'Stop Asian Hate' rallies draw crowds across the country in wake of Atlanta shootings

Across the country, people protested anti-Asian violence after a shooting in Atlanta on March 16 killed eight people, including six Asian women.

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    People in England are enjoying some semblance of normalcy — and pouring their first pints in public — after COVID-19 restrictions eased at midnight Monday, allowing non-essential locations like salons, gyms and pubs to reopen for the first time since January.Why it matters: Britain's partial reopening has come amid one of the world's most successful vaccination campaigns, sharply curbing a COVID-19 outbreak that has killed more people than in any other country in Europe.Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.40 million doses have been administered in the U.K., with over 48% of people receiving at least their first dose, according to Bloomberg's vaccine tracker.The next phase in England's reopening roadmap will see the return of indoor entertainment and possibly international travel on May 17, assuming certain criteria are met. The government is aiming to lift all restrictions on social contact on June 21.In photos Shoppers carry bags in central London Monday. Photo: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images A customer drinks in an outdoor seating area in Warwick, U.K., on Monday. Photo: Darren Staples/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesA solid start to the new reality of outdoor dining in Cranleigh this morning. pic.twitter.com/uSSd88nHdV— Martin Bamford (@martinbamford) April 12, 2021 Terry Morris, mayor of Warwick, right, and Mandy Littlejohn, cheers with their drinks in an outdoor seating area set up in the car park of The Old Fourpenny Shop Hotel in Warwick, U.K., on Monday Photo: Darren Staples/Bloomberg via Getty Images A shopper on Oxford Street in London. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images Customers at the reopening of the Figure of Eight pub, in Birmingham, U.K. Photo: Jacob King/PA Images via Getty Images Customers enjoy a drink at an outside table after the Half Moon pub re-opened in east London Photo: Niklas Hallen'n/AFP via Getty Images John Witts enjoys a drink at the reopening of the Figure of Eight pub, in Birmingham. Photo: Jacob King/PA Images via Getty ImagesLike this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

  • Charles Barkley says he turned down offer to join 'Monday Night Football' broadcast

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  • Recession drama 'Nomadland' wins best film at BAFTA awards

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  • Bafta Film Awards 2021: Snobbery, pianos and other takeaways

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  • One prominent NFL Draft mock has UK’s Kelvin Joseph as a first-rounder

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  • Hornets get some rare good injury news with P.J. Washington’s status

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  • George Floyd’s Brother Breaks Down on the Stand: He ‘Was the Leader in Our House’

    Brandon Bell/GettyGeorge Floyd’s younger brother broke down in tears on the stand Monday as he recalled seeing his sibling for the last time at their mother’s funeral in 2018.“George just sat there at the casket... He would just say ‘mama, mama,’ over and over again,” Philonise Floyd, 39, told jurors in Hennepin County court on Monday. “And I didn’t know what to tell him, because I was in pain, too. We all were hurting. And he was just kissing her, and just kissing her. He didn’t want to leave the casket.”Two years later, his older brother died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes as he pleaded he couldn’t breathe and bystanders begged for mercy.Chauvin, 45, is now on trial for second and third-degree murder as well as second-degree manslaughter. Three other officers—Tou Thao, Thomas K. Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng—will face trial in August on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder while committing a felony, and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence.Pulmonologist: Chauvin’s Knee on Floyd Was Akin to Having ‘a Lung Removed’Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defense lawyer, has argued that Floyd’s death was partially a result of health issues and drugs—and that his client was simply doing what “he was trained to do throughout his 19-year career.” Several current and former Minneapolis police officials, as well as use-of-force experts, all testified on behalf of the government that not only did Chauvin not follow protocol during the May 25 arrest but his actions were “totally unnecessary.”As one of the final witnesses for the prosecution, Floyd’s brother’s gut-wrenching testimony gave jurors a sense of who Floyd was as a person. Breaking down at times, Philonise said his older brother loved to play Double Dribble on Nintendo and was “the leader in our household”—but a terrible cook.“He would always make sure that we had our clothes for school,” Philonise said. “He made sure that we all were going to be to school on time. And like I told you, George couldn’t cook. But he will make sure you have a snack or something to get in the morning. But he—he was one of those people in the community that when they had church outside, people would attend church just because he was there. Nobody would go out there until they seen him. And he just was like a person that everybody loved around the community.”“He just knew how to make people feel better,” he added.But after their mother died in 2018, Floyd had a hard time moving on, his brother said. Philonise said the “big mama’s boy” shared a special bond with their mother and taught his family to treat her with respect.That bond was apparent on May 25, when Floyd called out for his mother several times as Chauvin restrained him on the ground outside CupFoods. Over the last two weeks, several bystanders emotionally described to jurors how they repeatedly asked Chauvin to remove his knee and to check Floyd’s pulse during the arrest. Those witnesses included an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter and EMT—who said she was ignored after repeatedly offering her assistance—as well as an MMA fighter who tried to explain that Chauvin’s chokehold was cutting off Floyd’s circulation.Several teenagers also testified how they begged the officers to stop as Floyd was “gasping for air.”Chauvin ‘Absolutely’ Violated Policy When He Knelt on Floyd: Police ChiefHennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker, who wrote the controversial report on Floyd’s death, testified on Friday that the cops’ restraint “was just more than” Floyd could take. Baker, however, wouldn’t rule out the role of drugs and heart issues in Floyd’s death, providing a small glimmer of hope for Chauvin’s defense team after a devastating week of evidence in which the Minneapolis police chief said the former officer “absolutely” violated protocol, and three renowned medical experts said Floyd died of low oxygen caused by the cops’ actions alone.Cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Rich on Monday testified that Floyd died of “cardiopulmonary arrest” due low oxygen levels after being restrained. He said that while Floyd suffered from anxiety, substance abuse, and high blood pressure, he had an “exceptionally strong” heart and had no threatening conditions.“I can say to a high degree of medical certainty that George Floyd did not die from a primary heart event and he did not die from a drug overdose,” he said, later adding that he saw no evidence “to suggest that a fentanyl overdose caused Mr. Floyd’s death.”“I feel that Mr. Floyd’s death absolutely was preventable,” Rich said.During cross-examination, Nelson questioned Floyd’s high blood pressure—and whether he thought Floyd would have survived the arrest if he “had simply gotten in the back of the squad car?”“Had he not been restrained in the way in which he was, I think he would’ve survived that day,” Rich replied.The Hennepin County Medical Examiner previously concluded Floyd died of cardiac arrest from the restraint and neck compression, also noting that Floyd had heart disease and fentanyl in his system. An independent report commissioned by Floyd’s family, which will not be shown at trial, concluded that he died of strangulation from the pressure to his back and neck. Both reports determined Floyd’s death was a homicide.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Clippers' Paul George is chosen Western Conference player of the week

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  • Lachlan Murdoch Waves Off ADL’s Demand That Fox Fire Tucker Carlson

    Chip SomodevillaFox Corporation Chief Executive Officer Lachlan Murdoch brushed aside the Anti-Defamation League’s call for Fox News to fire Tucker Carlson, claiming in a letter to the group that Fox had no issue with Carlson’s comments that have been seen as a defense of the racist “Great Replacement” theory.In a letter first obtained by CNN, Murdoch wrote to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt that Fox shares the organization’s values and “abhors anti-semitism, white supremacy and racism of any kind.” Murdoch also noted that he “fondly” remembers the group honoring his father Rupert with its International Leadership Award.“Concerning the segment of ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ on April 8th, however, we respectfully disagree,” Murdoch added. “A full review of the guest interview indicates that Mr. Carlson decried and rejected replacement theory. As Mr. Carlson himself stated during the guest interview: ‘White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question.’”Greenblatt, who previously said Carlson had made a “full-on embrace of the white supremacist replacement theory” during a Thursday evening Fox News segment, rejected Murdoch’s excuse in a follow-up letter on Monday.“As you noted in your letter, ADL honored your father over a decade ago, but let me be clear that we would not do so today, and it does not absolve you, him, the network, or its board from the moral failure of not taking action against Mr. Carlson,” Greenblatt stated.Responding to Murdoch’s claims that Carlson rejected “white replacement theory,” Greenblatt wrote, “Mr. Carlson’s attempt to at first dismiss this theory, while in the very next breath endorsing it under cover of ‘a voting rights question,’ does not give him free license to invoke a white supremacist trope.”The ADL chief continued: “In fact, it’s worse, because he’s using a straw man—voting rights—to give an underhanded endorsement of white supremacist beliefs while ironically suggesting it’s not really white supremacism. While your response references a ‘full review’ of the interview, it seems the reviewers missed the essential point here.”During his guest appearance on Fox News Primetime last Thursday, Carlson drew condemnation from the ADL and other Jewish groups for seemingly espousing the same racist conspiracy that inspired the white supremacist mass murders in Christchurch, El Paso, and Pittsburgh.“Now, I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’ if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World,” Carlson declared on Thursday night. “But they become hysterical because that’s what's happening actually. Let’s just say it. That’s true.”And after he supposedly dismissed “white replacement theory” by instead claiming it was a “voting-rights question,” Carlson went on to say this: “I have less political power because they are importing a brand new electorate. Why should I sit back and take that? The power that I have as an American guaranteed at birth is one man, one vote, and they are diluting it. No, they are not allowed to do it. Why are we putting up with this?”Calling Carlson’s remarks “anti-Semitic, racist and toxic,” Greenblatt called on the Fox News star’s ouster, saying “Tucker must go.” Progressive Jewish group J Street said it was “horrifying that Fox News continues to empower Tucker Carlson and other white nationalist ideologues to broadcast this kind of hateful poison into the homes of tens of millions of Americans.”Just as he did in his initial letter to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott calling for Carlson’s termination, Greenblatt brought up several other instances where Carlson has sparked controversy with his racist or xenophobic commentary in his message to Murdoch.“At a time of intense polarization, this kind of rhetoric galvanizes extremists and lights the fire of violence,” Greenblatt concluded. “As a news organization with a responsibility to the public and as a corporation with a responsibility to its shareholders, it is time for you to act.”Carlson, meanwhile, kicked off his top-rated primetime program on Monday night by doubling down on his comments while simultaneously mocking anyone who took offense at them.“It is amusing to see them keep at it,” the Fox News star laughed over the ADL’s calls that he be taken off the air. “They get so enraged! It’s a riot!”Insisting that his “original point” on Thursday night is “true,” Carlson then spent roughly 20 minutes defending his assertion that the Democratic Party is actively “replacing” Americans with immigrants, largely from Latin America.“Demographic change is the key to the Democratic Party’s political ambitions,” he said. “In order to win and maintain power, Democrats plan to change the population of the country.”“A nation’s leadership admitting they hope to replace their own citizens? It seems grotesque,” Carlson added in his lengthy monologue. “If you believed in democracy, you would work to protect the potency of every citizen’s vote, obviously. You wonder if people even debate questions like this in countries that don’t hate themselves.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Will Smith pulls production of movie ‘Emancipation’ from Georgia over voting law row

    ‘We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws’

  • The Minnesota Twins and Timberwolves have postponed their games after Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by police

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  • There’s Nothing ‘Hypocritical’ About Punishing Georgia for Punishing Voters

    Scott McIntyre/GettyWhen Major League Baseball relocated the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver in response to Georgia’s new voting law, Fox News was quick to react. “Is the White House concerned that Major League baseball is moving their All-Star Game to Colorado, where voting regulations are very similar to Georgia?” Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki last week.The network also featured Brian Kemp, governor of Georgia and former secretary of state there, claiming that it was “hypocritical” to move the game to Colorado, which, after all, has only half the number of early voting days and more strenuous ID requirements than those the new Georgia law has enacted. In a Republican National Lawyers Association Q&A this week, Kemp said the battle over the law—which pits Georgia-based companies and voting-rights activists against the state’s Republicans—represented the “fight of our lives” against “cancel culture.”All of this misses the point. It is futile to attempt an apples-to-apples comparison of one state’s voting policies to another’s, because there are wide variations in local voting cultures, demographics, geographies, and legal idiosyncrasies. Comparing Georgia’s voting requirements to Colorado’s without this context is like asking why you can play Beethoven on a piano but not a tambourine, as both happen to be instruments.Whoopi Goldberg Cuts Off Meghan McCain’s MLB Georgia Rant: ‘Are You Done?’For example, although it is factually true that Georgia has double the number of early voting days as Colorado, it’s important to acknowledge that most Georgians vote in person while almost no Coloradans do. To say that this is an advantage over Colorado is to fundamentally misunderstand how Coloradans vote. And the proof is in the numbers: Turnout in 2020 was 10 percentage points higher in Colorado than it was in Georgia. It’s unpersuasive to claim that your state is the same as another state when the results are so different, akin to two stores with the exact same security policies but with far different rates of theft because, say, one store is in a mall and the other is in an outdoor market.These misleading comparisons between states show the need for a smarter measuring stick. We should compare states to themselves. Would this bill make voting in this state harder to access than the current rules do? That standard would enable appropriate scrutiny of states that choose to make their own laws worse, negating the need for red-state-blue-state pissing matches, and instead holding the line and demanding states don’t undo their own good work.“If we want to talk about comparing one state to comparing the other, let’s see what trajectory they’re on,” Bob Brandon, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Fair Elections Center, recently told NBC News. Similarly, Justin Levitt, law professor at Loyola Law School at Loyola Marymount University in California, rejected state-by-state comparisons. Having an outdated law on the books is a lot different from “looking back on that law, in the current context, and saying, ‘Yeah, we need one of those,’” he said. “‘Somebody else screwed up’ is not an excuse for screwing up. That’s the inane part about whatabout-ism.”But that whatabout-ism is how politicians and the media have been focusing their attention. They are distracted by essentially meaningless rankings of states’ “ease of access,” pulled from data that is not uniformly collected or may be entirely based on one activism group’s interpretation of the laws as expansive or restrictive—hardly scientific comparisons. Today, conservative media outlets superficially compare the Georgia law to other states with no context. Not a single one has asked, “Does this make it easier for the exact same people in the same state to vote in the way they just did?” The restrictions of the new law may not affect turnout, but they won’t make voting easier or elections better either. It is far simpler, and more logical, to question whether a state is improving or worsening its own standards, and in light of what the standards have been in the immediate past.Take Kentucky. It is the only state with a Republican-controlled legislature that has passed bills so far this session to expand voting access. The state will now have three days of early voting, up from none, and firmer security and ease of access measures around absentee voting. It helps that the state has a governor with a “D” by his name, and also that Kentucky didn’t have to do much to make voting easier. As part of its response to the pandemic, Kentucky offered early and absentee voting for the first time. Once voters realized what a hassle voting had been when they only had a single day to vote in person in the middle of the week, there was no turning back. The voters demanded it become law.Most Republican-controlled state legislatures are poised to do the opposite: Legislation has been introduced that would make laws materially worse for voters, all based on the lie that the election was compromised by fraud. The Georgia law, while it does expand early voting and is a far cry from the horrors of the original legislation, will still produce new barriers for Georgians compared with access in 2020. It gives the state far stricter controls over the counties, essentially makes dropboxes useless, and prevents elections officials from sending absentee-ballot applications out to voters proactively. It also allows partisan groups to challenge the eligibility of an infinite number of voters, with essentially no limitations.Conservatives have also found a carrier for their grievances in the idea that blue states with restrictive voter laws are ignored while red states that introduce the same laws have big baseball games ripped away from them. Connecticut has no early voting at all. Neither does Delaware, the home of President Joe Biden. New Jersey just adopted nine days, the fifth-shortest window in the country, and New York only has 10. Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey also have far more restrictive absentee-ballot requirements than almost every state, including those in the Republican South. So why, they ask, do the Republican states end up getting all the criticism?While as a Texan I have long harbored the same frustration—when I lived in New York, for example, I could only vote in in-person at my precinct on Election Day (the 10 early days were introduced last year), and in Texas I can vote for 15 days anywhere in the county—the argument is unproductive. With the latest round of voting legislation, blue states are moving far more rapidly toward modern standards while Republican states are aggressively attempting to roll back what little advantages they had over their bluer counterparts (assuming, of course, they ever really had them). Since I’ve left New York, it has adopted early voting and updated its absentee-ballot requirements. It has implemented ranked-choice voting and synchronized federal and state primary schedules.Meanwhile, my home state has gone rapidly in the other direction. As in Georgia and other Republican-led states, proposals in Texas would restrict access to some of its best voting policies by banning drive-through voting (implemented with great success by Harris County, home of Houston), limiting absentee ballots and reducing early voting. Even the most draconian of these laws will still allow voters more time to vote early than those in Delaware, Connecticut, and New Jersey—but that’s not much comfort to a Texan.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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  • George Floyd's younger sibling tells court: 'I miss my brother'

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