Protesters defied curfews across the US as leaders scrambled to stem anger over police racism.
Standoffs between police and demonstrators stretched into the night in cities from New York City to Los Angeles over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African American, whose killing has brought once-in-a-generation protests to the nation for the past week.
However, there were fewer reports of the looting and violence that had soured street demonstrations in previous nights.
Photo: AP
Tens of thousands earlier on Tuesday gathered in Houston to pay a hometown tribute to Floyd, who grew up in the Texas city and is to be buried there next week.
“Today is ... about George Floyd’s family — we want them to know that George did not die in vain,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told an estimated 60,000 people.
A tearful Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s six-year-old daughter, Gianna, told a news conference that she wanted justice.
“I’m here for my baby and I’m here for George, because I want justice for him. I want justice for him because he was good. No matter what anybody thinks,” she said.
In New York City, which on Tuesday prolonged its first curfew since World War II for the full week, reporters saw hundreds refusing to go home after the 8pm cutoff, instead chanting slogans and peacefully walking the streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Hours after the curfew, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that it was a “very calm situation,” a day after several Manhattan luxury stores were looted.
“So far, the curfew is certainly helping, based on everything I’ve seen in Brooklyn and Manhattan over the last three hours,” he wrote on Twitter.
Minnesota took one of the first concrete actions to address the grievances behind the uprising, which began after Floyd’s death on Monday last week in the state’s largest city, Minneapolis.
The state launched a civil rights investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department, looking at possible “systemic discriminatory practices” going back 10 years, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz wrote on Twitter.
In Los Angeles, one of dozens of cities hit by unrest, police officers and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti dropped to their knees in a symbolic act of solidarity as they met marchers led by African American Christian groups.
In Washington, thousands returned to the streets for a peaceful “Black Lives Matter” march.
Hours after the 7pm curfew protesters could be heard chanting, as US National Guard troops stood on the streets near the White House and helicopters hovered above.
Broadcast footage showed police firing tear gas shortly after midnight, but the situation appeared to be calm overall.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
RSS