Month: May 2020

He did not mention the death of George Floyd during the White House event.

President Donald Trump on Friday announced sanctions on China over its approach to Hong Kong and said he would end the United States’ relationship with the World Health Organization over its handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to worldwide and deserving, urgent global public health needs,” Trump said.

Trump had last week threatened that the U.S. would permanently stop funding the W.H.O. and withdraw from the United Nations agency unless it made “major substantive improvements within the next 30 days.”

Only 11 days has elapsed since he issued that threat. Trump’s moves to pull U.S. funding for WHO have been widely criticized, particularly for ceding the global stage to China even as he criticizes the organization for being too deferential to Beijing.

During his remarks in the White House Rose Garden on Friday afternoon, Trump focused entirely on China and took no questions from reporters, despite the White House’s billing the event as a news conference.

He did not mention the death of George Floyd, a black man who was seen pinned down in a video by a white police officer in Minneapolis and later died, or the ensuing protests across the country.

At the end of his remarks, Trump walked away as reporters shouted questions about Floyd and Minnesota.

The president said he was directing his administration to “begin the process” of ending the special trade relationship with Hong Kong and impose sanctions on unspecified Chinese officials tied to China’s latest moves on Hong Kong, taking action “to revoke Hong Kong’s preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory from the rest of China.”

China’s rubber-stamp parliament on Thursday endorsed with thunderous applause a controversial new law to ban all “activities” in Hong Kong that endanger China’s national security.

The yet-to-be-drafted law would ultimately be enacted in Hong Kong by decree, bypassing the local lawmaking process. The Asian financial center is supposed to have a high degree of autonomy from Beijing under the “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement put in place when the former British colony was handed back to China.

“China’s latest incursion, along with other recent developments that degraded the territory’s freedoms, makes clear that Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to warrant the special treatment that we have afforded the territory since the handover” of the territory from Britain to China, Trump said.

He said the announcement “will affect the full range of agreements we have with Hong Kong from our extradition treaty to our export controls on dual use technologies and more with a few exceptions,” he said. “We will be revising the State Department’s travel advisory for Hong Kong to reflect the increased danger of surveillance and punishment by the Chinese state security apparatus.”

Trump said the United States would also move to sanction Chinese and Hong Kong officials who have been “directly or indirectly involved in eroding Hong Kong’s autonomy” and “smothering, absolutely smothering Hong Kong’s freedom.”

Trump also announced restrictions on Chinese nationals coming to study at U.S. universities, and he said he would instruct a working group to look at the practices of Chinese companies listed on U.S. financial markets.

“Investment firms should not be subjecting their clients to the hidden and undue risks associated with financing Chinese companies that do not play by the same rules,” he said. “Americans are entitled to fairness and transparency.”

He later signed a proclamation barring the entry of Chinese students tied to the Chinese military from entering the U.S. to study or conduct research above the undergraduate level, arguing Chinese “authorities use some Chinese students, mostly post graduate students and post-doctorate researchers, to operate as non-traditional collectors of intellectual property.”

The proclamation, which goes into effect indefinitely starting Monday, provided exemptions for U.S. permanent residents and their spouses, the spouses of American citizens, people seeking asylum and a few other limited categories.

Images of armed Minnesota National Guardsmen on the streets of Minneapolis and President Donald Trump‘s controversial tweet suggesting a further military role have raised questions about what guardsmen can do to control the violence in Minneapolis and whether the active duty military has any role at all.

On Thursday, Gov. Tim Walz activated 500 Minnesota National Guardsmen to provide support to local law enforcement in Minneapolis.

While the guardsmen are armed and equipped in camouflage uniforms, they are only in a support role to local law enforcement. At a Friday news conference, Walz repeatedly emphasized that the National Guard “is not a police force.”

Maj. Gen. Jon Jensen, the adjutant general of the Minnesota National Guard, said at the same news conference that his guardsmen were armed because of intelligence from the FBI that indicated “a credible threat” to his force.

Jensen said Walz authorized his recommendation that the guardsmen be armed as they deployed Thursday night. He declined to disclose what rules of engagement the guardsmen were operating under, but noted that they retained the right of self-defense.

He also said that the guardsmen do not have the authority to carry out arrests; they are accompanied by law enforcement personnel who can carry out that arrest.

Jensen said his guardsmen had four missions: to protect the state capitol building, to provide security at the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center, to provide security at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and to escort fire department personnel into “unsecure” and “dangerous” areas.

In a statement provided to ABC News, the Minnesota National Guard said they are also “forming lines between protestors and sites that are at risk of being harmed.”

“We’re not authorized to disclose any specifics about our tactics or use of force,” said the statement. “The Guardsmen are activated to protect life, preserve property and to ensure the right of people to peacefully demonstrate in Minneapolis and its surrounding communities.”

Jensen said the security missions at the buildings freed up local law enforcement to be available to respond to any potential disturbances.

Overnight, President Trump’s tweets added to the confusion about the military’s role. “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,” Trump said in tweets that Twitter later flagged as violating the social media platform’s rules about glorifying violence.

Each state and territory in the United States has a National Guard that is under the direct control of a state’s governor. They can be federalized for national missions, but that is not the same as the president’s taking over a state’s guard.

Active duty military refers to professional military service members who perform their job as a full-time job. National Guardsmen are part of the military but are civilians who after their initial professional training continue to regularly train in uniform several times a month.

Under the post-Civil War law known as Posse Comitatus, the U.S. active duty military is forbidden from carrying out law enforcement duties. That ban can only be waived if a President declares a national emergency.

State National Guards can carry out a variety of duties in response to natural disasters and times of crisis, and that can include crowd control. They can also be armed for specific missions but can use their weapons in self-defense, just like all military personnel.

National Guardsmen are trained in crowd control techniques and use visored helmets, shields, batons — techniques designed to minimize any escalations in violence.

The 1970 Kent State University shootings, when four students were killed and nine others were wounded from fire by the Ohio National Guard, continues to haunt the national consciousness.

That shooting highlighted how Guard commanders employed combat techniques for a civilian crowd control event. The deadly shootings spurred reforms that led to the development of less lethal crowd control tactics and training designed to de-escalate tensions by law enforcement agencies.

That training continues, but local law enforcement has also moved toward employing paramilitary gear and equipment in preparation for violent protests, particularly by SWAT tactical teams that sometimes wear camouflage uniforms and use armored vehicles that can be used in different scenarios.

Reinforcing that was a Tweet on Friday from the Minnesota National Guard that pointed out that not everyone on the streets of Minneapolis who is wearing a camouflage uniform is a National Guardsman.

“Law enforcement uniforms can be hard to tell apart. Not everyone you see in camouflage is part of the @MNNationalGuardm,” said the tweet. “Our Guardsmen have @USArmy and @usairforce patches and wear U.S. flags on their sleeves to identify them. We live in your communities and we are here to help.”

“When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” Trump tweeted.

Twitter has flagged a tweet from the official White House Twitter account which reposted the text of a tweet President Donald Trump sent early Friday morning, saying “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” claiming the tweets violated its rules about “glorifying violence.”

The tweets were in reference to the ongoing unrest in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd.

“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!” Trump tweeted shortly before 1 a.m. Friday.

The official White House account reposted the language of President Trump’s tweet Friday morning after it had already been flagged by Twitter.

The tweets are now only visible if “view” is clicked.

“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible,” the social media company said.

Trump’s use of the “looting” phrase evoked a dark page in American history as it was used by a Miami official in the 1960s.

The president doubled down on his statement Friday afternoon, tweeting “nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media.”

Replying to its own flagged tweet which repeated the text of Trump’s flagged message, the official White House Twitter account later argued that Trump was actually condemning violence.

Without addressing the Twitter guidelines that got his tweet flagged earlier Friday morning, Trump responded to Twitter saying the social media giant only targets Republicans.

“Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party,” Trump tweeted. “They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated.”

After protesters overtook the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct and set it on fire, Trump lashed out at local officials and said the military could take over the response to the protests.

“I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership,” Trump tweeted. “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.”

Frey responded to Trump at an early-morning press conference Friday, saying that type of finger point is weak.

“Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your actions. Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis,” Frey said. “Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis. We are strong as hell. Is this a difficult time period? Yes. But you better be damn sure that we’re gonna get through this.”

First Lady Melania Trump also chimed in on the protests on Twitter, saying, “there is no reason for violence” and the country needs to focus on healing. She noted in the tweet how she’s seen Americans come together in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Floyd, who is black, was seen pinned down in a video by a white police officer and later died. He could be heard screaming, “I can’t breathe,” on the video of the incident.

The video of Floyd’s death has now caused outrage in the city of Minneapolis and all over the country. Residents of the city have protested his death since Tuesday.

This is the second time this week Twitter has taken action against Trump’s tweets.

It previously flagged two of Trump’s tweets about mail-in voting in California, saying Trump’s tweets were “potentially misleading” about elections.

Trump responded to the flags by issuing an executive order Thursday targeting social media companies.

He said the order allows for new regulations so that social media companies “that engage in censoring or any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield.”

This report was featured in the Friday, May 29, 2020, episode of “Start Here,” ABC News’ daily news podcast.

“Start Here” offers a straightforward look at the day’s top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts.

“We need to move forward … soberly, eyes wide open.” Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

As California moves into Phase 3 of the state’s reopening approach, Gov. Gavin Newsom said his biggest concern is the public forgets the reality of the coronavirus outbreak they’ve experienced.

California, which is the most populous state in the U.S., was one of the first to declare a state of emergency for the coronavirus pandemic. As of Tuesday, hair salons and barbershops can reopen their doors across most of the state.

He said during his appearance on “The View” Friday that the state needs to progress “soberly,” with “eyes wide open” as it reopens.

“As evidence presents itself, we need to be able to pull those brakes and pull back,” he added.

“My biggest fear is amnesia. My biggest fear is that we forget the reality of the last eight weeks, nine, 10 weeks in the state and in this nation and imperil, put ourselves at real risk of not just a second wave but recognizing that we’re not even out of the first wave of this pandemic,” Newsom continued.

On Monday, California released a framework that will permit counties to allow in-person worship services. They include limiting worshipers to 100 or less, taking everyone’s temperature, limiting singing and group recitations and not sharing prayer books or other items.

“We hope people do this in a very thoughtful and methodical way,” Newsom said Friday of reopening houses of worship in the state. “All of this is imperfect; perfect’s not on the menu.”

“We’re trying our best to accommodate people’s faith, their needs, businesses’ needs to reopen, people’s need and desire to get back out, but to do so safely,” Newsom added. “I’m still humbled by all of this because it is a daunting challenge for governors all across the political spectrum, all across this country.”

Despite the horrific impact the coronavirus outbreak has has around the world, Newsom said he takes solace in the fact that now the public has a “deeper understanding of [the] novel virus” and has in many ways become “deeply humbled” by the unknown that’s been revealed.

“That’s a frame of reference all of us have to bring into this next phase as we start to reopen our economy, to recognize that we are walking and venturing into the unknown, the untested,” Newsom continued. “We have to be open to argument, interested in evidence.”

“We can’t be ideological about how we conduct ourselves. But fundamentally as a nation, certainly as [the] state [of] California, we’re more prepared than we were certainly eight weeks ago,” Newsom added. “[We’re] more capable and more confident in our capacity to get through this and recover and thrive once again.”

On May 8, Newsom signed an executive order to send mail-in ballots to every voter in the state for the November 2020 election. At the time, he said it was intended to protect registered voters from the virus by giving them the option of voting by mail if they considered it too risky to brave potentially crowded polling stations to cast their ballot in the Nov. 3 general election.

The Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and California Republican Party filed a lawsuit against the governor and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Monday accusing them of using the coronavirus pandemic as “a ploy” to “rewrite the entire election code for the November 2020 election.”

“We believe that we should not substitute people’s public health and safety as it relates to their right to exercise their constitutional right to exercise a vote,” Newsom said on “The View” Friday. “We believe you can do that in a thoughtful safe manner by providing more opportunity though vote by mail.”

As flu season and the potential for a second wave to emerge in the fall, Newsom said he wants to provide Californians the opportunity to vote by mail, particularly when it comes to those most vulnerable to the novel virus, such as senior communities.

“We want to encourage them in a safe manner,” Newsom said. “We think that’s just foundational and fundamental to any good democracy.”

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Amid President Donald Trump’s charge that voting by mail is ripe with fraud potential, there are worries that such claims, in addition to the subsequent lawsuits that have followed, politicize state efforts to expand mail-in voting, and could cost some Americans a vital opportunity to have their votes counted.

The Republican National Committee has intervened in legal battles across the country, including New Mexico, Michigan and Arizona to limit mail-in ballot expansions.

In California, the RNC filed a lawsuit seeking to have Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order automatically issuing an absentee ballot by mail to every registered state voter, overturned and declared unlawful.

“Democrats continue to use this pandemic as a ploy to implement their partisan election agenda, and Governor Newsom’s executive order is the latest direct assault on the integrity of our elections,” said Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “Newsom’s illegal power grab is a recipe for disaster that would destroy the confidence Californians deserve to have in the security of their vote.”

Some election experts, however, argue that continued legal action, as states race against time and limited financial resources, could potentially have a negative effect on citizens looking to cast their vote amid concerns of a second coronavirus outbreak this fall.

“Litigation that is aimed at making it harder for people to vote in a pandemic really does threaten not only the ability of voters to vote, but voter’s confidence in the fairness and the legitimacy of the process,” said Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California Irvine.

The RNC also got involved in a lawsuit brought by Democrats in Florida, that requested the state to count votes coming in after Election Day and permit ballot harvesting—the practice where a voter fills out an absentee ballot and entrusts it to another person to take it to a ballot-drop off location or a mail center.

Trump, who has often railed against mail voting, took aim at efforts in two battleground states — Michigan and Nevada — aimed at making it easier to obtain an absentee or mail-in ballot. He threatened to cut off federal funding to those states over what he claimed were “illegal” tactics.

In West Virginia, a mail carrier was charged with attempted election fraud after allegedly changing voter requests from a Democratic ballot, to a Republican one, according to the Department of Justice.

While election experts have dispelled the notion of widespread improprieties with mail-in voting, incidents like this give Trump and officials seeking further restrictions concrete examples to reference.

Another issue complicating the job of state governments in proceeding with their vote-by-mail efforts is addressing early indications of how various demographic groups are preparing to participate in upcoming elections, given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

A study from New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice found that white voters in Georgia are shifting their behavior to mail-in voting by larger numbers compared to minority voters. White voters make up 25% of the voters who have already requested their mail ballots, compared to 17% of black voters and 11% of Latinos.

“There’s evidence that members of all racial groups are shifting to what lots of people are saying is a safer and healthier option of voting by mail,” said Kevin Morris, a quantitative researcher NYU’s Brennan Center, who wrote the report. “There’s good reason for some voters in Georgia to be nervous about what will happen if they don’t follow the law to the letter in submitting absentee ballot applications.”

In Fulton County, the largest and most diverse county in Georgia, local election officials are scrambling to keep up with a backlog of absentee ballot applications that have voters worried about whether they’ll receive their ballot on time ahead of the state’s June 9th primary. No other county in the state is reported to have had a processing problem as extensive as the one in Fulton County.

The processing backlog is troubling given that the county previously faced charges of voter suppression in 2017, when 50,000 voters received letters saying their voting status would be declared as inactive because they didn’t update the address on their voter registration cards. The American Civil Liberties Union also filed a lawsuit following the 2018 election arguing that long lines and ineffective voting machines in Fulton County prevented many people from voting.

In a briefing with reporters, Fulton County Elections Director Rick Barren acknowledged the slowdown and attributed it to a staffer being diagnosed with COVID-19, resulting in a processing center being closed for several days.

Officials from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, however, determined that Fulton County wasn’t reviewing all of the absentee ballot request applications in real-time.

“They made a decision that they were going to process all their paper ones that were mailed in first and then go back and process the ones that were e-mailed,” said Election Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling. “So they literally caught up on that particular thing this past weekend.”

According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, the state saw only 40,000 mail ballots counted in the 2016 general primary elections, but has now processed and sent out more than a million ballots in response to the surge triggered by concerns about contracting the coronavirus at a polling center.

“Are there problems on the ground? Yes. And that was highlighted in Fulton County’s case,” said Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs. “There are always going to be issues in extremely populous urban areas that have more voters than a lot of these counties combined, so the county should probably get some grace here.”

Meanwhile in the Southwest, temperatures are breaking records.

There were seven reports of tornadoes in Illinois Thursday along with widespread scattered severe storms that produced damaging winds and large hail from Texas to the Carolinas as well.

In the last seven days, 6 to 8 inches of rain fell in Kansas City, and Thursday’s downpour produced flash flooding in the city, where dozens of water rescues were performed.

Part of the same storm system and a cold front will move into the Northeast Friday, producing severe weather. Damaging winds, hail and an isolated tornado are possible from Virginia to Vermont.

Meanwhile in the Southwest, parts of the region are sizzling and setting heat records. The temperature reached 120 degrees Thursday in Death Valley, which is the hottest temperature in the country so far this year.

A record high was broken in Hanford, California, where temperatures reached 106 degrees. In Phoenix, the city reached its warmest temperature of the year at 109 degrees.

Sacramento, California, reached 102 degrees Thursday, which was the 4th day in a row at 100 degrees or higher. This has never happened in the month of May in Sacramento.

Major cooling is occurring Friday in northern California, but the heat remains in the southern part of the state and into Nevada and Arizona where heat warnings continue. The hottest day of the year is expected in Phoenix Friday, with a temperature forecast of 111 degrees.

Some of that cooling from northern California will eventually spill into the Southwest and temperatures there will be slightly cooler this weekend.

Four months after filing a lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, the former companion of deceased sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein, lawyers for an alleged child sexual assault victim say they have been unable to locate Maxwell to serve her with the complaint, despite exhaustive attempts to track her down, according to court records.

The anonymous accuser, Jane Doe, is the earliest known alleged victim of Epstein’s years-long pattern of sexual abuse of girls and young women. And she’s the third woman suing Maxwell to seek court intervention as a last resort, following months of futile efforts to find the 58-year-old British socialite — who has been accused of aiding Epstein’s alleged crimes.

“[The plaintiff] has demonstrated that personally serving Maxwell is impracticable by making numerous diligent attempts to effectuate service — to no avail,” Doe’s attorney Robert Glassman wrote in a filing in federal court.

Doe’s legal team dispatched process servers to five addresses previously connected to Maxwell, including a multi-million dollar brownstone on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, an apartment building in Miami Beach and Epstein’s mansion on Palm Beach Island, according to court documents. They also sent copies of the complaint to eight different email addresses potentially connected to Maxwell, but received no replies.

Since Epstein’s arrest last July and his death in jail a month later, Maxwell’s whereabouts have been the subject of rumors and intense speculation. She has not been seen in public for months. She sold her former home in New York and shuttered her nonprofit ocean conservation foundation.

The Oxford-educated daughter of Robert Maxwell, the larger-than-life publishing titan, Ghislaine Maxwell lived an extravagant life among the British elite until her father’s empire collapsed in the wake of his death in 1991. She relocated to New York for a fresh start and was soon spotted frequently in the company of the enigmatic multi-millionaire Epstein.

Sources tell ABC News that Maxwell remains under criminal investigation by federal authorities in New York, who have vowed to hold responsible any alleged co-conspirators in Epstein’s sex trafficking conspiracy.

Doe is one of three women to name Maxwell as a co-defendant in lawsuits against Epstein’s estate, which is valued at $634 million, according to court filings in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Epstein kept his primary residence on a private Caribbean island off the coast of St. Thomas.

Doe, 39, filed the complaint in January, alleging that she was recruited by Epstein and Maxwell at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan in 1994, when she was a 13-year-old music student. She contends that she was sexually abused by Epstein on multiple occasions over the next four years, and that Maxwell “regularly facilitated Epstein’s abuse” and was “frequently present when it occurred.”

Epstein attended a music camp at Interlochen as a young teen in 1967, according to a statement released last year by the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He was a donor to the center from 1990 until 2003 and funded construction of a cabin on the campus, which was called “The Epstein Lodge,” until his arrest in 2006. The statement said the center had no record of any complaints about Epstein.

Doe’s court filing contends Maxwell is “purposely evading service,” while lawyers from a Colorado firm representing her are simultaneously contesting other actions before judges in the same federal court. Laura Menninger, a lawyer from that firm, told Glassman that she was “not authorized to accept service of any complaint on behalf of Ghislaine Maxwell,” according to a letter included in the court filing.

Menninger’s firm is currently representing Maxwell in a dispute surrounding the disclosure of previously sealed documents in a now-settled defamation lawsuit brought against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, who alleges that Epstein and Maxwell sexually abused her as a teenager and directed her to have sex with other powerful men, including Britain’s Prince Andrew.

And as recently as last week, Menninger appeared as counsel for Maxwell during a hearing in a lawsuit filed by Annie Farmer, who alleges that Maxwell sexually assaulted her in 1996, when Farmer was 16. Menninger successfully argued in that hearing that Maxwell should not be required to respond to questions in the lawsuit — at least temporarily — while the criminal investigation is still underway.

Menninger did not respond to an email from ABC News requesting comment. Maxwell has previously denied allegations that she facilitated or participated in Epstein’s alleged crimes. Prince Andrew has also denied allegations that he had sex with Giuffre, as she contends, on three occasions in 2001.

Lawyers for Farmer and another alleged victim, Jennifer Araoz, have run into similar issues trying to serve Maxwell with notice of their lawsuits.

Farmer’s lawyers successfully convinced a court in February that they had done all they could reasonably do to locate Maxwell. U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman ordered Maxwell to respond and three weeks later, Menninger filed an appearance in the case as counsel for Maxwell. Freeman is also overseeing Doe’s case.

Araoz’s attorneys have a motion pending before a New York state court judge seeking approval for alternate means of service. In a court filing, they contend they have made “repeated efforts to locate Ms. Maxwell, including retaining private investigators to conduct surveillance of locations media reports indicated Ms. Maxwell may be located.”

Araoz, 32, claims she was recruited in New York as a 14-year student into Epstein’s “scheme of exploitation and abuse,” and she is seeking to hold Maxwell responsible for her alleged role as the “second in command of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise,” according to her complaint filed last August.

Dan Kaiser, an attorney for Araoz, told ABC News that they filed the motion after a variety of unsuccessful efforts to locate her for service. Maxwell “proved impossible to locate,” he said.

Cooper told “The View” the confrontation was just one part of a larger problem.

Christian Cooper, the black man who recorded a disturbing confrontation with a white woman in New York City’s Central Park, said he accepts her apology but pointed out that the incident is part of a much deeper problem of racism in the United States that must be addressed.

Cooper was bird watching on Memorial Day in an area of the park called the Ramble, which is home to “delicate” plants and wildlife, when he saw Amy Cooper walking her dog off-leash, he told “The View” on Thursday. Christian Cooper began recording Amy Cooper on his cellphone after he says he asked her to leash her dog and after he offered her dog treats to try to lure him out of a plant bed.

“It’s posted all over the Ramble — dogs are supposed to be on a leash at all times — but unfortunately, we’ve had a problem with this for many, many years. A lot of us have been recording these incidents,” he said, noting that the recordings could be used as evidence for why the rule must be enforced.

In the now-viral video, the confrontation can be seen heating up quickly as Amy Cooper says she’s going to call the police on Christian Cooper and that she’s going to say, “There’s an African American man threatening my life.”

“At that point I was faced with a decision,” Christian Cooper said. “Do I capitulate to that attempt to use race to leverage what she wanted, or do I sort of stick [to] my guns and keep recording? I really kinda decided consciously, I’m not going to participate in my own dehumanization.”

Christian Cooper’s sister, Melody Cooper, posted the video taken by her brother onto social media, subsequently igniting outrage around the world.

“When I saw my brother’s video, it was personal,” she told “The View.” “I just imagined what happened to Mike Brown or George Floyd happening to him, and I wanted to make sure no other black person would have to go through that kind of weaponization of racism from her.”

Christian Cooper is a Harvard graduate, a pioneering comic book writer and biomedical editor for Health Science Communications. But that doesn’t matter in this situation, his sister said.

“If the cops showed up, they wouldn’t have seen his resume or known his job,” Melody Cooper said. “This kind of racism can kill people. It could’ve killed my brother.”

Amy Cooper has since lost her job at the investment firm Franklin Templeton. She has issued an apology, saying in part, “I hope that a few mortifying seconds in a lifetime of 40 years will not define me in his eyes and that he will accept my sincere apology.”

“I do accept her apology,” Christian Cooper said. “I think it’s a first step. I think she’s gotta do some reflection on what happened because up until the moment when she made that statement … it was just a conflict between a birder and a dog walker, and then she took it to a very dark place. I think she’s gotta sort of examine why and how that happened.”

Christian Cooper urged viewers to look at the bigger picture of racism that the encounter displayed.

“It’s not really about her and her poor judgement in a snap second,” he said. “It’s about the underlying current of racism and racial perceptions that’s been going on for centuries and that permeates this city and this country that she tapped into.”

“That’s what we really have to address; not the specifics of her, but why are we still plagued with that and how do we fix it,” he added.

Christian Cooper doubled down on his previous calls to end what Amy Cooper has described as death threats against her.

“If you think that what she did was wrong, that she was trying to bring death by cop down on my head, then there is absolutely no way you can justify then turning around and putting a death threat on her head,” he said.

Cooper added that he’s “uncomfortable” with defining her by “a couple seconds … of very poor judgement.”

“[There’s] no excusing that it was a racist act because it was a racist act,” he said. “But [does] that define her entire life? Only she can tell us if that defines her entire life by what she does going forward.”

Google says the suit mischaracterizes their services.

Arizona’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging the the company improperly collects users’ location data and uses it for its advertising business.

“While Google users are led to believe they can opt-out of location tracking, the company exploits other avenues to invade personal privacy,” Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement.

“It’s nearly impossible to stop Google from tracking your movements without your knowledge or consent,” he added. “This is contrary to the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act and even the most innovative companies must operate within the law.”

Brnovich cited reporting from The Associated Press which found in a 2018 investigation that Google still collects location information even if users disable their location history. He said his office began investigating Google after the AP article was published in August 2018.

 
The nearly 50-page complaint alleges that Google’s Android operating system is deceptive and opaque when it collects users’ location information.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the Maricopa County Superior Court. It seeks unspecified damages.

“The tactics Google deploys to surveil its users’ locations — including users in Arizona — include willfully deceptive and unfair acts and practices within the meaning of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act,” the lawsuit claims.

“Google has engaged in these deceptive and unfair acts and practices with the purpose of enhancing its ability to collect and profit from user location information,” it added.

A spokesperson for Google said the lawsuit mischaracterizes its services.

“The attorney general and the contingency fee lawyers filing this lawsuit appear to have mischaracterized our services,” Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesperson told ABC News in a statement. “We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data. We look forward to setting the record straight.”

The woman’s partial remains were found in 2000 and 2011.

A previously unidentified victim of the unsolved Gilgo Beach murders in Long Island was named Thursday, nearly two decades after her partial remains were first found, police said.

Valerie Mack was identified as the victim previously known as “Manorville Jane Doe” or “Jane Doe #6,” the Suffolk County Police Department announced. Mack was identified through genetic genealogy technology.

Mack went missing in 2000 when she was 24 and working as an escort in Philadelphia, according to police. Her partial remains were found that same year in a wooded area off Halsey-Manor Road in Manorville. In 2011, her dismembered remains were found along Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach.

The murders have never been solved, and, until Mack’s identification, half the victims had not yet been identified.

In 2010 and 2011, the remains of 10 people were discovered in Gilgo Beach in weedy sections of Ocean Parkway near Jones Beach. Police have said most of the victims were sex workers. Four victims remain unidentified.

No suspects have been detained, but police previously told ABC News they’re working under the assumption a serial killer is to blame in some, if not all, of the killings.

Police made the grisly discovery while searching for a missing sex worker, Shannan Gilbert. Her body eventually was found in December 2011 in nearby Oak Beach, which is also along Ocean Parkway. Police don’t believe her death is tied to the others because she “doesn’t match the pattern of the Gilgo Beach homicides,” but they’ve also said her death is part of the active investigation into the Gilgo Beach murders.

In January, police released what they called a “significant piece of evidence” involving the murders. The evidence was a photograph of a black leather belt embossed with the letters “WH” or “HM,” depending on how it’s held.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said at a press conference she believed a suspect in the murders “handled” the belt, but would not elaborate.

Hart on Thursday said she hopes the identification of Mack will bring some sense of closure and peace to her family.

It is believed to be the first time a law enforcement agency in New York state has used genetic genealogy to identify an individual as part of a police investigation, authorities said. Police had announced last week that they made the identification, but did not immediately name Mack.

Hart said that Mack was last seen by her adopted family in the spring or summer of 2000 in the area of Port Republic, New Jersey, where she was living with a boyfriend. Her family never reported her missing, according to Hart.

Authorities identified her after she was matched to an aunt in New Jersey through a public genealogy site. The aunt was one of seven sisters, and investigators eventually found Mack’s mother, which led them to her adopted family.

“They had 20 years of not knowing” and “were very thankful” when family members were told of her identification, Hart said. “That was very meaningful to the investigators.”

Mack had no apparent ties to Long Island. She was from a town near Atlantic City, and Suffolk police are in contact with Atlantic City police, but there is no known connection to the 2006 deaths of four prostitutes in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. The so-called “Eastbound Strangler” has not been caught.

There is no familial relationship between Mack and Jessica Taylor, another Gilgo Beach victim, despite her Melissa Taylor pseudonym, according to Hart.