PHOTOS: Protests spotlight racial scars around the world

Protesters march in Illinois town that once expelled black residents

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Black Lives Matter is projected onto the Houses of Parliament, in London, Friday, June 5, 2020, as part of the ongoing worldwide demonstrations following the death of George Floyd. Just like the coronavirus, racism has no borders. Across the world, disgruntled people, representing a broad spectrum of society, marched this weekend as one to protest against racial injustices at home and abroad. (Victoria Jones/PA via AP)



Protestors gather at Town Hall in Sydney, Saturday, June 6, 2020, to support the cause of U.S. protests over the death of George Floyd. Just like the coronavirus, racism has no borders. Across the world, disgruntled people, representing a broad spectrum of society, marched this weekend as one to protest against racial injustices at home and abroad. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

People gather to protest during a solidarity rally for the death of George Floyd Saturday, June 6, 2020, in Tokyo. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. Just like the coronavirus, racism has no borders. Across the world, disgruntled people, representing a broad spectrum of society, marched this weekend as one to protest against racial injustices at home and abroad. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)


A mural by street artist Jorit, honoring George Floyd, who died May 25 after being restrained by police in Minneapolis, USA, depicts from left, Lenin, Martin Luther King, George Floyd, Malcom X and Angela Davis, atop the roof of a building in Naples, southern Italy, Saturday, June 6, 2020. (Alessandro Pone/LaPresse via AP)

People gather during a demonstration in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, June 6, 2020 calling for justice for George Floyd, who died May 25 after being restrained by police in Minneapolis. (Boris Roessler/dpa via AP)


A young woman wears a facemark as people gather at the Alexander Platz in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, June 6, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA, that has led to protests in many countries and across the US. Just like the coronavirus, racism has no borders. Across the world, disgruntled people, representing a broad spectrum of society, marched this weekend as one to protest against racial injustices at home and abroad. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)


A demonstrator clenches his fist during a Black Lives Matter rally in Parliament Square in London, Saturday, June 6, 2020, as people protest against the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)


People pose next to an artwork by French artist Dugudus depicting U.S. President Donald Trump as a police officer pressing his knee into the neck of George Floyd while holding a bible, in Paris, France, Saturday, June 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)


A woman gestures after climbing on the Abraham Lincoln statue in Parliament Square during a Black Lives Matter rally in Parliament Square in London, Saturday, June 6, 2020, as people protest against the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA. Floyd, a black man, died after he was restrained by Minneapolis police while in custody on May 25 in Minnesota. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)


A man raises his fist as people gather in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, June 6, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA, that has led to protests in many countries and across the US. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)



Hundreds of demonstrators gather on the Champs de Mars as the Eiffel Tower is seen in the background during a demonstration in Paris, France, Saturday, June 6, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, U.S.A., after being restrained by police officers on May 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Anti-racism demonstrators take a knee near Toronto Police Headquarters during a march on Saturday, June 6, 2020, protesting the death of George Floyd, who died May 25 after being restrained by police in Minneapolis. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Thousands of people demonstrate in Cologne, Germany, Saturday June 6, 2020, to protest against racism and the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA. Just like the coronavirus, racism has no borders. Across the world, disgruntled people, representing a broad spectrum of society, marched this weekend as one to protest against racial injustices at home and abroad. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)


People gather in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, June 7, 2020, during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Protesters throw a statue of slave trader Edward Colston into Bristol harbour, during a Black Lives Matter protest rally, in Bristol, England, Sunday June 7, 2020, in response to the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA, that has led to protests in many countries and across the US. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP)

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Argentine socialist leader Celeste Fierro leads a march in central Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Tuesday, June 2, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, that has led to protests in many countries and across the US. A few hundred people defied the mandatory lockdown imposed since March 20th to march in solidarity with U.S. protests over the killing of Floyd. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

People protest against crimes committed by the police against black people in the favelas, outside the Rio de Janeiro's state government, Brazil, Sunday, May 31, 2020. The protest, called "Black lives matter," was interrupted when police used tear gas to disperse people. "I can't breathe", said some of the demonstrators, alluding to the George Floyd's death. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

People protest under the slogan Black Lives Matter rally outside the US Embassy in Dublin, Ireland, Monday June 1, 2020, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA. The recent killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA, has led to protests in many countries, and across the U.S. 
(Niall Carson/PA via AP)

Activists of Socialist Unity Centre of India shout slogans in Ahmedabad, India, Tuesday, June 2, 2020 in solidarity with protests against the recent killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, U.S.A., after being restrained by police officers on Memorial Day. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Protesters hold signs during a demonstration against the Israeli police after border police officers shot and killed Iyad al-Halak, an unarmed autistic Palestinian man, in the mixed Arab Jewish city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, Israel, after saying they suspected he was carrying a weapon, Sunday, May 31, 2020. Protesters gathered to protest the killing of al-Halak in Jerusalem and the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Protesters take part in a demonstration on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, in Hyde Park, London, over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. Protests have taken place across America and internationally, after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd's neck while the handcuffed black man called out that he couldn't breathe. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been fired and charged with murder. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Turkish police officers, in riot gear, and wearing face masks for protections against the spread of the coronavirus, scuffle with protesters during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, against the recent killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Omer Kuscu)

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Exclusive: Oil major BP to cut 15% of workforce
Shadia Nasralla, Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) - BP will cut about 15% of its workforce in response to the coronavirus crisis and as part of Chief Executive Bernard Looney’s plan to shift the oil and gas major to renewable energy, it said on Monday.

Looney told employees in a global online call that the London-based company will cut 10,000 jobs from the current 70,100.

“We will now begin a process that will see close to 10,000 people leaving BP – most by the end of this year,” Looney said in a statement.

Reuters had earlier reported the planned job cuts, citing three company sources.

THE PERVERSITY OF THE MARKET
BP shares were up 3.3% by 1230 GMT, against a 2.2% gain for the broader European energy sector.

The affected roles will be mostly senior office-based positions and not front-line operational staff, the company said.

About a fifth of the job cuts will take place in Britain, where BP employs 15,000 people, a company spokesman said.

Like all the world’s top energy companies, BP has cut its 2020 spending plans after the coronavirus pandemic brought an unprecedented drop in demand for oil. BP has flagged a 25% cut to $12 billion this year and said it would find $2.5 billion in cost savings by the end of 2021 through the digitalisation and integration of its businesses.

On Monday, however, Looney said the company is likely to need to cut costs even further.

BP is giving no pay rises to senior employees until March 2021 and said it is unlikely to pay any cash bonuses this year.

ENERGY TRANSITION

The job reductions are also part of Looney’s drive to make the 111-year-old oil company more nimble as it prepares for the shift to low-carbon energy, the sources said.

“It was always part of the plan to make BP a leaner, faster-moving and lower-carbon company,” Looney said.

The spokesman said that the coronavirus crisis “amplified and accelerated” BP’s transition plans.

Looney last month announced a large round of senior management appointments, halving the size of BP’s leaderhip team under his plan to reshape the company’s structure.

Shortly after taking office in February, the 49-year-old CEO said that he was creating 11 divisions to “reinvent” BP and dismantle the traditional structure dominated by its oil and gas production business and its refining, marketing and trading division.

Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil producer, last month said that it will cut between 10% and 15% of its global workforce as part of an ongoing restructuring.

Royal Dutch Shell, meanwhile, has initiated a voluntary redundancy programme.

(GRAPHIC - Oil majors' 2020 spending: here)



Reporting by Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Louise Heaven

Washington Mayor Bowser, 'unbought and unbossed,' challenges Trump

SHE IS A PIT BULL HE IS A POODLE DOODLE

Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has drawn a battle line right up to the White House.


Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser is surrounded by clergy as she speaks during a vigil as protests continue on the streets near the White House over the death in police custody of George Floyd, in Washington, U.S., June 3, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
WOW I ALWAYS KNEW IT, DMT IS GOD! LOOK WHERE THE UNARMORED COPPER IS WAY IN THE BACK, 

Bowser, one of seven black female mayors of America’s 100 largest cities, on Friday declared a small but symbolic patch of the U.S. capital - a section of 16th Street bounded by a church on one side and Lafayette Square opposite the White House on the other - “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”

The Democratic mayor then had the District Of Columbia’s departments of transportation and public works paint giant yellow letters spelling “Black Lives Matter” followed by the city’s flag on the street spanning two city blocks leading to plaza. To finish, Bowser posted on Twitter a video taken from a nearby roof showing the White House overlooking the results.

“There are people who are craving to be heard and to be seen,” Bowser told a news conference, “and to have their humanity recognized, and we had the opportunity to send that message loud and clear on a very important street in our city.”

Glynda Carr, president and chief executive of Higher Heights for America PAC, a political action committee dedicated to helping more liberal black women win elective office, said Bowser “showed the world that she leads, unbought and unbossed.” Carr’s organization has never raised money for Bowser.

For his part, the Republican president denounced Bowser as “incompetent.”

Washington’s status as the seat of the federal government has not always been a comfortable fit for its residents or elected leaders. The city’s population of about 700,000 people - 46.4% black and 45.6% white, according to the Census Bureau - is politically liberal and heavily Democratic.

The ongoing protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last month, have heightened that tension and thrust Bowser - mayor since 2015 - into the national spotlight.

Bowser has supported peaceful demonstrators while denouncing violence and looting. Trump has advocated a militarized response to civil unrest and even summoned a contingent of active-duty troops to Washington, though they were never deployed on the streets. Bowser said she did not want any out-of-state military forces in Washington.

When Trump threatened protesters who come near the White House with “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons,” Bowser shot back with a comment that summed up their relationship.

“There are no vicious dogs & ominous weapons. There is just a scared man. Afraid/alone. ... I call upon our city and our nation to exercise great restraint even while this President continues to try to divide us,” Bowser wrote on Twitter.

After baton-swinging federal police fired smoke canisters, flashbang grenades and rubber bullets to drive away peaceful protesters near the White House so Trump on Monday could pose holding a Bible in front of a church near what is now “Black Lives Matter Plaza,” Bowser called the scene “shameful.”

A single mother to a toddler, Bowser is only the second woman to serve as Washington’s mayor and the first to win a second term in office.

Like other elected officials in Washington over the years, Bowser has advocated statehood for the District of Columbia, which has no voting members of Congress even as states with smaller populations have two senators and one member of the House of Representatives. Washington’s mayor was a federal appointee until the 1970s when the city was granted “home rule” and began electing its mayors.


Bowser also clashed with Trump during the federal government shutdown in 2019, over relief funds offered to the city during the coronavirus pandemic and over his plans to hold a grand military parade in the capital.

Trump castigated her on Twitter on Friday.

“The incompetent Mayor of Washington, D.C., @MayorBowser, who’s budget is totally out of control and is constantly coming back to us for ‘handouts,’ is now fighting with the National Guard,” Trump wrote.

Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons and Will Dunham

Tens of thousands join Black Lives Matter protest in London

Michael Holden, Guy Faulconbridge

LONDON (Reuters) - Tens of thousands took to the streets of London on Sunday, rallying for a second day running to condemn police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, with some wearing face masks bearing the slogan “Racism is a virus”.


On Saturday, thousands gathered in central London in a demonstration that was peaceful but ended with small numbers of people clashing with mounted police near Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street residence.



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London police chief Cressida Dick said 27 officers had been injured in “shocking and completely unacceptable” assaults during anti-racism protests over the past week, including 14 on Saturday. Two were seriously hurt and an officer who fell from her horse underwent surgery.





Authorities had urged protesters not to gather in London again on Sunday, warning they risked spreading COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. But demonstrators still packed the road outside the U.S. Embassy on the south bank of the River Thames.

Protesters later marched across the river towards parliament and Downing Street, pausing on the bridge to go down on one knee and chant: “Justice, now!” In Parliament Square, many attached their placards to the railings outside parliament.

“Now is the time: we need to do something. We have become so complacent in the UK but the racism that killed George Floyd was born in the UK in terms of colonialism and white supremacy,” said 28-year-old Hermione Lake, who was holding a sign reading: “white silence = violence”.

“We need to completely gut the system ... We need massive reform, massive change.”

BRITISH COPPERS, UNARMED, BUT FOR BATONS, NO KEVLAR VESTS, HELMETS OR SHIELDS, STILL CRACK HEADS AND INJURE PROTESTERS WITH THOSE BATONS. AND UNLIKE US COPS THERE IS A LADY COPPER, IN THE LOWER LEFT CORNER WITH THE PORK PIE HAT, SHE IS ALLOWED TO HIT WOMEN PROTESTERS AS WELL AS MEN. AND FINALLY NOTICE ALSO IN THE LOWER LEFT CORNER

A PLASTIC WATER BOTTLE HITTING A COPPER. SEE NO DAMAGE JUST SURPRISE AND A WET SPOT. IT AIN'T A BRICK OR ROCKS SO GIMME A BREAK ABOUT BEING UNDER ASSAULT, IT'S JUST AN EXCUSE TO BEAT ON PEOPLE.

RIGHT CLICK TO ENLARGE

Police clash with demonstrators in Whitehall during a Black Lives Matter protest in London, following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, London, Britain, June 7, 2020. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

STATUE TORN DOWN

The May 25 death of Floyd, an African American, has sparked demonstrations around the world over police treatment of ethnic minorities. A white police officer detaining him knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

In Bristol in western England, demonstrators tore down a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston.

Sunday’s London protest was largely peaceful. People waved placards and chanted: “George Floyd!” and “The UK is not innocent!”

As the numbers dwindled, some protesters clashed with police outside the Foreign Office after one man was arrested. They threw bottles and flares and chanted: “Black lives matter!” as they tried to push through a line of riot police.

One police officer with a bloodied head was helped by colleagues.

Johnson said that while people had the right to protest peacefully, the demonstrations had been “subverted by thuggery”.

THUGGERY....THUG OF COURSE IS A RACIST TERM
COMING FROM THE BRITISH TERM FOR MYTHICAL
INDIAN KALI WORSHIPERS AND ASSASSINS THE THUGEE
 THUG AMERICAN SLANG FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS
WHO ARE INTO GANGSTA CULTURE OR GENERAL MAYHEM


“They are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve. Those responsible will be held to account,” he said on Twitter.

Police said 29 people had been arrested during Saturday’s protest in London for offences including violent disorder. A further 12 people were arrested on Sunday in central London, the majority of them for public order offences.

Pauline Nandoo, 60, said she had been protesting racism since the 1970s and the images of violence at the end of Saturday’s protest had not deterred her.

“There’s children of all ages and older adults here,” said Nandoo, who was with her brother and 13-year-old daughter. “They are going to experience what we have experienced, and we have to try to make that not happen.”

Reporting by Michael Holden and Guy Faulconbridge; additional reporting by Bhargav Acharya; Writing by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Peter Cooney and Stephen Coates

COMMERCIAL OVER THE COUNTER FIREWORKS USED

BY PROTESTERS 

Coronavirus: Brazil's domestic workers cut adrift in pandemic

By Katy Watson BBC South America correspondent 7 June 2020

Rosangela (pictured) is one of millions of workers suffering across Brazil
Days after Brazil registered its first coronavirus death in March, the country began to close down. Businesses and restaurants were shuttered and people were told to stay home.

That's when Rosangela Jesus dos Santos's life changed unimaginably. The 47-year-old diarista, or daily housekeeper, was fired by most of her employers.

"They said it was because of the virus," she says. "I went to a different house every day of the week and some clients are elderly, I understand."

Rosangela is scared. She hopes she can return when the outbreak is over but for now, she's been left working just one day a week. Her remaining employer gives her a mask but at no point have they told her to stay home for her safety. She's wary of the virus but she knows if she doesn't work, she won't get paid.

"I need to work - my family is big, that's the truth," says Rosangela. "I would like to be working and I'm used to it, going out early and coming home late."
Little option

Home for Rosangela is Paraisopolis, Sao Paulo's second-largest favela. Her small house is tucked away, a few hundred metres down a narrow and winding alley - so common in Brazil's poor neighbourhoods.

REUTERS

The density of the population of her local area makes it difficult to socially distance

On the way, you pass dozens of similar buildings, windows wide open on to the alleyway, families inside yet living very publicly. There is little option in these crowded neighbourhoods.

Rosangela lives with her daughter Carolina, her two-year-old grandson Erick and their little dog Samira in a two-roomed house.

Stickers inside the neighbourhood (left) urge residents to stay at home

The main room serves as a kitchen, a living space and a bedroom. And from the kitchen window, you can see down across the favela - a sea of small houses built one on top of the other.

Rosangela has seven children, six of whom are unemployed. She also helps support her nine grandchildren but these days it's almost impossible.
An unequal response?

The International Labour Organization says Brazil has nearly seven million domestic workers: more than anywhere else in the world. Most of them are women - and the majority are black.

"The virus has been democratic in the fact that that it's affecting rich and poor but the actions, the attitudes and the lack of public policy have not been democratic," says community organiser Rejane Santos who lives in Paraisopolis.

"People were let go and told by their employers to come back after the crisis. But the majority of the women are the main breadwinners, they are single mothers, they pay rent. They don't have savings."

Adopt a Housekeeper'

Such is the problem with housekeepers who have been let go - and unpaid - that Rejane set up a crowdfunding campaign called Adopt a Housekeeper. More than a thousand women have come to her for help.

The campaign is raising money to provide domestic workers with a personal care kit, a food basket and 300 reais ($58; £46) each month to keep them going through the crisis.

GETTY IMAGES

Meal donation programmes are also running in other poor neighbourhoods (file photo)

Under Brazilian law, if a domestic worker spends more than two days a week with the same family, they must be registered. But many are not and those who work for several families, diaristas, remain unregistered legally. They are the most vulnerable in these times of crisis.
'Power struggle'

Queues outside banks have become a common sight - unregistered workers trying to take advantage of government handouts worth $115 a month - but millions are yet to receive the money.

For those lucky enough to have a contract, most have had theirs suspended.

"When this pandemic passes, what will happen?" asks Janaina Mariano de Sousa, the president of the Domestic Workers' Union of Sao Paulo.

She is concerned that with the country in recession, businesses that laid off workers temporarily will permanently shut their doors. Employees will get fired and it's the domestic workers who will suffer the most.
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'Why we underestimated impact of coronavirus'

She thinks the government could do more but insists that her members need to carry on working.

"It's become a power struggle," she says, referring to the stay-at-home measures implemented by governors and the view of President Jair Bolsonaro that Brazil should return to work.

"Everyone is talking about Bolsonaro but I wonder sometimes, is he really crazy?" she says. "It's become such a political fight - he wants to get the economy going again so it can flourish."
'A really surreal agreement'

While undoubtedly there are people who have had to let their domestic workers go for financial reasons - almost five million people lost their jobs between February and April - the crisis has brought into sharp focus cultural challenges too.

Middle and upper-class Brazilians rely heavily on their domestic staff - but coronavirus has shown not everyone values them.

Camila Rocha, an actress, is part of a movement called For The Lives of Our Mothers. It was created by the sons, daughters and grandchildren of domestic workers to ensure they could get paid throughout - and stay at home.

"There are lots of situations where employers refuse to pay," she says, "or they insist on a really surreal agreement, such as not working now but getting a salary but then having to work to make up for that time - so effectively working for free after."

Cristobal is now a depression, moving north toward Canada






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THERE ARE NO OUTSIDE AGITATORS

ONLY HOMEGROWN AGITATORS 

AND INSTIGATORS