and is demanding the withdrawal of "extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence" from Portland and other American cities.

"These are tactics we expect from authoritarian regimes -- not our democracy [...] The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a national uprising and reckoning. The majority of the protests have been peaceful and aimed at improving our communities. Where this is not the case, it still does not justify the use of federal forces. Unilaterally deploying these paramilitary-type forces into our cities is wholly inconsistent with our system of democracy and our most basic values," the letter, posted by Mayor Muriel Bowser, said.

The list of mayors who signed the letter is as follows: Jenny A. Durkan, Seattle; Ted Wheeler, Portland; Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta; Lori Lightfoot, Chicago; Muriel Bowser, Washington DC; Quinton D. Lucas, Kansas City; Martin J. Walsh, Boston; Jim Kenny, Philadelphia; Michael Hancock, Denver; Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles; Sam Liccardo, San Jose; Libby Schaaf, Oakland; Regina Romera, Tucson; Darrell Steinberg, Sacramento; Kate Gallego, Phoenix.

Portland officials had previously stated that federal officers were working in coordination with local law enforcement but have since come out saying that "coordination was not made with Portland police" as the "federal police have their marching order."

According to Chad Wolf, federal law enforcement had only been deployed to Portland. On Monday, Trump vowed to send federal officers to other cities.

On Wednesday, the transcript of former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane's body camera footage detailing the last minutes of George Floyd's life was made public. George Floyd told the police officers over 20 times that he can't breathe, crying out "Mama, I love you. I can't do nothing," and "Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."

Derek Chauvin, the police officer who pressed his knee onto Floyd's neck for over 8 minutes, told Floyd at one point to "stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

The transcripts were released as part of a motion filed by Lane's attorney Earl Gray who seeks to have Lane's charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in Floyd's death dismissed.

Tou Thao, a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death, has been released from jail after posting a $750,000 bond. He had been held on $1 million bail with no conditions or $750,000 with conditions.

Thao should appear in court on September 11 on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder while committing a felony, and with aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence.

Now only Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd's neck, is still in custody on $1.25 million bail.

On Sunday, the Mississippi state legislature passed a bill to remove the Confederate emblem from the state's flag, the last remaining state flag to display the Confederate insignia. The Mississippi House voted 91 in favour and 23 opposed of removal, the Senate vote was 37 to 14. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R) said he would sign the legislation into law.

In a recent phone interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Trump admits that he hasn't watched the full video of George Floyd's death as it was too long. He went on saying that the officer responsible for Floyd's death appears to have "some big problems".

Trump told Hannity: "Well, the George Floyd case, nothing has to be said. I watched that. I couldn’t really watch it for that long a period of time, it was over eight minutes. Who could watch that? But it doesn’t get any more obvious or it doesn’t get any worse than that."

On Thursday, the Metro Council of Louisville, Kentucky has unanimously passed Breonna's Law, banning "no-knock" search warrants. The law is named after Louisville 26-year-old resident Breonna Taylor who was shot in her home by police officers on March 13. Officers will be required the also turn on body cameras before entering and searching an apartment.

District 1 Councilwoman Jessica Green told WHAS: "This is probably the proudest moment I have had as a member of this council. So, it's a good day to be a Louisvillain. The entire world is watching us."

After IBM and Amazon, Microsoft has now announced that it no longer wants to make facial recognition software available to the US police.

The basis for further cooperation can only be a legal framework based on human rights.

The reason for the temporary interruption of the cooperation is seen in the criticism that was given in the context of the demonstrations surrounding the death of George Floyd.

"We will not sell facial recognition tech to police in the U.S. until there is a national law in place," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's president ,speaking via video conference at a Washington Post event.

Many US companies have pulled advertising from Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight after Carlson's comment on the recent Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd. In his show on June 6, Carlson told viewers: "It is definitely not about black lives, and remember that when they come for you, and at this rate, they will."

The list of companies that are distancing themselves from Carlson, include Disney, Papa John's Pizza and T-Mobile. Asked whether T-Mobile would support Carlon's message on Twitter, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert replied: "It definitely is not. Bye-bye Tucker Carlson! #BlackLivesMatter"

United State’s chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen Mark Milley has publicly apologised for participating in Donald Trump’s photo-op at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington on June 1.

In a pre-recorded video commencement address Milley told the National Defense University: "I should not have been there. My presence at that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics."

Former Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden did not attend George Floyd's funeral in person but spoke to attendees via a video link. In his speech, Biden called for racial justice, saying "Now is the time for racial justice. That’s the answer we must give to our children when they ask why. Because when there is justice for George Floyd, we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America."

Biden also addressed Gianna, George Floyd's 6-year-old daughter, telling her: "When there is justice for George Floyd, we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America. Then, Gianna, your daddy will have changed the world."

Long-running reality TV show "Cops" has been cancelled after 32 seasons. Paramount Network confirmed the cancellation on Tuesday, saying in a statement that "Cops is not on the Paramount Network" and they "don’t have any current or future plans for it to return."

"Cops" was pulled from the network's schedule last month amid growing outcry and protests against police brutality following the death of unarmed black man George Floyd at the hands of a police officer.

George Floyd will be laid to rest in Houston, Texas today. The funeral and celebration of his life will be held at The Fountain of Praise Church at 11 AM CT. The service is limited to 500 people but will be live-streamed by major news networks such as ABC, CBS and MSNBC.

Mia K. Wright, co-paster of the church, told Don Lemon on Monday: "We celebrate a life that had its ups and downs as many lives do but also a life that was connected to God and one that all people around the world have now connected to because of the tragedy and the trauma by which he passed."

Canadian pilot Dimitri Neonakis took a different approach to show his support for the BLM movement: he designed a flight path that 'drew' the outline of the raised BLM fist. In a post to Facebook, the pilot shared a screenshot of his path alongside a photograph of George Floyd and adding "For George". FlightAware also shared the route timelapse on Twitter.

In an interview with CNET in which he announced the postponement of the PS5 games event, Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony's PlayStation, also announced that Sony would pledge $1 million to the black community.

"There are moments in life when something happens around you and you realize that what you've been doing is either not big enough, not good enough, or just wrong. This is such a moment," Ryan told CNET via email and added: "We are going to take a good hard look at how we behave as a company, and how we behave towards our community."

The Black Lives Matter mural in D.C. was spotted by Planet, a SF-based observation satellite company. Planet posted an image to Twitter, showing a satellite view of downtown D.C. with the Black Lives Matter mural painted on the newly renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza clearly visible. The company has also voiced support for the BLM movement earlier this month.

Sony's event to show off new games for its PlayStation 5, launching in the fall, will be on June 11 20:00 (UTC). The event had been delayed to allow more focus on George Floyd protests.

The broadcast will be streamed at 1080p and 30 FPS, instead of 4K and 60 FPS that may be required to showcase what the console has to offer. About this "downgrade" Sony stated: "This eased the show’s production process during a time when many of our team and developers are working from home. The games you'll see on Thursday will look even better when you play them on PS5 with a 4K TV, as you'd expect.".