President Trump on Monday evening made his first remarks on the police brutality protests that have been taking place across the United States, avoiding the underlying issues behind the demonstrations and instead threatening to increase the military presence in cities around the country.
Trump said that governors and mayors must establish an "overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled," or else he will "deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them." He stated that he "strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers, that we dominate the streets," which is something that is already being done in at least 15 states and Washington, D.C.
Trump also called himself the "president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters," before declaring that "the nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, antifa, and others." He accused these groups of committing "acts of domestic terror," and promised to "prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law" and mobilize "all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your Second Amendment rights."
The United States, Trump proclaimed, has "one beautiful law," and that is "the foundation of our prosperity, our freedom, and our very way of life." If there is "no safety, there is no future," he added, and Americans "must never give in to anger or hatred." Catherine Garcia
A new outbreak of the Ebola virus has hit the Democratic Republic of Congo, with five deaths reported in the northwestern Equateur province, UNICEF said Monday.
This is the 11th Ebola outbreak to hit the country, CNN reports, and one of the victims is a 15-year-old girl. There are four other reported cases, and those patients are in an isolation unit at a hospital in Mbandaka. The deaths occurred between May 18 and 30, UNICEF said, and were confirmed as being Ebola-related on Sunday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is still trying to end an outbreak that started in the eastern part of the country in 2018, which has resulted in 3,406 cases and 2,243 deaths, the World Health Organization said. Health officials said there have been no new cases in that outbreak over the last 21 days, which is the Ebola incubation period, and if there are no new cases after 42 days, they will be able to determine whether the outbreak is over.
Ebola is passed via bodily fluids, and the fatality rate can range from 25 percent to 90 percent, depending on the outbreak. This new outbreak comes as the country is also dealing with COVID-19, which has killed 72 people, and a measles epidemic, which has killed 6,779 people since last year. Catherine Garcia
An intelligence memo sent by the Department of Homeland Security to law enforcement officials around the country on May 29 warned that extremists groups may try to exploit protests in the wake of George Floyd's death, Politico reports.
The memo, citing the FBI, revealed that on May 27, two days after Floyd died in police custody, "a white supremacist extremist Telegram channel incited followers to engage in violence and start the 'boogaloo' — a term used by some violent extremists to refer to the start of a second Civil War — by shooting in a crowd." One of the messages reportedly encouraged potential shooters to "frame the crowd around you," the document said.
That wasn't the only warning found in the memo. It also said the FBI had information that "suspected anarchist extremists and militia extremists allegedly planned to storm and burn the Minnesota State Capitol." The definition of those groups was somewhat vague, with Politico noting the memo didn't specifically distinguish between left- or right-wing in this instance, despite the Trump administration's fixation on Antifa. Politico did suggest the description of the "anarchists extremists" seemed to hint at an association with the far left, while the "militia extremists" appeared to represent the far right. Read more at Politico. Tim O'Donnell
David McAtee, a black man and owner of a Louisville barbecue restaurant, was killed early Monday when law enforcement opened fire on a large crowd in a grocery store parking lot.
After George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor was shot by police in Louisville, nationwide protests against police brutality, particularly against black people, have erupted. Many cities have instituted curfews to break up protests at night, and law enforcement was apparently enforcing Louisville's when McAtee was killed just after midnight Monday morning, CBS News affiliate WLKY reports.
The Louisville Metro Police Department and the National Guard were reporting to a large crowd in a grocery store parking lot around 12:15 a.m. when someone fired a shot at law enforcement, Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad said shortly after the incident. Law enforcement "returned fire," and McAtee was shot and killed, Conrad said. His body remained in the parking lot for at least 12 hours as police investigated, and protesters showed up, WLKY reported.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) quickly called on body camera footage of the incident to be released — body cameras were made mandatory three days ago — but NBC News reports body cameras on those law enforcement officers were not active. Conrad was set to retire at the end of June, but Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said Conrad was fired Monday as McAtee's killing undergoes a local and state police investigation.
McAtee owned YaYa's BBQ, which is next to the grocery store where he was killed. His family says he was known to feed police for free. Read more about him at the Louisville Courier Journal. Kathryn Krawczyk
Researchers warn that more than 500 species of land animals — including the Sumatran rhino and the Española tortoise — are on the brink of extinction and will likely be lost within two decades, The Guardian reports. Land vertebrates with fewer than 1,000 individuals left were considered at risk of dying out in the near future in the new analysis published in the journal Proceedings of National Academy of Scientists.
The researchers also said because 84 percent of those species lived in the same regions their demise could create a domino effect. For example, per The Guardian, overhunting of sea otters led to the extinction of of the Steller's sea cow in the 1700s because otters were the main predator of kelp-eating sea urchings. When left unchecked, the sea urchins devastated the kelp forests upon which the sea cows grazed. "Extinctions breed extinctions," the researchers said.
Of course, a decline in biodiversity will have adverse effects for humans, as well. "When humanity exterminates other creatures, it is sawing off the limb on which it is sitting, destroying working parts of our own life-support system," said Stanford University's Paul Ehrlich, one of the researchers. "The conservation of endangered species should be elevated to a global emergency for governments and institutions, equal to the climate disruption to which it is linked."
University College London's Georgina Mace said she wasn't convinced that simply having fewer than 1,000 individuals was the best way to measure a species' extinction risk — a declining trend for the population is crucial, too — but, nevertheless, she believes the study "re-emphasizes some startling facts" and that "action is important for many reasons." Read more at The Guardian. Tim O'Donnell
Defense Secretary Mark Esper is adopting the language of war to address nationwide protests against police brutality.
President Trump held a call with U.S. governors on Monday after a weekend of protests following the death of George Floyd in police custody. Trump used alarmingly violent language during the call as he told governors to "dominate" protesters, and Esper repeated that tone as he instructed governors to call on the National Guard to "dominate the battlespace."
So far, 23 states have called in the National Guard to add to the police presence as protesters fill city streets. But "most of the guard has not been called up," Esper told the leaders, reminding them "you have deep resources in the guard." "The sooner you ... dominate the battlespace, the quicker this dissipates and we can get back to the right normal," Esper continued.
During the call, Trump told the leaders he would deploy more "federal assets" to help respond to violent protesters. He has since hinted that he may invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to combat protesters which would be the first time the act was used since the Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King trial. Kathryn Krawczyk