Putin condemns riots at US anti-racism protests

Russian President, Vladimir Putin on Sunday criticised anti-racism protests in the United States for sparking crowd violence, in his first comments on the issue.

“If this fight for natural rights, legal rights, turns into mayhem and rioting, I see nothing good for the country,” Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 television to be broadcast in full Sunday evening. We have never supported this,” he said.

The Russian leader stressed he supported black Americans’ struggle for equality, calling this “a long-standing problem of the United States”.

“We always in the USSR and in modern Russia had a lot of sympathy for the struggle of Afro-Americans for their natural rights,” he insisted.

But Putin added that “when – even after crimes are committed – this takes on elements of radical nationalism and extremism, nothing good will come of this.”

Putin also described the protests as a sign of “deep-seated internal crises” in the United States, linking the unrest to the coronavirus pandemic, which he said “has shone a spotlight on general problems”.

He said he nevertheless expected that the “fundamental basis of American democracy will allow the country to escape this series of crisis events”.

Asked about reactions to the US protests including demonstrations in Europe and statues being pulled down, Putin said “this is undoubtedly a destructive phenomenon”.

He suggested protesters wanted only Afro-American doctors to treat Afro-Americans and said this would be impossible in “multi-ethnic Russia”.

The interview was billed as Putin’s first since the start of the pandemic though it is not clear when it was recorded.

The president made his first public appearance at an open-air event in Moscow on Friday after weeks of lockdown at his country residence.

Joe Biden to run against Trump in presidential election

Joe Biden, who is the former Vice President of the United States has secured the delegates needed to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. 

He clinched the nomination which is to hold on the first ballot at the August convention, by crossing the threshold of 1,991 delegates.

We have reports that Joe Biden who took a commanding delegate lead in mid-March and after Vermont's Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race in early April, confirmed this in a statement released on Friday night. .

The former Vice President under Barack Obama's administration, tweeted : 

"Folks, tonight we secured the 1,991 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. I'm going to spend every day fighting to earn your vote so that, together, we can win the battle for the soul of this nation.

It was an honour to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party."

Facebook : Zuckerberg to review policies over Trump's posts

On Friday, Mark Zuckerberg who is the Chief executive of Facebook made a promise to review the policies of its social network. 

These policies to be reviewed are the ones that led to its decision to not moderate controversial messages posted by US President, Donald Trump.

The announcement, which came in the form of a letter to Facebook employees, appeared aimed at quelling anger inside the company that was so severe it prompted some to quit.

The outrage was sparked when Zuckerberg said Facebook would not remove or flag Trump’s recent posts that appeared to encourage violence against those protesting police racism. Zuckerberg’s message on Friday seemed to attempt to mollify that anger.

“We’re going to review our policies allowing discussion and threats of state use of force to see if there are any amendments we should adopt,” Zuckerberg wrote.

This, he said, includes “excessive use of police or state force. Given the sensitive history in the US, this deserves special consideration.”

Social media platforms have faced mounting calls to moderate the president’s comments, most recently because of the unrest gripping the United States in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed while apprehended by police.

“The decision I made last week has left many of you angry, disappointed and hurt,” Mark said in the letter, which he posted on his Facebook page.

Timothy Aveni, a software engineer who resigned from the company, wrote on his Facebook page that the social media platform “will keep moving the goalposts every time Trump escalates, finding excuse after excuse not to act on increasingly dangerous rhetoric.”

Zuckerberg said that he is exploring possible changes on how policy decisions are made at Facebook, along with more ways to advance racial justice and voter engagement.

“While we are looking at all of these areas, we may not come up with changes we want to make in all of them,” he cautioned.

As per voting, he said: 

“I have confidence in the election integrity efforts we’ve implemented since 2016.

But there’s a good chance that there will be unprecedented fear and confusion around going to the polls in November, and some will likely try to capitalize on that confusion,” he said.

The letter also addressed employees’ complaints that minorities have not been sufficiently represented internally.

“We’re going to review whether we need to change anything structurally to make sure the right groups and voices are at the table,” he said.

Donald Trump defends his going to the White House bunker

President of the United States, Donald Trump has come out to defend his going to the White House bunker. 

There are reports making rounds that he he fled to the White House safe bunker during the protests over the death of George Floyd outside the White House.

Over the weekend, a lot of protesters gathered outside the White House to protest the killing of a black American, George Floyd by a police officer. 

We gathered that some parts of St John's Church which is situated beside the White House caught fire due to the protests.

According to reports, over 50 Secret Service agents were injured in clashes with protesters and Trump had to be rushed to the secret bunker for protection.

Trump has now said he went down to the White House bunker during the protests in Washington D.C. to inspect it and that he was not taken into secure shelter out of safety concerns.

Breaking : Trump threatens to close down social media

President of the United States of America, Donald Trump has threatened to close down social media platforms after Twitter labelled two of his tweets “unsubstantiated” and accused him of making false claims. He tweeted :

“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down before we can ever allow this to happen."