Thousands of protesters ignored a curfew and vows of a forceful police response to take to the Minneapolis streets for a fourth straight night, as the anger stoked by the police killing of George Floyd spread to more cities across the U.S.The Pentagon on Saturday ordered the Army to put military police units on alert to head to the city on short notice at President Donald Trump’s request, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders who did not want their names used because they were not authorized to discuss the preparations. The rare step came as the violence spread to other cities: a man shot dead in Detroit, police cars battered in Atlanta and skirmishes with police in New York City.Criminal charges filed Friday morning against the white officer who held his knee for nearly nine minutes on the neck of Floyd, a black man, did nothing to stem the anger. Derek Chauvin, 44, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.Minneapolis police said shots had been fired at law enforcement officers during the protests but no one was injured.  Demonstrators kneel before police Saturday, May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day.As the night dragged on, fires erupted across the city’s south side, including at a Japanese restaurant, a Wells Fargo bank and an Office Depot. Many burned for hours, with firefighters again delayed in reaching them because areas weren’t secure.Shortly before midnight, scores of officers on foot and in vehicles moved in to curb the violence, one day after city and state leaders faced blowback for their handling of the crisis. On Thursday, protesters had torched a police station soon after it was abandoned by police and went on to burn or vandalize dozens of businesses.  The new round of unrest came despite Gov. Tim Walz vowing early in the day to show a more forceful response by the state than the one Thursday run by Minneapolis city leaders. But by early Saturday morning, Walz was acknowledging he didn’t have enough manpower, even with some 500 Guard soldiers.”We do not have the numbers,” Walz said. “We cannot arrest people when we are trying to hold ground.”Walz said he was moving quickly to mobilize more than 1,000 more Guard members, for a total of 1,700, and was considering the potential offer of federal military police. But he warned that even that might not be enough, saying he expected another difficult night Saturday.Demonstrators march in Oakland, Calif. protesting the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man in police custody in Minneapolis, May 29, 2020.Chauvin was also accused of ignoring another officer who expressed concerns about Floyd as he lay handcuffed on the ground, pleading that he could not breathe while Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit bill at a store.Chauvin, who was fired along with three other officers who were at the scene, faces more than 12 years in prison if convicted of murder.An attorney for Floyd’s family welcomed the arrest but said he expected a more serious murder charge and wants the other officers arrested, too.Prosecutor Mike Freeman said more charges were possible, but authorities “felt it appropriate to focus on the most dangerous perpetrator.”Protests nationwide have been fueled by outrage over Floyd’s death and years of police violence against African Americans. Protesters smashed windows at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, set a police car on fire and struck officers with bottles. Large demonstrations in New York, Houston, Washington, D.C., and dozens of other cities ranged from people peacefully blocking roads to repeated clashes with police.  Arrest of CNN Crew in Minneapolis a ‘Violation of First Amendment’ Police detention of CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his news crew during live broadcast of Minneapolis protests condemned by press freedom groups “You are disgracing our city,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told protesters. “You are disgracing the life of George Floyd and every other person who has been killed in this country.”Police were trying to put Floyd in a squad car Monday when he stiffened and fell to the ground, saying he was claustrophobic, a criminal complaint said. Chauvin and Officer Tou Thoa arrived and tried several times to get the struggling Floyd into the car.Chauvin eventually pulled Floyd out of the car, and the handcuffed Floyd went to the ground face down. Officer J.K. Kueng held Floyd’s back and Officer Thomas Lane held his legs while Chauvin put his knee on Floyd’s head and neck area, the complaint said.When Lane asked if Floyd should be rolled onto his side, Chauvin said, “No, staying put is where we got him.” Lane said he was “worried about excited delirium or whatever.”An autopsy said the combined effects of being restrained, potential intoxicants in Floyd’s system and his underlying health issues, including heart disease, likely contributed to his death. It revealed nothing to support strangulation as the cause of death.There were no other details about intoxicants, and toxicology results can take weeks. In the 911 call that drew police, the caller describes the man suspected of paying with counterfeit money as “awfully drunk and he’s not in control of himself.”After Floyd apparently stopped breathing, Lane again said he wanted to roll Floyd onto his side. Kueng checked for a pulse and said he could not find one, according to the complaint.Chauvin’s attorney had no comment when reached by The Associated Press.The prosecutor highlighted the “extraordinary speed” in charging the case four days after Floyd’s death and defended himself against questions about why it did not happen sooner. Freeman said his office needed time to gather evidence, including what he called the “horrible” video recorded by a bystander.Trump said Friday that he’d spoken to Floyd’s family and “expressed my sorrow.”He called video of the arrest “just a horrible thing to witness and to watch. It certainly looked like there was no excuse for it.”Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Floyd’s family, asked to take custody of Floyd’s body for an independent autopsy.  The doctor who will do the autopsy is Michael Baden, former chief medical examiner of New York City. He was hired to do an autopsy for Eric Garner, a black man who died in 2014 after New York police placed him in a chokehold and he pleaded that he could not breathe.State and federal authorities also are investigating Floyd’s death. 
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The U.S. is set to resume launching astronauts into space Saturday, for the first time on a private rocket, nearly a decade after the last launch of astronauts from American territory.Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will blast into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center on the SpaceX rocket, the first by a private company, if all goes as planned.The California-based SpaceX Aerospace Company is owned by billionaire Elon Musk.The first launch attempt scheduled for last Wednesday was postponed because of stormy weather in the vicinity of the Kennedy Space Center in the southeastern state of Florida.Meet NASA Astronauts Taking America Back to Space from US Soil A SpaceX rocket will carry a Dragon capsule with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space StationAstronauts were last launched into space from the U.S. in 2011, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, retired its space shuttle fleet, forcing the U.S. to rely on partnerships with Russia’s space agency to carry U.S. astronauts to the orbiting International Space Station.If the launch of the 24-story-tall SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is successful, Hurley and Behnken will orbit the Earth inside the newly designed Crew Dragon capsule for about 19 hours before trying to dock at the space station.Launch Marks New Era in US Space Travel – But With a Twist Space X is the first of several private companies in the new ‘space race’ to regularly launch passengers commercially into Earth orbitSaturday’s National Weather Service forecast at the Kennedy Space Center launch complex calls for showers and thunderstorms.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping is so nervous about the position of the Communist Party that he is risking a new Cold War and imperiling Hong Kong’s position as Asia’s preeminent financial hub, the last British governor of the territory told Reuters.Chris Patten said Xi’s “thuggish” crackdown in Hong Kong could trigger an outflow of capital and people from the city which funnels the bulk of foreign direct investment into mainland China.”What does it mean? It means serious question marks not just about Hong Kong’s future as a free society but also about Hong Kong’s ability to continue as probably the premier international financial hub in Asia,” Patten said in an interview.”A lot of people will try to leave Hong Kong,” Patten said, adding that he feared capital would also flow out of the territory which Britain handed back to China in 1997.The West, he said, should stop being naive about Xi.”We have long since passed the stage where, without wanting another Cold War, we have to react to the fact Xi seems to want one himself, seems to want to be able to bully his way to whatever he thinks China wants,” Patten said.Patten, now 76, watched as the British flag was lowered over Hong Kong when the colony was handed back to China in 1997 after more than 150 years of British rule – imposed after Britain defeated China in the First Opium War.Hong Kong’s autonomy was guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” agreement enshrined in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration signed by then Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. 
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Protesters broke into the police headquarters in Portland, Oregon, Friday night, and authorities said they lit a fire inside as a rally over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis turned violent.Portland police said at least one shooting was tied to the protest, although details weren’t immediately released. A fire built from cardboard boxes and other items burned in the middle of a street downtown and video appeared to show people breaking into Pioneer Place mall and taking bags from a Louis Vuitton store. Police said they deployed gas after people threw projectiles at them. Firefighters were responding to the fires, police said.Police via Twitter labeled the event a riot before midnight and closed several streets. “Disperse now or you will be subject to gas, projectiles, and other means necessary for dispersal,” police said.Earlier, thousands of people filled Peninsula Park in North Portland for a peaceful evening vigil that lasted three hours, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Hundreds then began marching through downtown to Portland police headquarters outside the Multnomah County Justice Center. There was scattered vandalism along the route.People were protesting the death of 46-year-old Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after a white officer pressed his knee into his neck as Floyd begged for air. That officer was arrested on criminal charges Friday.Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler tweeted a plea to protesters to remain peaceful and said at about 11:50 p.m. that while he had left Portland to attend to his dying mother, he was heading back to the city.”I am with family to prepare for her final moments. This is hard, this is personal, but so is watching my city get destroyed. I’m coming back NOW,” he said, adding that police and community leaders would be hearing from him.”Portland, this is not us,” he wrote earlier on Twitter. “When you destroy our city, you are destroying our community. When you act in violence against each other, you are hurting all of us. How does this honor the legacy of George Floyd?”  
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U.S. protests over the death of a handcuffed African American man by a white police officer in Minneapolis continued to spread across the country Friday even after the officer was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.In Washington, D.C., protests Friday at Lafayette Park outside the White House led officials to lock down the building. Reporters said protesters, some spray-painting a nearby building, clashed with Secret Service members.Demonstrators in New York City took to the streets for a second day to protest the death of 46-year-old George Floyd. Reports say some in the crowd pushed against metal barricades as police pushed back.In Atlanta, Georgia, hundreds of protesters confronted police outside CNN headquarters, some throwing water bottles and chanting, “Quit your jobs.”Protests also took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, and in Houston, Texas, where Floyd grew up. More than 60 protesters marched on the freeway in Houston for half an hour, shutting down traffic.The Midwestern city of Minneapolis, where the killing took place, remains on edge following three nights of protests that started peacefully but gave way to arson and looting.Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin poses for a booking photograph at the Ramsey County Detention Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S. May 29, 2020.Earlier Friday, officials in Hennepin County, Minnesota, announced charges against former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is seen in cellphone video of the incident kneeling on Floyd’s neck as Floyd pleads that he can’t breathe.Floyd was pronounced dead shortly after the incident. His family responded to the charges, saying in a statement it wants prosecutors to take a tougher approach.“The arrest of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the brutal killing of George Floyd is a welcome but overdue step on the road to justice. We expected a first-degree murder charge. We want a first-degree murder charge. And we want to see the other officers arrested. We call on authorities to revise the charges to reflect the true culpability of this officer.”Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights group, told VOA that the killing of Floyd shows that “we have in this country not dealt with the issues of race and the value of African American lives in Minneapolis.”He said peaceful protests are “a way for the citizens of this country to bring forth grievances of injustice,” and said NAACP members “absolutely oppose rioting, that never solves anything.”U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he had spoken with the family of Floyd and expressed his sorrow. Speaking during an event at the White House, Trump said “we can’t allow” the demonstrations in Minneapolis “to descend further into lawless anarchy and chaos.” He said looters should not be able to drown out peaceful protests.Protesters vented their anger in Minneapolis on Thursday night, setting a police precinct and businesses on fire and smashing windows of businesses. The National Guard was mobilized as the twin city of St. Paul was also rocked by another night of violence.Trump had tweeted early Friday that the rioters are “THUGS” who “are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd.”He also threatened to bring Minneapolis “under control” and tweeted that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right…..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020….These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020Twitter added a warning to Trump’s tweet about shooting, saying it violates its rules “about glorifying violence.” The social media company later flagged Trump’s reference to “thugs.”The White House later said “the president did not glorify violence, but condemned it.”Trump clarified on Twitter on Friday “Looting leads to shooting … I don’t want this to happen, and that’s what the expression put out last night means.”The death of Floyd was captured on cellphone video that went viral after it was posted online. “Please, please, please, I can’t breathe. Please, man,” Floyd pleaded, while being restrained by Chauvin.Chauvin told a handcuffed Floyd to “relax,” but the officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck after the man stopped moving. One witness said he heard Floyd calling out for his mother. The video shows Floyd’s head turned to the side, and he does not appear to be resisting. Toward the end of the video, paramedics arrive, lift a limp Floyd onto a stretcher and place him in an ambulance. Authorities later told reporters Floyd died at the hospital.Minneapolis police said Floyd resembled a suspect wanted for allegedly trying to spend a counterfeit $20 bill in a food store and that he had resisted arrest.Mayor Frey said early Friday the city is in “a lot of pain and anger” but the looting and burning to protest George Floyd’s death is “unacceptable.”Frey said the damaged properties, including a police precinct, are “essential to our community.” He said he decided to let the precinct burn late Thursday after receiving reports that protesters were trying to breach the premises. Frey said he ordered police personnel to evacuate from the precinct before it was set ablaze because it became too dangerous for them.Frey also responded to Trump’s tweets that Minneapolis suffers from a “total lack of leadership.”Frey said “Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis,” and added, “We are strong as hell.”Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also criticized Trump, saying his references in his tweets to “thugs” and “shooting” are counterproductive.“In the moment where we’re at, in a moment that is so volatile, anything we do to add fuel to that fire is really not helpful,” Walz said at a Friday news conference. “There is a way to do this without inflaming (tensions).”Attorney General William Barr said Friday the images “of the incident that ended with the death of Mr. Floyd, while in custody of Minneapolis police officers, were harrowing to watch and deeply disturbing.” Barr also said an independent investigation is being conducted by the Justice Department and the FBI.Former President Barack Obama tweeted Friday about Floyd’s death, calling on the country to treat all citizens with dignity and respect.“It’s natural to wish for life ‘to just get back to normal’ as a pandemic and economic crisis upend everything around us. But we have to remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal.’“It shouldn’t be ‘normal’ in 2020 America,” Obama added. “It can’t be ‘normal.’”My statement on the death of George Floyd: pic.twitter.com/Hg1k9JHT6R— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 29, 2020Floyd and Chauvin knew each other from working security jobs together at the same Minneapolis nightclub, City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins told CNN on Friday.Chauvin was a 19-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department who had at least a dozen complaints filed against him about his conduct, according to NBC News and other news outlets. NBC reports that records show Chauvin was not disciplined over the complaints but received one “letter of reprimand.”The other officers involved in Floyd’s restraint have been identified as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng. They are under investigation.Separately, a CNN crew was arrested in Minneapolis on live television early Friday after protests overnight about Floyd’s death.As reporter Omar Jimenez, who is black and Latino, and two other crew members were arrested, the camera continued to run. During the incident, Jimenez asked why he was being arrested. CNN said Walz has apologized to the network.Because of Floyd’s “I can’t breathe,” comment, his death was quickly compared to that of Eric Garner, a black man in New York who died in 2014 after a white officer placed him in a chokehold while he begged for his life. Garner also told officers, “I can’t breathe,” a cry that became a national rallying point against the country’s long history of police brutality.Floyd’s death comes weeks after three people were charged with the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in the southern state of Georgia. The African American man was killed in February, allegedly by a white former Glynn County police officer and his son who claim they mistook Arbery for a burglar while he was jogging. The two were charged only after a video of the shooting emerged several weeks later.
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The killing of George Floyd, a Minneapolis black man who died after being pinned by the neck by a white police officer’s knee, has triggered a wave of protests across the country, with many demonstrations held Friday.Protesters were planning marches and rallies to demand that police be held accountable for Floyd’s death, an incident seen on a bystander’s video. The Floyd case also focused attention on local incidents linked to racism and policing. Below is a partial list of cities where protests occurred: Minneapolis  After three nights in which peaceful rallies gave way to arson, looting and vandalism, authorities were on the alert for further unrest on Friday in the country’s epicenter of rage over Floyd’s death, even after the officer who pinned him by the neck was arrested and charged with murder. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz deployed the state’s National Guard in an effort to halt any further destruction after arson and looting the previous night. An Atlanta Police Department vehicle burns as people pose for a photo during a demonstration against police violence, May 29, 2020, in Atlanta.Atlanta  About 1,000 protesters marched from downtown’s Centennial Olympic Park to the state capitol, blocking traffic and an interstate highway along the way. The demonstration was intended not only to call attention to the death of Floyd but also to the February killing of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, a black jogger whose shooting in Brunswick, Georgia, was captured on video. Three white men were charged in his death earlier this month. “I just want people to understand our anger,” protest organizer Zoe Bambara said in a statement. “We have a right to be angry.” Columbus, Ohio Protesters angered by the death of Floyd turned out for a demonstration in Columbus that began peacefully but turned violent early Friday, with windows smashed at the Ohio Statehouse and on storefronts along surrounding downtown streets. Republican Governor Mike DeWine issued a call to unity against racism and police violence and urged protesters to remain peaceful. A participant in a protest over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man in police custody in Minneapolis, squares off with Denver police officers, May 29, 2020, in Denver.DenverOn Friday afternoon, hundreds of people gathered for a second day of protests as police looked on. On Thursday night, Denver police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds where some were vandalizing parked cars at the state capitol and blocking traffic. There were 13 arrests related to the protests.Detroit A “March Against Police Brutality” was held late Friday afternoon outside the Detroit Public Safety Headquarters. Many chanted, “No justice, no peace.” Some of the signs being carried read, “End police brutality,” and “I won’t stop yelling until everyone can breathe.”Houston Hundreds gathered in a protest organized by the group Black Lives Matter at Houston’s City Hall, and the crowd spilled onto Interstate Highway 45’s entrance ramp near downtown Friday. The crowd chanted, “I can’t breathe,” and “No justice, no peace,” local media reported. Las VegasMore than 400 people gathered outside the Bellagio casino, holding signs and chanting, “No justice, no peace,” and “Black lives matter,” before walking north up the Las Vegas Strip, in front of casinos still shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic. Louisville  Following a night of violence in the Kentucky city, police were bracing for more street protests on Friday over the killing of Floyd and several others, including Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police in her Louisville home in March. During a night of protests on Thursday, at least seven people were shot, one critically. New York City police officers confront protesters in the street as they take a knee to demonstrate against the the death of George Floyd.New York Several groups gathered on Friday afternoon for a “We can’t breathe” vigil and rally in lower Manhattan pressing for legislation outlawing the police “chokehold,” used by a city police officer in the 2014 death of Eric Garner, who was also black. Both Garner and Floyd were heard to gasp, “I can’t breathe,” before they lost consciousness. Organizers also are calling for charges to be brought against a white woman who became an infamous social media personality overnight after she called police on a black man in Central Park who asked her to keep her dog on a leash. San Jose, California In a largely peaceful demonstration, hundreds of people marched through the capital of Silicon Valley and temporarily shut down a five-lane section of U.S. Highway 101 in San Jose on Friday to protest Floyd’s death.  Washington, DC Protesters marched Friday to near the White House, congregating at Lafayette Park. The White House was put on lockdown for a short while, according to reporters.The Associated Press contributed to this article. 
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У Фонді державного майна України повідомили про повернення під контроль держави компанії «Центренерго».

«Ми зробили висновки після попередньої невдалої спроби призначити нового керівника компанії і провели одноденну блискавичну операцію: рішення суду, збори наглядової ради, внесення змін до реєстру та представлення нового керівника «Центренерго» Олександра Корчинського. Все це – сьогодні, буквально за 4-5 годин», – написав керівник ФДМУ Дмитро Сенниченко у фейсбуці.

За словами Сенниченка, наступним кроком буде встановлення реального стану «Центренерго» і перетворення компанії з «чорної діри українського бюджету, де зникли близько 100 млрд гривень з 2004 року» на привабливий для приватизації об’єкт.

На сайті ФДМУ стверджується, що «Центренерго» за останні роки став «центром корупції», і на сьогодні в Єдиному реєстрі судових рішень зареєстровано понад 17 тисяч документів по цьому підприємству.

Кабінет міністрів ще 26 лютого погодив пропозицію ФДМ про призначення новим виконувачем обов’язків гендиректора «Центренерго» колишнього менеджера компанії «ТехНова» (Чернігівська ТЕЦ) Олександра Корчинського. Це рішення було заблоковано Окружним адміністративним судом Києва, і зняти судову заборону вдалося тільки наприкінці травня.

До складу «Центренерго» входять три ТЕС: Вуглегірська (Донецька область), Зміївська (Харківська область) і Трипільська (Київська область), сумарна проектна потужність яких становить 7 660 МВт, це близько 14% від загальної потужності електростанцій України. Державі належить понад 78% компанії.
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The Trump administration’s new national intelligence director waded into political waters in his first week on the job, declassifying documents that allies of the president say bolster their contention that former national security adviser Michael Flynn was wrongly pursued.The extraordinary decision to release transcripts of Flynn’s calls with a foreign country’s ambassador, a closely guarded secret for more than three years, is part of an ongoing Trump administration effort to disclose information from the Russia investigation in hopes of suggesting that Obama-era officials acted improperly.The transcripts of calls with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador at the time, provide opportunities for partisans on both sides to advance their perspectives of the investigation.They appear to show, as prosecutors have alleged, that Flynn urged Kislyak to refrain from escalating tensions with the U.S. in response to newly imposed sanctions against Russia. Flynn pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI about that call.But Republicans who maintain that Flynn was simply trying to avoid aggravating the situation with the Kremlin quickly pointed to the transcripts to say the calls were proper. Trump’s Justice Department dismissed the case this month, saying the FBI didn’t have a basis to question Flynn in the first place.FILE – Then-U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 5, 2020.The documents were released Friday by Senate Republicans after being declassified by John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and loyalist of President Donald Trump who was sworn into the job earlier this week.Ratcliffe’s predecessor as intelligence director, Richard Grenell, this month declassified a list of names of intelligence and Obama administration officials who in late 2016 and early 2017 requested to see the identity of an American citizen that was concealed in classified intelligence reports. That name was revealed to be Flynn.There is nothing unusual about that process, known as unmasking, and it’s been more prevalent at the beginning of the Trump administration than it was at the end of the Obama administration. But supporters of the president have suggested that the requests were made for political reasons.
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