Protesters join class-action lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department alleging they were shot in the head or torso by projectiles

Charles Davis Jun 23, 2020

Protesters march past LAPD officers during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis Police custody, in downtown Los Angeles, California, June 6, 2020. - Demonstrations are being held across the US following the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, while being arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kyle Grillot/AFP

A class-action lawsuit accuses Los Angeles police of using excessive force against Black Lives Matter protesters.

An amended complaint filed this week details a number of cases where protesters say they were shot in the face or torso in violation of police training.

LAPD Capt. Gisselle Espinoza told the Los Angeles Times that the department was "fully committed to investigating every allegation of misconduct or excessive force related to the recent protests."

A lawsuit filed against the City of Los Angeles, its chief of police, and the department he leads alleges that peaceful protesters were shot in the head or torso with rubber bullets and other projectiles, causing lasting injury in defiance of the law. Thousands were also detained for hours in conditions conducive to the spread of COVID-19, according to the suit.

Noting that the vast majority of those arrested during recent protests were nonviolent, per the testimony of Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore, the lawsuit — filed on behalf of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and others alleging harm at the hands of law enforcement — accuses police of "unreasonable and excessive force" that deprived protesters of their right to free speech.

The class-action lawsuit, filed by a number of local civil rights attorneys earlier this month and amended with new details this week, describes a number of cases where nonviolent protesters were shot in the face with "non-lethal" projectiles of the sort that, since 1990, have left hundreds of people with permanent disabilities.

Tina Črnko, who attended a Black Lives Matter protest on May 30, was shot in the head with a rubber bullet soon after Chief Moore addressed the crowd while in riot gear. "She still suffers nerve damage in the area of the impact," the lawsuit states.

Abigail Rodas attended another rally that day to protest the killing of George Floyd. It was while leaving that protest that she was "struck in the face by a projectile and momentarily lost consciousness," the lawsuit states. The object fractured her jaw, requiring surgery and a 48-hour hospital stay; she now has screws in her gums, with rubber bands immobilizing her jaw while she heals, according to the complaint.

Steven Roe was walking backward away from a line of police when one officer "shot him in the stomach with a kinetic impact projectile," the lawsuit states. The resulting injury remains visible over two weeks later.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs believe there are many others like them: over 3,000 people were arrested and, the lawsuit notes, detained for hours in close quarters amid a pandemic. They are asking the court for compensatory damages for those harmed or improperly detained, and for the deletion of all arrest records for those who were engaged in nonviolent protest.

An LAPD spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment. But Capt. Gisselle Espinoza earlier told the Los Angeles Times that the department was "fully committed to investigating every allegation of misconduct or excessive force related to the recent protests."

Meet the artists behind Time magazine and the New Yorker's powerful cover images about police brutality and racism

Natalie Colarossi
Jun 15, 2020,

Titus Kaphar (Left) and Kadir Nelson (Right) both designed magazine covers about police brutality in the US. Getty Images

Time magazine and the New Yorker both commissioned Black artists to create powerful cover images of police brutality and racism.

In Time, artist Titus Kaphar honors victims of racist killings by painting a grieving mother holding a hallowed-out baby, while the red border lists the names of 35 Black Americans who have died at the hands of police or other Americans.

In The New Yorker, artist Kadir Nelson created a piece called "Say Their Names," which includes a painting of George Floyd with the faces of other Black men and women who have been killed.

Both artists have a prominent record of depicting African American history in their work.

Following the death of George Floyd and the massive wave of protests across the US, Time magazine and the New Yorker both commissioned Black artists to create cover images to reflect the issue of police brutality and racism in America.

Both images make a powerful statement at a time when many Americans are grappling with the harrowing reality of systemic racism and violence against Black Americans.

Titus Kaphar and Kadil Nelson are both renowned for their work, and have a prominent history of featuring African American history into their pieces.

Here's a look at their recent pieces, and acclaimed careers.

Titus Kaphar, 'Analogous Colors'

In Time magazine, artist Titus Kaphar created a piece called "Analogous Colors," in which a grieving Black mother holds the silhouette of a child. Kaphar chose to cut the baby out of the canvas to signify the loss of African American mothers whose children have been killed by police or other Americans.

In a poem to accompany the piece, Kaphar writes, "In her expression, I see the Black mothers who are unseen, and rendered helpless in this fury against their babies."

Along the border of the cover, Kaphar lists the names of 35 Black Americans who have been killed in acts of racial violence.

Kaphar was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1976. He received an MFA at the Yale School of Art, and has since become a nationally recognized artist whose work has appeared in The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, among many others.

—TIME (@TIME) December 10, 2014

As a multimedia artist, Kaphar has created paintings, sculptures, and installations that often explore ideas of history and representation. According to his website, "his practice seeks to dislodge history from its status as the 'past' in order to unearth its contemporary relevance."

Kaphar works with a variety of materials and methods with the "aim to reveal something of what has been lost and to investigate the power of a rewritten history."

In some of his previous work, Kaphar has investigated the criminal justice system and its relationship to Black Americans. When a series of protests broke out in Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown in 2014, Kaphar created a painting titled "Yet Another Fight for Remembrance," that was also featured in Time magazine.

Throughout his career, Kaphar has received a number of awards, and has since created a program in New Haven, Connecticut, called NXTHVN to give early-career artists opportunities for mentorship and networking.

Kadir Nelson, 'Say Their Names'

In the New Yorker, artist Kadir Nelson created a memorializing cover image in which the faces of 18 Black Americans who have been killed by racial violence are shown within the outline of George Floyd.

The piece, titled "Say Their Names," includes the faces of Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner, as well as icons of the civil rights movement.

According the Washington Post, Nelson said the cover was a "memorial to all of the African Americans who were and continue to be victimized by the long shadow cast by racism in America and around the globe."

Nelson, 46, practices art in Los Angles and has become widely recognized for his work.


After receiving a BFA at the Pratt Institute in New York, DreamWorks Pictures commissioned Nelson to create pieces for two separate films, including Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated film, "Amistad," about a slave uprising on a ship.

This work led him to create children's books about African American history, including, "Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom and Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story of the Underground Railroad," and, "We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball," which was a New York Times bestseller.

In his work, Nelson often focuses on history and heroes within American culture. His art has been featured on the cover of albums by Michael Jackson and Drake, and he has created imagery for National Geographic, HBO, and Nike, among others.

He also has artworks on permanent display in the US House of Representatives, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, to name a few.

See more of Kaphar's and Nelson's work at their websites.

Lower Manhattan's boarded-up storefronts are being transformed into powerful murals dedicated to racial justice

SEE REST OF MURAL ART HERE
https://www.insider.com/boarded-up-windows-in-soho-turned-into-black-lives-matter-murals-2020-6

Someone did a really bad job trying to restore this painting of the Virgin Mary

MY COUSIN THE FURNITURE RESTORER CAN FIX IT

Michelle Mark

A furniture restorer reportedly attempted to fix up a copy of a painting of the Virgin Mary, but left it badly disfigured instead. YouTube/Europa Press


A copy of a famous Baroque painting of the Virgin Mary has been badly disfigured after a furniture restorer attempted to clean it, the owner told Europa Press.

The disastrous attempt drew instant comparisons to that of Elías García Martínez's "Ecce Homo," which was mangled by an untrained parishioner in 2012 and has since been dubbed "Potato Jesus."

Spain's Professional Association of Restorers and Conservators has called for regulation over art restoration in the country, and said such botched efforts by amateurs were nothing but "vandalism."

An effort to clean a copy of a Baroque painting of the Virgin Mary ended with yet another botched artwork that looks comically disfigured and nothing like the original.

A private art collector in Spain paid a furniture restorer to clean a copy of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo's "The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial," according to Europa Press, a Spanish-language news outlet.

The collector was shocked when he saw the finished product, and has found a trained specialist to restore the piece, the collector told the news outlet.

The mishap drew instant comparisons to the infamous "restoration" of Elías García Martínez's "Ecce Homo" in 2012, when a fresco depicting Jesus was left horrifically mangled after an untrained parishioner attempted to fix it up.

The ill-fated project is now a major tourist attraction for the small Spanish town of Borja, and the artwork has become known as "Potato Jesus" or "Monkey Christ."

Spain's Professional Association of Restorers and Conservators (ACRE) told Europa Press in Spanish that the blunders are "unfortunately much more frequent than you think." The group condemned restoration attempts from non-professional, untrained individuals and called for the industry to implement regulations.

ACRE said in a statement that the group was unfamiliar with the art collector who owned the Murillo copy, nor whether the copy was authentic. The group urged people not to poke fun at the incident since it could represent a serious threat to valuable artwork and Spain's cultural heritage.

"Should the facts be confirmed, we would have to regret, once again, the loss of a Cultural Asset," ACRE's statement said. "We all must be alarmed to think that our Heritage [is] disappearing because these disastrous actions."


The group also asked that the media not refer to the incident as a "restoration," since it "causes confusion on who are the skilled professionals coherently exercising this activity." ACRE said the act was not restoration, but "vandalism."

COVID AMERIKA*

In a move to make coronavirus cases trend downward, Trump is halting support for testing sites in 5 states. But that could have 'catastrophic cascading consequences,' health officials say.

*WE HAVE DROPPED TYPHOID MARY AND NOW DESIGNATED IT CORONAVIRUS TRUMP AKA COVID AMERICA 

Rhea Mahbubani

Residents wait in line at a mobile COVID-19 testing site set up in a vacant lot in Chicago, Illinois, on June 23, 2020. Scott Olson/Getty Images


State officials around the US are scrambling to deal with a surge in coronavirus cases, while the federal government is poised to end support and funding for 13 testing sites.

The screening locations are in Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, TPM first reported.

This decision could "have catastrophic cascading consequences" when it comes to identifying and isolating new cases, Dr. David Persse of the Houston Health Department wrote in a letter to the deputy surgeon general. 

Experts told Business Insider that frequent and widespread testing is crucial because the coronavirus is still in our midst and can easily overwhelm the nation's already strained healthcare system.

Coronavirus cases are spiking across a broad swath of the American South and West.

But the Trump administration is slated to discontinue funding for 13 federal testing sites across five states, starting at the end of June, Talking Points Memo revealed on Tuesday.

This move comes following President Donald Trump's comments last week at a roundtable for seniors in which he argued that "if we stop testing right now, we'd have very few cases, actually."

He employed similar rhetoric on Saturday at a rally in Tulsa in which he complained that the country's caseload is up due to an overall increase in the availability of coronavirus tests. He touted responding to the surging pandemic by telling his team to "slow the testing down please."

Trump has been promoting this flawed logic for the past month.

In May, he told Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, "So the media likes to say we have the most cases, but we do, by far, the most testing. If we did very little testing, we wouldn't have the most cases. So in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad."

Seven of the sites slated for defunding are in Texas, which just this week reported record-high hospitalization rates for 10 consecutive days and an upward trend in new infections. New Jersey and Illinois each have two facilities, and Colorado and Pennsylvania both have one, according to TPM. Colorado is the only state that's not on the list of 10 worst-hit states in the US.

Despite the administration's decision to stop providing federal support for these sites, some states are securing funding to keep them open. New Jersey's Gov. Phil Murphy announced to reporters on Tuesday that he has "secured continued assistance" from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Health and Human Services for both the state's screening locations.

"This partnership among state, federal government and our pharmacy chains, which has led to a significant increase in community-based testing centers, and which had also been scheduled to end on June 30th will now continue through at least the end of August. I am grateful for this partnership and that it will continue," Murphy said.
Loss of federal support can trigger 'catastrophic cascading consequences'

Officials in other states weren't as lucky.

"Illinois did request an extension for continued federal support at the two Illinois community-based testing sites the federal government was funding, but unfortunately, the request was denied," Melaney Arnold, a public information officer for the Illinois Department of Public Health, told Business Insider in an email.

The onus is now on the state to bolster testing efforts and officials plan to "continue to support these sites," she added.

A woman takes a COVID-19 test on June 20, 2020 in Livingston, Montana. William Campbell/Getty Images
In Pennsylvania, a testing site at Montgomery County Community College has been affected.


Officials are in the "planning stages of setting up six walk-up testing locations around the county" so residents can continue to be screened for the coronavirus. The new facilities are "being paid for with CARES Act funding," county spokeswoman Teresa Harris told Business Insider.

Officials in Texas, too, have requested an extension and are awaiting a reply.

The county, is experiencing "a nearly four-fold increase in hospital admission not only within hospitals in the city but across Harris County since May 21st," Dr. David Persse, public health authority for the Houston Health Department, wrote in a letter to the Surgeon General's office.

"Losing the support of the Federal government for testing sites will undoubtedly have catastrophic cascading consequences in the region's ability to adequately test, quarantine, and isolate" new patients, which is necessary to curb the transmission of the highly contagious illness, he wrote.


In Houston alone, the two FEMA-operated sites have helped screen an estimated 60,000 people, Scott Packard, the Houston Health Department's chief communications officer, told Business Insider. But with the federal government poised to back away next Tuesday, local officials and agencies will assume the responsibility of screening residents at Butler and Delmar stadiums, Packard said.
Experts are anxious about decisions 'that will reduce testing in any way during this critical time'

Dr. Melissa DuPont-Reyes, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Texas A&M University's School of Public Health, told Business Insider an effective response to an infectious disease outbreak hinges on early and widespread testing.

"Testing helps to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and allows for epidemiological and scientific efforts to continue to track and understand the pandemic," she said.

Testing is particularly important when it comes to the coronavirus because people who don't fall sick or display symptoms can still be asymptomatic carriers who are spreading the disease to others they come in contact with.


"We cannot estimate prevalence or spread without testing," DuPont-Reyes said.

Testing has also proven to be critical because the transmission of the coronavirus has been "dynamic over space and time with human movement and physical closeness," she added.

"Epicenters have moved from one part of the country to another. Cases have been reported in each state, in rural, suburban, and urban areas alike. The virus does not discriminate, so it is essential to continue to provide testing everywhere," DuPont-Reyes said.
A Florida resident gets tested for the coronavirus on April 30, 2020. Florida is among 19 states that hasn't met testing standards set by the federal government or Harvard. David Santiago/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty

And it's for these reasons that Dr. Laura Rasmussen-Torvik, the epidemiology chief at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, is worried by recent steps taken by the Trump administration.


"I'm tremendously concerned about any action that will reduce testing in any way during this critical time in the pandemic," she told Business Insider. "I'm even more concerned about actions that might reduce testing in racial and ethnic minorities, as these groups have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and, in some cases, these groups may have less access to testing through the traditional health care system."

As it is, Rasmussen-Torvik said, policies have varied so drastically among states and even municipalities that some parts of the US are seeing a rapid increase in coronavirus cases, while the infection's rate of spread is staying stable or declining in others.

The "increased numbers of positive cases and high utilization of hospital beds and ICU resources" in states like Texas and Arizona are disturbing, Rasmussen-Torvik said, because it's possible that area hospitals could "soon be overwhelmed with COVID cases, which will lead to lower quality of care for those with COVID as well as those with other health conditions."

However, no one would be aware of these trends without testing, DuPont-Reyes added.


"If we don't continue testing and managing the spread of infection, it is possible to exceed the capacity of our healthcare system still, which has already been stretched thin. Healthcare workers are burned out and resources are running low," she said.

The IRS wants prison and jail inmates to return their coronavirus stimulus checks

Kelly McLaughlin

Economic stimulus checks are prepared for printing at the Philadelphia Financial Center May 8, 2008 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jeff Fusco/Stringer

The IRS is asking state officials to help get stimulus payments back from people who are incarcerated.

According to the Associated Press, states have returned hundreds of thousands of dollars to the IRS that had originally been issued to people who are incarcerated. 

When the stimulus package was first announced, there was no language specifically banning inmates from receiving funds, but the IRS added a line to its website about banning inmates on May 6, according to the Prison Policy Initiative — a think tank focused on criminal justice reform.

The IRS hasn't explained the legality behind the decision.

The IRS wants prison and jail inmates to return any stimulus money they received from coronavirus relief payments, saying the funds were sent by mistake.

According to the Associated Press, the IRS is asking state officials to help get money back, and they've already received hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The IRS did not explain to the Associated Press the legal justification for taking the money back. The agency has not responded to a request for comment from Insider.
The Prison Policy Initiative, a think tank focused on criminal justice reform, said in May that the IRS's website didn't initially have language banning incarcerated people from receiving coronavirus relief funds. On May 6, the IRS added a line to it's frequently asked questions page, which said people in jail or prison cannot qualify for stimulus money.

"I can't give you the legal basis. All I can tell you is this is the language the Treasury and ourselves have been using," IRS spokesman Eric Smith told the Associated Press. "It's just the same list as in the Social Security Act."

The Social Security Act bans people who are incarcerated from receiving some insurance benefit payments, including old-age and survivor benefits.

It's not yet known how many prisoners have received stimulus funds, but officials in Utah, California, Vermont Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Kansas, Idaho, Montana, and California have all intercepted checks.

Tax attorney Kelly Erb told the Associated Press that there's no hard rule that the money needs to be taken, and it remains unclear what would happen if an inmate kept his or her money.


"I think it's really disingenuous of the IRS," Erb said Tuesday. "It's not a rule just because the IRS puts it on the website. In fact, the IRS actually says that stuff on its website isn't legal authority. So there's no actual rule — it's just guidance — and that guidance can change at any time."

"It appears that the IRS is just making this up," Wanda Bertram, a spokeswoman for the Prison Policy Initiative, told the Associated Press.

In a blog post about incarceration and stimulus money, the Prison Policy Initiative's Stephen Raher said the funds could be lifesaving for people behind bars.

He said that many prisons and jails now charge inmates for toiletries and communication with loved ones, and that many inmates rely on money transfers from relatives and friends.

"Providing stimulus funds to incarcerated people helps protect the health and well-being of those behind bars and provides relief to their loved ones at home," he wrote.

KOREA LAND OF CHRISTIAN CULTS
A South Korean doomsday church linked to thousands of coronavirus cases is being sued for $82 million in damages

Rosie Perper

Lee Man-hee, leader of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, speaks during a press conference at a facility of the church in Gapyeong, South Korea, on March 2, 2020. POOL/AFP via Getty Images

The South Korean city of Daegu is suing a doomsday church for 100 billion won ($82 million) in damages.

The Shincheonji Church of Jesus and its controversial founder, Lee Man-hee, were accused of hindering Daegu's lockdown efforts and leading to thousands of infections spread by churchgoers. 

Over 5,000 of South Korea's recorded coronavirus cases have been linked to the fringe religious group.

The South Korean city of Daegu is suing a doomsday church for 100 billion won ($82 million) in damages. At present, over 5,000 of South Korea's recorded coronavirus cases have been linked to the religious group.

According to the Korea Herald, the city filed the civil suit with the Daegu District Court last week against the Shincheonji Church of Jesus and its controversial founder Lee Man-hee.

The city accused the fringe religious group of hindering its lockdown efforts and leading to thousands of infections spread by churchgoers, according to the Herald. It is seeking financial compensation equal to about two-thirds of the city's coronavirus-related spending.

The church was set up by Lee in 1984 and has grown to nearly 250,000 members, mostly in South Korea. A member of the group's Daegu congregation was confirmed to have been infected with the novel coronavirus on February 18, though at the time, the church continued to hold large gatherings despite guidelines in place. Within two weeks, over 2,000 cases of the virus were linked to the church.

At the beginning of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak, it was considered to be the worst-hit nation other than China, with a majority of its new cases linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

According to CBS News, Daegu has spent large sums of money trying to stem the outbreak and estimated that the total financial loss from the outbreak was $121 million. City officials said the church did not hand over a complete list of all of its members, making it difficult to track the virus, though the church has blamed "human error" for the miscount, CBS said.

In March, the mayor of the South Korean capital of Seoul sued the group for "murder" and "injury." Lee publicly apologized for the group's role in the virus spread in response, saying that it is a "great calamity," Reuters reported.

As of Wednesday, South Korea has reported 12,535 cases and 281 deaths.

The owner of an iconic DC restaurant who donated free food to Black Lives Matter protesters did the same 57 years ago for the March on Washington

Anneta Konstantinides

Virginia Ali has owned Ben's Chili Bowl for more than 60 years, feeding protesters from boththe March on Washington and the Black Lives Matter movement. Ben's Chili Bowl/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via  Getty Images

From the March on Washington in 1963 to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020, Virginia Ali has been there to feed protesters. 

Ali and her husband Ben opened Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street — then known as "Black Broadway" — in 1958. 

The restaurant is now considered a landmark in DC's dining scene, famous for its half-smoke covered in the family's secret homemade chili sauce. 

Ali spoke with Insider about her restaurant's incredible legacy, what she talked about with Martin Luther King Jr., and why she has so much hope in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Virginia Ali has witnessed the course of history — both the flames of great change, and the dheartening tolerance of the status quo — through a big window at the front of Ben's Chili Bowl.is 

Ali was 24 when she and her husband Ben, yes the Ben, opened their restaurant on U Street in Washington, DC, when the city was still segregated and the neighborhood was known as "Black Broadway."

She was 29 on that historic day in August 1963, when she and Ben fed some of the hundreds of thousands of people who streamed into the city for the March on Washington and heard Martin Luther King Jr. tell the world about his dream.

Now, on the cusp of turning 87, Ali is feeding Black Lives Matter protesters who are fighting the same fight for civil rights that she has witnessed her entire life.

"It would certainly be nice to have them before I leave this earth," she told Insider. "And I'm old."

Ali spoke with Insider about her restaurant's incredible legacy, what she talked about with MLK, and why she has so much hope in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Virginia Ali left her hometown in Virginia and came to Washington, DC — which was still segregated — in 1952.

Ben and Virginia Ali on their wedding day in 1958. Ben's Chili Bowl/Instagram

It was there that she met and fell in love with Ben, who immigrated to the US from Trinidad and attended Howard University.

Shortly after they tied the knot in 1958, the newlyweds converted a former silent movie theater into their own "little restaurant" on U Street. It cost them $5,000.

"We wanted to be self-employed," Ali told Insider. "We decided on chili dogs because there were a lot of hamburger places already around."

From the cabinet maker to the electrician, the couple hired local African-American businesses to help build their restaurant.

Ben's Chili Bowl during its early days. Ben's Chili Bowl

"It was very new and modern-looking at the time," Ali recalled with a laugh. "Definitely colorful."
"And we had a big glass window in the front, you could see through the whole thing. It was a new and exciting place."
Ben's Chili Bowl became well-known (and loved) for its half-smoke, now considered a signature DC dish.

The iconic half-smoke, accompanied by potato chips, at Ben's Chili Bowl. Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images )

Tucked inside a warm steamed bun with mustard and onions, the half-smoke is topped with a generous heap of Ben's spicy homemade chili sauce — still a secret family recipe.

"Sober up with a chili dog," the restaurant's slogan used to read.

Just two blocks up from Ben's Chili Bowl was Martin Luther King Jr.'s satellite office.
Martin Luther King Jr. during CBS' "Washington Conversation" program in DC on May 20, 1962. CBS via Getty Images

"Whenever he was in town, he'd make his way to the Chili Bowl," Ali said. "I had the opportunity to sit with him and listen to his dreams and hopes, what he was going to do and accomplish."


Before they watched MLK speak during the March on Washington in 1963, Ali and her husband were handing out sandwiches to protesters as they streamed into the city.

Ali on the front grill in the early days of Ben's Chili Bowl. Ben's Chili Bowl

"It was an ecstatic day," Ali said. "Filled with hope and pride because so many people came from all walks of life. Thousands of people were there, and Dr. King delivered that amazing 'I Have a Dream' speech."

"It was just a glorious day, that's how I remember it," she added. "A history-making day, a very peaceful day of demonstration and love and hope."

Less than five years later, MLK was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1964. The mayor of DC put the city under curfew as days of protests began.

Flames engulf a building during the DC riots in 1968. Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
"I remember that evening so vividly," Ali said, speaking of the day MLK died. "When someone rushed through the front door at Ben's Chili Bowl and said, 'Dr. King has been shot.' Then we found someone with a transistor radio and heard, 'He's no longer with us.'"

"People were crying, we're all in tears. That sadness turned to frustration, the frustration turned into anger, and that rising began."

In the days following MLK's assassination, referred to as the Holy Week Uprisings, there were protests in cities across the US. The nation's capital saw days of unrest that led to 13 deaths, according to a 2018 Washington Post article, which noted that MLK's "assassination ignited an explosion of rioting, looting and burning that stunned Washington and would leave many neighborhoods in ruins for 30 years."

Civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael obtained special permission to keep Ben's Chili Bowl open after curfew to provide food and shelter. The restaurant kept its usual business hours, staying open until 3 a.m. during the week and 4 a.m. on the weekend.

"You could see the fire across the street, glass windows shattering, buildings burning, tear gas all over the place," Ali said. "It lasted for three nights. When that period was over, we noticed that a lot of the businesses didn't reopen."

In 1988, Ben's Chili Bowl was hit by another challenge. The city dug up the entire street in front of the restaurant and began building a new Metro station.

The city of DC dug up the entire street in front of Ben's to build a new Metro station in 1988. Ben's Chili Bowl
"That was very, very hard," Ali said. "But I did make them have signs made, metal signs that said, 'This way to Ben's.' And I went down blocks and blocks and directed traffic to come to the one-way street behind us. If there happened to be three cars, they'd have to wait until everyone was served."

"We managed to hold on and hang in there and survive," she added. "In 1990, the subway opened and I had a banner across the building that said, 'We survived Metro.' The new businesses began to roll in."

In the last three decades, Ali has witnessed the revitalization of U Street, celebrated the restaurant's 60th anniversary, and served President Barack Obama.

Obama orders his lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl restaurant on January 10, 2009. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Ben's Chili Bowl was one of the first establishments that Obama visited when he moved to DC two weeks before his inauguration.

"You don't get a warning or anything," Ali said. "The next thing you know, someone looks up and the Secret Service is there and he opens the door and here he comes!"

"He was escorted in by our mayor at the time and it was just, it was a dream come true to have him there," she added. "At my age, we certainly had no idea we'd see an African American become president of the United States of America."
As Obama was sworn in on his first Inauguration Day in 2009, the line was out the door to get into Ben's Chili Bowl. Many waited for up to three hours.

A line stretches around the corner at Ben's Chili Bowl on the day of Obama's inauguration as the 44th president of the United States on January 20, 2009. Mario Tama/Getty Images

"Many people had read that his first outing in Washington, DC, had been at Ben's Chili Bowl, so can you imagine how many people wanted to come to Ben's because of that?" Ali said. "There was a line out there all day long on that cold January day."

Ben died in October 2009 from natural causes. The couple's three sons now run the restaurant.

Ben and Virginia Ali. The Washington Post/Michael Williamson/Getty Images
"I'm not in the day to day things at my age," Ali said. "I have three wonderful sons that surprised us by becoming part of the business, and their wives as well. They do the hard work now. Restaurant work is truly hard work now."

While Ali is no longer at Ben's Chili Bowl every day, she is still very much involved. This month she joined her family's efforts to feed hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters, just as she did with Ben over 50 years ago.

An image of George Floyd is seen at Ben's Chili Bowl as a customer leaves during the COVID-19 outbreak on June 15, 2020. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

Ali and her family have prepared and handed out hundreds of sandwiches, chili dogs, and burgers for protesters during the demonstrations in DC.

"I'm very proud of what we're seeing today in terms of protesting," she said. "I find it rather disheartening to know that they had to come back and do this again all these many years later, and fight for the same basic human rights laws that we fought for in the '60s. But I'm proud of the fact that they're doing it, and doing it well."

Ali and her family have also been donating as much food as they can to frontline workers, even as Ben's Chili Bowl faces new businesses challenges due to the pandemic.

Ali with her sons and daughters-in-law. Ben's Chili Bowl

"The pandemic has certainly affected our business severely, as it has all businesses in our community," Ali said.

But an outpouring of donations from locals and fans has allowed Ben's Chili Bowl to keep giving back to the community that it loves so much.

"Our Ben's Chili Bowl community has been tremendous, and I'm so grateful to them for that," Ali said. "We've got donations to help us and whatever we get, we turn into feeding the community and the local hospitals."

As with the many obstacles that Ben's Chili Bowl has faced in its 62 years, Ali said she knows it will survive the pandemic as well.

Ali sits near photos of her and Ben at their restaurant during the COVID-19 outbreak on June 15, 2020. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
"This too shall pass," she said. "I'm the optimist."

And when it comes to the challenges of American society, Ali has hope that the next generation will bring change.

Ali told Insider she has hope in the next generation. Ben's Chili Bowl/Instagram
"Today we have the young people just coming out based on their own hearts, to protest for the basic human rights laws that we fought for, without that strong leadership of Dr. King that we had back then," Ali said. "And I just think that's tremendous. They're diverse — people from all walks of life, backgrounds, races. And not only is it in Washington, it's in every city in this country and all over the world."

"That's amazing to me, and that certainly has to speak to hope," she added. "And I encourage them to keep the pressure on and not give up."

"Because we need basic systemic human right laws — and we need them now."

New maps offer detailed look at 'lost' continent of Zealandia
Brandon Specktor, Live Science

Earth's mysterious eighth continent doesn't appear on most conventional maps. That's because almost 95 percent of its land mass is submerged thousands of feet beneath the Pacific Ocean.

Zealandia — or Te Riu-a-Māui, as it's referred to in the indigenous Māori language — is a 2 million-square-mile (5 million square kilometers) continent east of Australia, beneath modern-day New Zealand. Scientists discovered the sprawling underwater mass in the 1990s, then gave it formal continent status in 2017. Still, the "lost continent" remains largely unknown and poorly studied due to its Atlantean geography.

© Provided by NBC News 

A bathymetric map of the lost continent of Zealandia (GNS Science)

Now, GNS Science — a geohazards research and consultancy organization owned by the government of New Zealand — hopes to raise Zealandia (in public awareness, at least) with a suite of new maps and interactive tools that capture the lost continent in unprecedented detail.

Related: Photos: The world's weirdest geological formations

"We've made these maps to provide an accurate, complete and up-to-date picture of the geology of the New Zealand and southwest Pacific area — better than we have had before," Nick Mortimer, a geologist and lead author of the maps, said in a statement. "Their value is that they provide a fresh context in which to explain and understand the setting of New Zealand's volcanoes, plate boundary and sedimentary basins."

The new maps reveal Zealandia's bathymetry (the shape of the ocean floor) as well as its tectonic history, showing how volcanism and tectonic motion have shaped the continent over millions of years. Data for the bathymetric map was provided by the Seabed2030 project — a global effort to map the entire ocean floor by 2030. (The project is about 20 percent complete.)

The team also released interactive versions of both maps on a new Zealandia webpage. Spend a few minutes clicking around the hyper-detailed images — and, when someone asks what you're doing, simply tell them you're "discovering Earth's lost continent."

New maps reveal details about the size and shape of Earth's lost 8th continent, Zealandia, which disappeared under the Pacific Ocean
Aylin Woodward

A map of Zealandia, outlined in gray. World Data Center for Geophysics & Marine Geology / National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA

Scientists confirmed the existence of an eighth continent, called Zealandia, under New Zealand and the surrounding ocean in 2017.

Because 94% of Zealandia's 2 million square miles are underwater, mapping the continent is challenging.

Researchers just released maps that show Zealandia in unprecedented detail, revealing its shape and how it was formed millions of years ago.

About 3,500 feet under the south Pacific waves sits a lost eighth continent.
Scientists confirmed that the submerged land mass, named Zealandia, was its own continent in 2017. But they hadn't been able to map its full breadth until now.

On Monday, researchers from GNS Science in New Zealand announced that they'd mapped the shape and size of the continent in unprecedented detail. They put their maps on an interactive website so that users could virtually explore the continent.

"We've made these maps to provide an accurate, complete, and up-to-date picture of the geology of the New Zealand and southwest Pacific area — better than we have had before," Nick Mortimer, who led the work, said in a statement.

Mortimer and his colleagues mapped the bathymetry surrounding Zealandia — the shape and depth of the ocean floor — as well as its tectonic profile, showing where Zealandia falls across tectonic-plate boundaries.

The maps reveal new information about how Zealandia formed before it became submerged underwater millions of years ago.
An underwater continent nearly 2 million square miles in size

Zealandia's area is nearly 2 million square miles (5 million square kilometers) — about half the size of Australia.

But only 6% of the continent is above sea level. That part underpins New Zealand's north and south islands and the island of New Caledonia. The rest is underwater, which makes Zealandia challenging to survey.

To better understand the submerged continent, Mortimer and his team mapped both Zealandia and the ocean floor around it. The bathymetric map they created (below) shows how high the continent's mountains and ridge rise toward the water's surface.

A bathymetric map of Zealandia, which shows the shape of the continent under the water. GNS Science

It also depicts coastlines, territorial limits, and the names of major undersea features. The map is part of a global initiative to map the planet's entire ocean floor by 2030.

The second map the GNS scientists made (below) reveals the types of crust that make up the underwater continent, how old that crust is, and major faults. The continental crust — the older, thicker kind of Earth's crust that forms landmasses — is shown in red, orange, yellow, and brown. The oceanic crust, which is generally younger, is in blue. Red triangles show where volcanoes are.

A tectonic map of Zealandia, which shows the types and age of the crust, major faults, and volcanoes that make up the continent. GNS Science

This map also reveals where Zealandia sits across various tectonic plates, which of those plates are being pushed under the other in a process known as subduction, and how quickly that movement is happening.


Studying the tectonic machinations that underpin Zealandia today can reveal clues about how the continent formed in the first place.
Zealandia's 85 million-year-old origins

The concept of Zealandia is 25 years old. Geophysicist Bruce Luyendyk coined the term in 1995.

Luyendyk previously told Business Insider that he never intended for the term to describe a new continent. Rather, the name originally referred to New Zealand and a collection of submerged chunks of crust that broke off the ancient supercontinent Gondwana about 85 million years ago.

"The reason I came up with this term is out of convenience," Luyendyk said. "They're pieces of the same thing when you look at Gondwana. So I thought, 'Why do you keep naming this collection of pieces as different things?'"


Gondwana formed when Earth's ancient supercontinent, Pangea, split into two fragments. Laurasia in the north became Europe, Asia, and North America. Gondwana in the south dispersed to form modern-day Africa, Antarctica, South America, and Australia.

A map of Pangea 200 million years ago, with tectonic plate boundaries in white. Wikimedia Commons

Geologic forces continued to rearrange these land masses, and Zealandia was forced under the waves about 30 million to 50 million years after it broke off Gondwana as the largest tectonic plate — the Pacific Plate — slowly subducted beneath it.
These maps show Zealandia is a continent like the other 7

Until 2017, Zealandia was classified as a "microcontinent," like the island of Madagascar. But according to Mortimer, Zealandia ticks all the boxes for continent status: It has clearly defined boundaries, occupies an area greater than 386,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers), is elevated above the surrounding ocean crust, and has a continental crust thicker than that oceanic crust.

These new maps therefore offer further evidence that the underwater land mass should be considered the eighth continent, Mortimer added.

"If we could pull the plug on the world's oceans, it would be quite clear that Zealandia stands out," he told Science News in 2017, adding, "If it wasn't for the ocean level, long ago we'd have recognized Zealandia for what it was — a continent."

Record heat in the Arctic is setting the stage for a different kind of conflict
Christopher Woody

Russian icebreaker Yamal during the removal of manned drifting station North Pole 36, August 2009.


Siberia has seen record-setting heat in recent weeks, part of a trend of increasing temperatures across the Arctic region. 

A warmer Arctic has long been seen as an opportunity for increased shipping and resource extraction, but going after those resources may bring otherwise cooperative countries into conflict.

Record-setting temperatures above the Arctic Circle have again drawn attention to climate change in the high north, where the prospect of more accessibility has stoked both national and commercial competition.

The temperature hit 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk, where records have been kept since 1885. The town, home to about 1,300 people and roughly 3,000 miles northeast of Moscow, has the world's most extreme temperature range, with a low of -90 degrees Fahrenheit and a previous high of 98.96 degrees Fahrenheit.

Temperatures have hit highs across Siberia this year. The heat has melted snow and ice, contributing to feedback loops that perpetuate the warming trend.

Verkhoyansk is inland, but satellite images taken over the weekend showed open water on the East Siberian Sea and signs of ice melt on the Laptev Sea. The Arctic as a whole is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet.

That trend has long been present in the European Arctic, where temperatures have risen and sea-ice coverage fallen over the past 40 years.

Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen on his voyage through the Kara Sea in August 1913 National Library of Norway

A photo taken by journalist Thomas Nilsen, editor of Norwegian news outlet The Barents Observer, in the Kara Sea in 2013, a century after a similar voyage by Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, revealed the extent of that diminishing ice cover.

"The photos are taken on the same August day at the same location, but with 100 years in between," Nilsen told Insider in an email in February. "And worse, we sailed even further north that August in 2013 and didn't see any sea ice at all."

A voyage Thomas Nilsen participated in on the 100th anniversary of Fridtjof Nansen's voyage, in August 2013. Thomas Nilsen/Barents Observer

Nilsen presented the photos at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council and the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, DC, in February.


"If you find certain spots, like Svalbard on Norway, the changes are even more dramatic," Nilsen said at the event. "Over the last 100 months, there has not been one single month where temperatures have been normal or lower than normal. It's always been higher and up to 8 degrees Celsius" — or up to 14 degrees higher in Fahrenheit.
Climate change and resource insecurity

Along with more interest from navies, a more accessible Arctic has attracted an increase in commercial activity.

Russia, which has the world's longest Arctic coastline and gets roughly one-quarter of its GDP from the region, has led the way with its Northern Sea Route.

A map of the Arctic region showing the Northeast Passage, Northern Sea Route, and Northwest Passage. Arctic Council/Susie Harder

That route promises shorter transit time between Europe and Asia. Less ice in the Arctic also means more travel time: Liquified-natural gas tanker Christophe de Margerie and icebreaker Yamal left the port of Sabetta at the western end of the route on May 18 this year bound for China — the earliest voyage of its kind on record.

But Russia's development of the Northern Sea Route, and its changing military footprint across the region, has concerned dismayed other Western countries.

"I watch with interest now the militarization of the Northern Sea Route over top of Russia. I see the melting ice cap, and I've seen increasing interest in commercial companies to save fuel ... and I see increasing risk in terms of state-on-state conflict," Vice Adm. Jerry Kyd, British Royal Navy fleet commander, said this month at an event hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

An employee at the newly opened Cod fish processing factory in Murmansk, Russia, August 28, 2019 Lev Fedoseyev\TASS via Getty Images

Outside of military buildup, however, changes in the region have security implications for the communities there, Nilsen said at the February event.

"Last summer, me and my son, we were out in the fjord just outside where we are living [in northern Norway], and he got a mackerel when we were fishing. A mackerel is a fish that you should never get in the Barents Sea," Nilsen said. "I started to ask around, and yeah, we're not the only ones."

Mackerel, typically found in the southern part of the Norwegian Sea, is subject to overfishing and countries in the area have put quotas on it. "But with the species moving further north, you need to renegotiate. You get more mackerel up in the north, well, then you have to bring in Russia," Nilsen said.

Scientists have said that cod, which prefer colder water, are "now moving away from the western part of the Barents Sea and further to the northeastern part of the Barents Sea ... way inside Russian territorial waters," Nilsen added.

Management of marine resources in this changing environment has been a point of contention in Europe, where fishermen have come to blows in recent years. "There have been some debates ... with the European Union and the European Parliament that strongly disagree with Norway," Nilsen said.

A "Fishing For Leave" campaign sign for Brexit on a boat in the harbor in Brixham, southern England, October 11, 2018. ROBIN MILLARD/AFP via Getty Images

China, too, is seen as having designs on Arctic fisheries. Beijing has already dispatched fleets of fishing vessels around the world, often running afoul of other governments.

With rapid warming in the Arctic, much of the Arctic Ocean outside the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone of the countries that surround it is now open water in the summer. In 2018, nine signatories, including China, agreed to prohibit unregulated commercial fishing in the central Arctic for 16 years.

Going forward, countries are likely to look to their militaries to help manage those marine resources. The British government is already doing so, Kyd said this month.

"I also see a greater push now from other government departments on the Ministry of Defense, [Department for International Development], and the Foreign Office, particularly in things like protection of marine resources — fisheries are a big one," Kyd said.

"We did an awful lot of that 20 years ago — one remembers the Cod Wars — but I think as world resource gets ever more competitive ... presence, and understanding where we stand in terms of legality and regulation, is going to be critical."