Tag: George

Categories
Politics

Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years in jail George Floyd homicide

Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years in prison George Floyd murder

George Floyd’s 7-year-old daughter Gianna testifies via a cell phone video before the sentencing of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of her father George Floyd during a sentencing hearing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. June 25, 2021 in a still image from video.

Pool via Reuters

A judge sentenced former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin on Friday to 22-and-a-half years in prison for the murder of George Floyd.

The sentencing began Friday afternoon with emotional victim impact statements from the victim’s relatives, and Chauvin himself offering “my condolences to the Floyd family.”

Hours before, Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill denied a request for a new trial for Chauvin, whose brutal killing of Floyd, a Black man, whose videotaped death on May 25, 2020, sparked demands for reform of U.S. police departments.

“I ask about him all the time,” Floyd’s 7-year-old daughter Gianna said in a video shown at the beginning of the sentencing.

Asked what she would tell her father if she could see him, Gianna said on the video, “I miss you and I love you.”

Chauvin held his knee on or near Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, as the 46-year-old was prone on the ground while detaining him on suspicion of using a counterfeit bill for a purchase, as three other Minneapolis cops stood by.

“He’s telling Mr. Chauvin, ‘I can’t breathe, I’m dying,’ ” Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank said at the sentencing. “This is 9-and-a-half minutes of cruelty to a man who was begging for his life.”

Floyd’s brother Terrence Floyd addressed Chauvin, after asking the judge to impose a maximum sentence of 40 years, saying he wanted to ask him “why?”

“What were you thinking? What was in your thoughts that day, when you had your knee on my brother’s neck?” asked Terrence Floyd, who at times paused to regain his composure.

“When you knew that he posted no threat anymore. When he was handcuffed? Why didn’t you at least get up? Why did you stay there?”

Chauvin, in a very brief statement during the sentencing, said, “I am not able to give a full statement at this time, but very briefly, I want to give my condolences to the Floyd family.”

“There is going to be some other information in the future that will be of interest and I hope things will give you some peace of mind,” Chauvin said.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin addresses his sentencing hearing and the judge as he awaits his sentence after being convicted of murder in the death of Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. June 25, 2021 in a still image from video.

Pool via Reuters

Prosecutors have asked the judge to sentence Chauvin to 30 years in prison.

That is a decade less than the maximum possible sentence he faces on the charge of second-degree murder, the most serious of the three counts on which he was convicted by a jury on April 20 after trial.

Jurors also convicted Chauvin of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Chauvin’s lawyer is asking the judge to sentence the 45-year-old white ex-police officer to probation, with time served in jail since last year.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

The presumptive sentence for Chauvin under Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines is 12½ years.

Chauvin’s mother, Carolyn Pawlenty, said “It’s been difficult for me to hear and read what the media, public and prosecution team believe Derek to be an aggressive, heartless and uncaring person. I can tell you that is far from the truth.”

“My son’s identity has also been reduced to that as a racist. I want this court to know that none of these things are true, and that my son is a good man,” Pawlenty said.

The shocking video of Floyd’s death, which was widely disseminated by news media and on social media, led to a wave of large protests across the nation against police brutality and systemic racism.

The three other now-ex cops involved in Floyd’s arrest, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Keung and Thomas Lane, were originally due to stand trial in August on charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. That trial is now scheduled for next March.

In this image taken from video, Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, becomes emotional during victim impact statements as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides over sentencing, Friday, June 25, 2021, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted in the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd.

Court TV via AP | Pool

Cahill postponed that trial in light of a federal criminal indictment issued in May against the three officers and Chauvin for violating Floyd’s civil rights. The judge said he wanted the federal case to be handled first and also wanted to put some time between Chauvin’s state trial and that of the three other cops.

On Friday, in his order denying a request for a new trial for Chauvin, Cahill wrote that Chauvin’s lawyer Eric Nelson had failed to show that the judge committed errors that deprived Chauvin of a fair trial or that prosecutors engaged in misconduct.

Cahill also rejected a request by the defense for a hearing on possible misconduct by jurors, saying Chauvin’s lawyer failed to establish that a juror gave false testimony during jury selection.

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.

Categories
Politics

Biden to host George Floyd household at White Home

Biden to host George Floyd family at White House

Rodney Floyd and Philonise Floyd, brothers of George Floyd, and Brandon Williams, nephew of George Floyd, check in at a security entrance at the Hennepin County Government Center on April 9, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Brandon Bell | Getty Images News | Getty Images

President Joe Biden will host George Floyd’s family at the White House on Tuesday, an administration official has confirmed to CNBC.

The visit marks the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death, which triggered international protests against police brutality and racism in the criminal justice system.

Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes.

Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in April. His sentencing date is set for June.

The Floyd family’s visit to the White House comes as lawmakers attempt to create bipartisan legislation on police reform that could pass through both chambers of Congress.

The House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in March. The police reform bill seeks to ban chokeholds, carotid holds and no-knock warrants as well as end qualified immunity.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

However, lawmakers have struggled to find a compromise that can win enough support in the evenly divided Senate.

Congress is set to miss the president’s deadline to pass the legislation by the anniversary of Floyd’s death. At least 10 Senate Republicans are needed for the bill’s passage due to the chamber’s filibuster rule.

“It would be a contribution to rebuilding trust in communities,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday with respect to the bill’s potential passage. “Obviously, there’s more that needs to be done beyond that; that’s not the only step — far from it.”

A point of contention in the negotiations has been on qualified immunity, which makes it difficult to sue individual officers.

Ten House Democrats are pushing congressional leaders not to scrap the provision seeking to end qualified immunity. But some GOP senators are concerned that ending it would make officers and departments vulnerable to a rash of lawsuits.

Categories
Politics

What Would George Washington Look Like In the present day? A Pandemic Creation Attracts Consideration.

What Would George Washington Look Like Today? A Pandemic Creation Draws Attention.

What would George Washington look like if he were a modern politician? This question came to George Aquilla Hardy, a musician, 14 months after the pandemic. There he was stuck in his nursery in Dorset, England at the age of 23 instead of playing music festivals.

With nowhere to be and tired of “looking at the same four walls,” said Mr. Hardy, he decided to use Photoshop to answer his question. This is the result he posted on Reddit on May 2nd:

Since then, he – and others – have posted and republished it thousands of times on virtually every social media platform. A lot of the comments are silly. But Mr. Hardy’s creation – which he mocked in about three hours – also piqued real interest in the question he started with: What would the first President of the United States look like if he lived in the era of online suit ordering would? and Instagram campaign ads?

It’s unlikely that a man so proud of what he wore would have chosen to be seen in such an inconspicuous suit, said Alexis Coe, a political historian and author of “You Never Forget Your First: A biography of George of Washington. ”

“He was pretty fancy,” she said. “I don’t think it would look as chic as Mitt Romney, but you could tell it was well tailored. If he couldn’t wear Prada, he’d probably have it made to measure. “

Dean Malissa, described as the “greatest George Washington impersonator in the world,” agreed that the first president was “a bit of a fashion sign.” He also tended to dress more formally than his colleagues. “When men of his day took off their coats when it was scorching hot, he kept his on,” said Mr. Malissa, a longtime Washington performer at Mount Vernon.

Mr. Hardy doesn’t know who designed the coat his George Washington wears, only that it was worn by Representative Roger Williams of Texas. He chose Mr. Williams as the base image for his Photoshop creation after searching for “US Politicians” online and scrolling a bit, he said. He then combined that image with photos of Glenn Close and Michael Douglas because an article about celebrities who look like historical figures convincingly convinced him they had a bit of Washington in them.

Ms. Coe, the political historian, said she hadn’t seen any of the 6-foot-2-inch Washington’s that are known to wear like an athlete on those narrow shoulders. Nor can she imagine a man who put so much effort into photographing Mr. Hardy’s creation. (No, George Washington did not wear a wig, contrary to what many believe.)

What exactly, she said, assuming time travel hasn’t somehow fixed this for him, is the tight-lipped smile. The founding father had terrible teeth. He wore walrus and hippopotamus ivory dentures, as well as slave teeth obtained from dentists who specialize in such things, she said. But even with the dentures he was conscious of opening his mouth.

As it turns out, Mr. Hardy wasn’t the only person who caused pandemic malaise to create a modern portrayal of the man who presided over the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Magdalene Visaggio, a comic book writer, posted this in January:

“I always had a hard time imagining George Washington as a person walking around saying things,” she explained, explaining why she’d done it using a cell phone face-swapping tool and a photo of President Biden.

Her primary objection to Mr. Hardy’s image was that Washington was only 67 when he died, but “he looks super old” in the Reddit portrait.

She also noted that while it is difficult to take photos of people who died before photography, it is difficult to find what is right. She recently began using the teachings of her own modern Washington to create a photograph of Julius Caesar.

Categories
Politics

Congress to carry police reform laws discuss as George Floyd Act stalls

Congress to hold police reform legislation talk as George Floyd Act stalls

Representative Karen Bass, a California Democrat and Chair of the Democratic Black Caucus, speaks during an event with members of the Democratic Caucus on the steps of the Eastern Front of the U.S. Capitol prior to a vote on the George Floyd Justice in the Policing Act of 2020 in Washington, DC, on Thursday June 25, 2020.

Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Legislators from both parties took part in police reform talks Thursday as Congress attempted to draft a bill that can get through a tightly-knit Capitol.

Eight senators and officials discussed changes in policing, a congressional assistant confirmed to CNBC. Negotiations continued for weeks, with Sens. Tim Scott, RS.C., Cory Booker, DN.J., and Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., Along with members of the non-partisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, another Congress, involved adjutant who is familiar with the matter said.

Bass is the lead author of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which the Democratic House passed for the second time last year and in March. The Republicans reject the bill, which has stalled in a Senate split between the party between 50 and 50.

Scott led a Republican proposal that the Democrats blocked in the Senate last year, at the time it was controlled by the GOP. Since bills require 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, the legislation needs to have at least some support from both parties in the chamber.

CNBC policy

Read more about CNBC’s political coverage:

It’s unclear what could win support from Democrats and Republicans, who have different views on how far the federal government should go to root out violence against black Americans and abuse of police power. When asked Thursday when the House can vote on a police bill, spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Said, “We will bring it to the ground when we are ready.”

“And we’ll be ready when we have a good, strong bipartisan bill,” she told reporters. “And that’s up to the Senate and then we’ll have it in the house. Because it’ll be a different bill.”

Scott, Booker and Bass were due to join the talks Thursday afternoon, NBC News reported. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Lindsey Graham, RS.C., and Representatives Josh Gottheimer, DN.J., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., And Pete Stauber, R-Minn., Were also set to attend , according to NBC.

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, George Floyd’s brother Philonise, and other family members of victims of police violence met separately with Scott and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y.

George Floyd, a black man, died in May after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for about nine minutes. Chauvin was convicted of second degree murder, third degree murder, and second degree manslaughter earlier this month.

Floyd’s death, along with the police shots of Breonna Taylor, a black woman in Louisville, Kentucky, last year sparked the biggest racial justice and police reform outcry in the United States in decades. During his first joint address to Congress on Wednesday night, President Joe Biden urged lawmakers to pass a police bill by the first anniversary of Floyd’s death next month.

“The country supports this reform and Congress should act,” said the president. He supported the legislation passed by the House.

The Democrat-approved bill aims to ban chokeholds, carotid holds, and no-knock warrants at the federal level, and tie state and local police funding to those departments that preclude the practices. The aim is to weaken the so-called qualified immunity, which protects civil servants from many civil lawsuits, and to make it easier for the police to prosecute.

Scott’s plan last year included limited bans on chokeholds and no-knock warrants. His then party resisted efforts to change the rules on qualified immunity. Democrats called his bill insufficient.

In the past few weeks, the senator has reportedly reached a compromise that would make departments, not individual officials, the subject of civil lawsuits.

Neither the Democratic nor the Republican proposals would cut police funding. Activists and many progressive lawmakers have been calling for some money to be diverted from law enforcement to social services since Floyd’s death.

Many large US cities have either reformed police practices or cut police resources over the past year.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

Categories
Business

‘Sport of Thrones’ Broadway present to be penned by George R.R. Martin

'Game of Thrones' Broadway show to be penned by George R.R. Martin

Robert Aramayo portrays a young Ned Stark in “Game of Thrones”.

Source: HBO

George RR Martin gives Broadway his talents.

The author of the megahit book series “A Song of Ice and Fire”, which formed the basis for HBO’s Emmy Award-winning series “Game of Thrones”, is now writing a script for a play that is based on the fantasy world based out of Westeros.

The Hollywood Reporter was the first to cover the news on Tuesday, revealing that the play will revolve around the Great Tourney in Harrenhal and will debut in New York City, London and Australia in 2023. Martin will work with playwright Duncan MacMillan (“1984”). and famous theater director Dominic Cooke on the project.

The Harrenhal Grand Tournament is an important historic event in the world of Westeros. 16 years prior to the events of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” the contest was held for 10 days and included tournaments of jousting, archery, and combat. It is also the place where Prince Rhaegar Targaryen sparked a nationwide scandal for dedicating his victory to Lyanna Stark in place of his wife. That decision resulted in Roberts Rebellion and the Targaryens being overthrown.

While no characters have been officially announced and the play has not been titled, it is expected that young iterations of Ned Stark, Lyanna Stark, Jaime Lannister, Robert Baratheon, Rhaegar Targaryen, Oberyn Martell and Barristan Selmy will likely be in the cast.

“The seeds of war are often planted in peacetime,” Martin said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Few in Westeros knew the carnage would come when the highborn and the little people gathered in Harrenhal to see the best knights in the realm compete in a grand tournament during the year of false spring. It’s a tournament that often happens during HBO’s Game of Thrones and in my novels, A Song of Ice & Fire … and now we can finally tell the full story … on stage. “

Martin’s representatives were not immediately available to comment.

The news comes just days after Martin signed a five-year deal with HBO to create content for the network. WarnerMedia, owned by HBO, has already started work on a Game of Thrones prequel called House of the Dragon, which is expected to premiere in 2022. The company has at least five other series in various stages of development for HBO and streaming service HBO max.

Additionally, New York City’s Broadway, which has been closed for more than a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, could reopen in September. Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a vaccine rollout in the Theater District that would vaccinate members of the industry in hopes of getting the shows back on in the fall.

Categories
Business

Invitae CEO Sean George on way forward for genetic testing, well being care

Invitae CEO Sean George on future of genetic testing, health care

Invitae’s shares rose over 25% this week, a sharp rise after Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood called the company one of their most underrated stocks in a CNBC interview on Monday.

Invitae was the eleventh largest holding in Wood’s flagship fund, the Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK), as of Thursday, giving it a heavier weight than better-known companies like DocuSign and PayPal.

The closely watched investor and company are known for their strategy of investing in “disruptive innovation” and a strong performance over the past year has resulted in billions of new dollars pouring into Ark’s family of funds.

In a CNBC interview on Friday, Invitae’s CEO outlined the genetic testing company’s mission and long-term goals, and provided some insight into why Wood is optimistic about its prospects.

“Genetic information is fundamental to improving people’s health outcomes and reducing costs. We tirelessly pursue the idea of ​​integrating this information into general medical care and daily use,” said Sean George on Closing Bell. He co-founded the San Francisco-based company in 2010, which went public in 2015.

Invitae achieved total annual sales of USD 279.6 million in 2020, compared to USD 216.8 million in the previous year. Net loss increased $ 608.9 million last year compared to $ 242 million in 2019.

While genetic information can be an effective tool in combating a variety of diseases, George says high costs have historically limited availability, and therefore potential impact. However, recent innovations in gene sequencing would have laid the foundation for better accessibility. He compared it to semiconductor improvements that helped boost the computer and networking industries in the 1970s and early 1980s.

“That has … enabled application providers like us to change what was considered a rationed good in healthcare in the past – genetic information, a kind of niche, test by test, sample by sample building of the laboratory industry – to something that looks a lot more like an information industry, “said George.

George, who holds a Ph.D. In molecular genetics, Invitae hopes to take its tests to the point that patients and doctors can proactively use them in large numbers. That way, even if the cost of each test is cheaper, Invitae can generate enough resources to be successful as a company, he said.

“The enormous importance and central importance of genetic information in health care will – I am sure in the next five to ten years – be in the foreground in order to receive the right therapy earlier for people who can benefit from it.” , identify people at risk and put in place surveillance and prevention modalities to safely delay, if not prevent, disease outbreaks and, in general, provide a basic understanding of the risk that exists in families, “he added.

Ark Invest has positions in a number of companies working on medical innovation beyond Invitae. Wood’s company has dedicated an ETF, the Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG). As of Thursday, these will include Teladoc, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics. Invitae is also represented in this fund, currently the 16th largest participation.

Invitae’s shares closed Friday’s session down 0.5% at $ 42.70. Despite the stock’s big gains this week, it remains below its all-time high of $ 61.59 on December 14. It has grown by almost 260% in the past 12 months.

Categories
World News

George P. Shultz, High Cupboard Official Below Nixon and Reagan, Dies at 100

George P. Shultz, Top Cabinet Official Under Nixon and Reagan, Dies at 100

After two years in the Budget Office, Mr. Shultz became Minister of Finance in June 1972. Last year, Nixon made the dollar unilaterally convertible into gold. This forced the rest of the world to move from a system of fixed exchange rates for national currencies to a flexible system. Exchange rates were no longer the way governments did monetary policy. Mr. Shultz traveled the world making sure the dollar remained all powerful.

He resigned from the Nixon administration in May 1974, three months before the president fell from grace, as the last original cabinet member of Nixon. Before his death, he was the oldest living member in Nixon’s inner circle and, along with former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, one of the last.

After 25 years in science and government, Mr. Shultz joined the Bechtel Corporation (now the Bechtel Group), one of the world’s largest engineering and construction companies, which served as president from 1974 to 1982. He received nearly $ 600,000 a year (about $ 2 million in today’s money) to run his global and domestic operations, including the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the Washington Washington Subway, Riyadh King Khalid International Airport , Saudi Arabia, and much of the infrastructure of the Saudi government.

During his reign in Washington, Mr. Shultz tried to keep a secret out of print: that he had a tiger tattoo on his rump, an inheritance from his student days at Princeton University. When asked about the tattoo, Phyllis Oakley, a State Department spokeswoman, replied, “I am unable to comment.”

George Pratt Shultz was born on December 13, 1920 in Manhattan, the only child of former Margaret Lennox Pratt and Birl E. Shultz, an official of the New York Stock Exchange. He grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, and came to Princeton in the fall of 1938.

He was in his final year in economics in 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th. After graduating, he joined the Marines and witnessed combat in the Pacific. He joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after receiving a PhD in industrial relations there in 1949. His area of ​​expertise was labor economics.

In 1955, he took a year off to serve as an officer in the Council of Economic Advisers to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, chaired by Arthur F. Burns, who later headed the Federal Reserve Board.

Categories
Politics

George Blake, British Spy Who Betrayed the West, Dies at 98

George Blake, British Spy Who Betrayed the West, Dies at 98

He was born as George Behar on November 11, 1922 in Rotterdam. His mother was a Dutch Protestant; His father Albert was a Turkish born Spanish Jew who fought against the Ottoman Empire in World War I. He was wounded, charged with gallantry, and received British citizenship. He settled in the Netherlands as a businessman.

When his father died in 1934, George went to Cairo to live with relatives, including a cousin, Henri Curiel, who became an Egyptian communist leader. He was visiting the Netherlands when World War II broke out in 1939. His mother and two sisters fled to England, but he joined the Dutch resistance, spreading news and collecting information for two years.

He retired to Britain, changed his last name to Blake, joined the Royal Navy, trained in submarines and was hired as a freshman by British intelligence during the war. He spoke fluent Dutch, German, Arabic and Hebrew as well as English, translated German documents and interrogated German prisoners.

After the war, he studied Russian at Cambridge – by then Philby, Burgess and Maclean had completed their espionage trade – and his teacher, who came from pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg, inspired him to love the Russian language and culture, a step in his conversion . He was then sent to Germany to build a network of British spies in Berlin and Hamburg. With the envelope of a naval attaché he recruited numerous agents.

Shortly before the start of the Korean War in 1950, Mr Blake was sent to Seoul, South Korea’s capital, under diplomatic cover to organize another espionage network. But he was captured by invading North Korean forces. He was detained in North Korea for three years and subjected to communist indoctrination.

He later denied that this affected his conversion, insisting that the American bombing of North Korea was the main factor. “The relentless bombing of small Korean villages by giant American flying forts,” killing “women, children and the elderly” appalled him, he said. “I was ashamed,” he added. “I felt obliged to the wrong side.”

Mr Blake said he met with a KGB officer in North Korea, agreed to become a Soviet agent, and immediately started disclosing secrets. He did not want payment and, to avoid suspicion, insisted on not being granted privileges and being released with other captured diplomats. When the Korean War ended in 1953, he was returned to Great Britain and received as a national hero.