Sunday News: “SpaceX Launch Marks Start of New Era”; “Fire, pestilence and a country at war with itself”; Protests Across America, Including in Roanoke, Richmond, etc.; “In a sad week for America, Trump has fled from his duty”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, May 31.

• Annexing the West Bank Is a Brazen Violation of International Law (“It would also render the territory into a patchwork of simmering, unstable Palestinian areas, forever threatening a new intifada.”)
• Trump, Putin and Bolsonaro find their populist playbooks are no match for coronavirus
• Trump Plans Expanded Fall G-7 Meeting With Russia, Others (His BFF Putin, eh?)
• Trump calls for delay in Group of 7 meeting, seeks expansion
• Trump Has Already Put Himself in No Position to Help Hong Kong (“He has neither the leverage, the diplomatic skill, nor the credibility.”)
• SpaceX Pulled It Off
• SpaceX Launch Marks Start of New Era
• SpaceX finally sent humans to space. What happens next? (“Privately owned orbital human spaceflights are here. A new era of commercialized space travel begins.”)
• More Than a Dozen Cities Under Curfew As Floyd Protests Spread: Live Updates
• Scenes from Saturday night’s protests across the country
• Two Crises Convulse a Nation: A Pandemic and Police Violence (“Emotions were already raw over the toll of a pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 people across the country and cost millions of jobs.”)
• George Floyd Protests Live Updates: Fury and Frustration in Cities Across U.S. (“Police cars were set ablaze, stores were looted and fires raged in at least 75 cities as mayors declared curfews and the National Guard was deployed. Protests also reached the gates of the White House. ‘We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us,’ former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said on Sunday. ‘We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us.'”)
• Trump threatens protesters with “vicious dogs.” Some note they’ve seen that before.
• Trump Threatens White House Protesters With ‘Vicious Dogs’ and ‘Ominous Weapons’
• In Days of Discord, a President Fans the Flames
• Trump calls Floyd death ‘grave tragedy,’ decries violent protests in Florida speech
• What Top Conservatives Are Saying About George Floyd and Police Brutality (“For those on the right whose usual instinct is to stand up for law enforcement, the stark video showing Mr. Floyd being fatally pinned by a police officer raises conflicting feelings about the incident.”)
• Protests Over Police Killings Rage in Dozens of U.S. Cities
• In a sad week for America, Trump has fled from his duty
• Scenes of ‘Urban Warfare’ Erupt from Miami to Seattle
• FBI’s top lawyer, Dana Boente, ousted amid Fox News criticism for role in Flynn investigation (“Boente was asked to resign on Friday and two sources familiar with the decision to dismiss him said it came from high levels of the Justice Department rather than directly from FBI Director Christopher Wray.” WTF?)
• Grief, Outrage Over George Floyd Spreads Further
• Fire, pestilence and a country at war with itself: the Trump presidency is over (“Trump’s nonfeasance goes far beyond an absence of leadership or inattention to traditional norms and roles. In a time of national trauma, he has relinquished the core duties and responsibilities of the presidency. He is no longer president. The sooner we stop treating him as if he were, the better.”)
• Racial wounds rip open under a president with a history of exploiting them
• Trump Tries to Sink Twitter, His Oldest Enabler (“The president’s two strongest instincts stand pitted against each other: his need for attention and his need to punish enemies.”)
• GOP deeply divided over Trump’s social media crackdown
• George Floyd’s Brother Says Trump Was Dismissive On Condolence Call (“’He didn’t give me the opportunity to even speak,’ Philonise Floyd said.”)
• Trump Uses SpaceX Launch To Criticize Protesting ‘Thugs’ And ‘Angry Mobs’ (“He threatened protesters, saying that ‘mob violence’ would be stopped ‘cold.'”)
• Joe Biden: We are a nation furious at injustice.
• This is why Colin Kaepernick took a knee
• Fiery Clashes Between Police and Protesters
• Officials blame outsiders for violence in Minnesota but contradict one another on who is responsible
• ‘There are anarchists’: Minnesota officials say ‘outside agitators’ are hijacking peaceful protests
• Jail records show most arrested in Minneapolis riots have Minnesota addresses
• As Minneapolis burns, mayor takes heat for the response
• It’s Also Important to Focus on “The Other Three” Police Officers Who Didn’t Stop Derek Chauvin
• Attorney General Barr: Peaceful protests over George Floyd ‘hijacked’ by ‘far left extremist groups’ (Don’t believe a word Barr says on *anything*. As the article says, “Minnesota officials said Saturday many of the protesters in Minneapolis were from outside the state, and said they were investigating whether some outside agitators had links to white supremacist groups.”)
• Biden staff donate to group that pays bail in riot-torn Minneapolis
• Far-Right Infiltrators and Agitators in George Floyd Protests: Indicators of White Supremacists
• Authorities suspect white supremacists and far-left extremists are behind violence at protests
• Outsiders, extremists are among those fomenting violence in Twin Cities
• Trump is right that free speech is in danger. But he won’t admit the danger is him.
• Advantage Biden, with risks; Trump disapproval grows: POLL (“Joe Biden holds a 10-point lead over President Donald Trump among registered voters in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, but that’s sliced in half among those certain to vote, reflecting challenges for Biden in terms of voter commitment and enthusiasm alike. Trump has his own risks, including sharply negative views of the economy and greater criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. His overall job approval rating is back under water, 45-53% among all Americans, with a seven-point rise in disapproval since late March.”)
• Jimmy Kimmel Begs Older Americans to Vote Donald Trump Out of Office
• Think Outside the Box, Jack (“Trump, Twitter and the society-crushing pursuit of monetized rage.”)
• George Floyd’s death prompts second night of D.C. protests, clashes with Secret Service
• Bowser Fires Back At Trump, Calling His Comments An ‘Attack On Black America’
• Audio: Former Rep. Tom Garrett (R-VA05) Rips Current Rep. Denver Riggleman (R), Endorses Challenger Bob Good (“What a letdown on individual liberty and freedom and this is not what he ran as.”)
• Video: VA01 Dem Candidate Qasim Rashid Calls Out Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01)’s “Tone Deaf,” “Offensive” Statement on George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, etc.
• Despite Northam’s public health credentials, some Virginians question his leadership during pandemic (It feels like we’ve seen variants of this same article multiple times now, in various Virginia newspapers.)
• Video: VA House Majority Leader Charniele Herring – the First African American to Hold that Position in the State’s History – Speaks Powerfully About George Floyd’s Murder
• Video: “Virginia Graduates Together” with Gov. Northam, First Lady Pam Northam, Senators Kaine and Warner, Athletes, Coaches, Celebrities…and the Class of 2020
• Saturday (5/30) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +1,078 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 43,611), +72 Hospitalizations (to 4,601), +12 Deaths (to 1,370 From Yesterday)
• A second night of outrage erupts in Virginia
• Marchers decry brutality, call for equality during Charlottesville protest
• Editorial: What we learned from Virginia’s vote-by-mail municipal elections
• VLBC Mourns the Deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd & Calls on the Crime Commission to Immediately Take Action in the Commonwealth
• Liberty U. Professor Resigns After Falwell’s “Governor Blackface” Mask Tweets (“Falwell did so at the expense of Black people and Black pain. This is abhorrent, evil and sickening! This does not reflect the God of the Bible!”)
• Video: Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj – “I don’t know if I’m more mad at Chauvin or am I more mad at the other three”
• Roanoke protest ends not long after firework thrown at officers (“Organizers say this was not the same group as downtown protesters from Saturday afternoon”)
• Hundreds protest death of George Floyd in downtown Roanoke
• Crowd ordered to disperse after fireworks or flare thrown at police in downtown Roanoke
• Demonstrators rally, march in Roanoke following George Floyd’s death
• Petersburg Police Chief stands alongside protesters demanding justice
• Daughters of Confederacy headquarters on fire, 2 Capitol Police offers injured as violence erupts during second night of protesting in Richmond
• Police: At least 1 shot during overnight protests in Richmond
• 4 protesters arrested during standoff with police in riot gear overnight in Hampton
• Newport News pastors to host event Sunday to ‘speak with power in peace’
• A year later, Virginia Beach is still healing from mass shooting
• Editorial: One year since shooting, we remember
• Gordon C. Morse: Southwest Virginia remains a region in need
• Multiple videos, dozens of photos of former Dominion Energy building imploding in Richmond (Now let’s do the same to Dominion’s old business model.)
• Springtime bliss for the last day of May; could hit 90 degrees by midweek